Mediagazer: Phone-hacking trial: Bloggers, tweeters and Alan Sugar (James Doleman/The Drum)

1:45 PM ET, January 3, 2014

Top News:

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Ezra Klein Is Said to Plan to Leave Washington Post — Ezra Klein, an analyst, columnist and television commentator who runs The Washington Post's Wonkblog, is making plans to leave the newspaper after failing to win support for a new website he wanted to create within the company …

Jack Shafer:

The Times advances the NSA's amnesty-for-Snowden trial balloon — Of course the New York Times editorial page wants clemency or, at the very least, a generous plea bargain for National Security Agency contractor turned super-leaker Edward Snowden! The news pages of the New York Times …

Discussion: Guy Fawkes' blog, The Dish, BuzzFeed, @saletan, WebProNews and VentureBeat

Kevin Gosztola / The Dissenter:
Dear New York Times Editors: If Snowden Is a Whistleblower, What Is Chelsea Manning?

Discussion: CNN and TheBlaze.com

Kalev Leetaru / Foreign Policy: King Snowden and the Fall of Wikileaks

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:
Weeks in the Making, an Editorial on Snowden May Go ‘Beyond What Is Realistic’

Discussion: The Lead with Jake Tapper, @katrinanation, CNET, Taking Note, Mediaite, TheBlaze.com, The Huffington Post, Techdirt, The FJP, @ggreenwald, New York Times, @sulliview, @jayrosen_nyu, @sulliview, @froomkin, The Week and The Daily Caller

Felix Salmon / Reuters:

Netflix's dumbed-down algorithms — Alexis Madrigal has a rollicking investigation into Netflix's movie genres — all 76,897 of them, from category #1 (African-American Crime Documentaries) to category #91,307 (Visually Striking Latin American Comedies). His story is titled …

Discussion: Mother Jones, @caseynewton, @reuters, @bendwilliams, @obsoletedogma and The FJP

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:
How Netflix uses the 76,897 micro-genres it assigns to videos

Discussion: The Switch, @simonowens, Daily Dot, @sriramk, @davidbauer, @andywhitlock, @manovich, @errorjustin, @npetit, @alexismadrigal, @alexismadrigal, @kesabeth, @alexismadrigal, Subtraction.com, @mollyesque, /Film, Deadline.com, @harrisj, WebProNews, The Verge and Gizmodo

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Discovery CEO Stands to Make $110 Million in 2014 Compensation — Discovery Communications Inc. (DISCA) Chief Executive Officer David Zaslav stands to make more than $110 million in compensation in 2014, the first year of a new contract that keeps him at the cable-network giant through 2019.

Discussion: Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable, Deadline.com, bizjournals, PR Newswire, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, @bloombergtech and Variety

Brooks Barnes / New York Times:

DreamWorks is set to launch a tablet for children with original and exclusive programming — A Tablet for Children That Comes With Its Own Penguins — GLENDALE, Calif. — DreamWorks Animation first captivated children in movie theaters. Then it branched into TV, piping cartoons based on hits like …

Discussion: The Verge, VatorNews, Softpedia News, AndroidHeadlines.com, Gizmodo, TechnoBuffalo, SlashGear, @peterlattman, Cult of Mac, Geeky Gadgets, Engadget and Electronista

Press Gazette:

Pakistani TV reporter becomes first journalist killed in 2014 — Pakistan journalist Shan Odhor has become the first media worker to die in 2014 because of his work, the International federation of Journalists (IFJ) said today. — The announcement came just days after the organisation reported …

Discussion: IFJ.org, The Eastern Tribune, kuna.net.kw, The Express Tribune and The Drum

Peter Wilby / New Statesman:

Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain — He's the most successful and most feared newspaperman of his generation. But after a bad year in which he was forced to defend his methods, how much longer can Dacre survive as editor-in-chief of the Daily Mail?

Discussion: @ruskin147, @mrianleslie, @thebrowser and Boing Boing

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Daily News closes Desi News, a South Asian-centric vertical led by NewsCred — Daily News shutters South Asian site — The Daily News has pulled the plug on Desi News, a South Asian-centric vertical fueled by the New York-based content-licensing platform NewsCred.

James Doleman / The Drum:

Phone-hacking trial: Bloggers, tweeters and Alan Sugar — One striking aspect of the trial of Rebekah Brooks and her co-defendants at the Old Bailey is that, for all the wig wearing lawyers and 19th century costumes, it is very much a 21st century event. Often in court everyone seems to be looking at a screen.

Wall Street Journal:

Cox to Buy Back Stake in AutoTrader — Deal With Providence Equity Implies $7 Billion Value for Online Car Marketplace … Cox Enterprises Inc., the closely held media conglomerate, has bought back a stake in AutoTrader Group Inc. in a deal that implies a value of about $7 billion for the online auto marketplace.

Discussion: Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NetNewsCheck Latest and PR Newswire

David Oliver / American Journalism Review:

BuzzFeed's Secret Weapon: Ky Harlin — Ky Harlin, BuzzFeed's director of data science, runs simple tests on news stories, with extraordinary results. — For “The 35 Best Places to Visit Over the Summer,” one reader might see a picture of Paris. Another sees a picture of Tokyo.

Discussion: @amjourreview

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Record Companies' Lawsuit Against Vimeo Heads Towards Appellate Showdown — If the 2nd Circuit agrees to hear this copyright dispute, it could impact how employees of UGC sites interact with videos and whether popular websites carry pre-1972 music. — Barry Diller

Discussion: Gigaom

Tamer El-Ghobashy / Middle East Real Time:

Cautious Campaign for Egypt Journalist's Release — The family and lawyer of an Al Jazeera English journalist detained on terrorism charges in Egypt have mounted a delicate media campaign for his release, underscoring the deep unpopularity of the news channel that is seen as sympathetic to the outlawed Muslim Brotherhood.

Discussion: @tamerelg

Marc Graser / Variety:

Verance Finds First Electronics Partner for Anti-Piracy Technology — Verance's Cinavia Level 3 software detects pirated pics and sends viewers to e-tailers to buy legal copies — Funai Electric Co., the maker of Blu-ray players through the Funai, Magnavox and Emerson brands …

Discussion: Myce.com