Mediagazer: Inquirer's Owners Push Newspaper to Auction Block (Peg Brickley/Wall Street Journal)

4:30 PM ET, January 4, 2014

Top News:

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Ezra Klein Speculation Creates Delicate Situation In Washington Post Newsroom — NEW YORK — In fall 2006, John Harris and Jim VandeHei were growing restless at the The Washington Post. — So the two political journalists began meeting privately with potential investors to launch an online site …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, @jayrosen_nyu, JIMROMENESKO.COM, American Spectator, The Week, Mediaite, Politico and Talking Points Memo

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

You don't tip competitors on Twitter; you beat them — You can't get scooped because competition gets tipped to a story when you tweet about it. Your tweets already scooped the competition. — A Digital First engagement editor who's been teaching colleagues how to use Twitter got these questions from a veteran reporter:

Discussion: @palafo, @dangillmor, @jayrosen_nyu and @macloo

Ed Christman / Billboard:

As streaming grows, digital music sales decreased in 2013, the first time since iTunes launch — Digital Music Sales Decrease For First Time in 2013 — For the first time since the iTunes store opened its doors, the U.S. music industry finished the year with a decrease in digital music sales.

Discussion: MacStories, 9to5Mac, Electronista, BetaNews, Engadget, AppleInsider, The Verge, The Wrap, Gizmodo and Financial Times

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, Marketing Pilgrim, The FJP, Kirk LaPointe's …, @caseynewton, @reuters, @bendwilliams and @obsoletedogma

Brian Fung / The Switch:
How Netflix film categories are like BuzzFeed headlines for movies

Discussion: Daily Dot

Rap Genius:

Rap Genius begins to recover its Google search ranking, details SEO strategies, apologizes — Rap Genius is Back on Google — It takes a few days for thiAnnotatengs to return to normal, but we're officially back! First of all, we owe a big thanks to Google for being fair and transparent …

Discussion: Gawker, VentureBeat, Forbes, New York Magazine, @bhorowitz, @stevesi, @fredericl, @dannysullivan, SEO Book, The Verge, Softpedia News, Search Engine Land, Yahoo! News, Business Insider, The Switch and Re/code

Matthew Lynch / Capital New York:

Neetzan Zimmerman to leave Gawker for social startup Whisper — Neetzan Zimmerman to leave Gawker — Gawker viral content mastermind Neetzan Zimmerman is leaving the company, according to editor John Cook who tweeted the news on Friday afternoon. — Reached by email …

Jon Swartz / USA Today:

ESPN's behind-the-scenes tech wizardry at Candlestick Park — CANDLESTICK POINT, Calif. - It's three minutes before kickoff, and Chip Dean is frenetically orchestrating a phalanx of video, sound and graphics. — Like a composer leading a symphony, he conjured a national TV show that opened …

AJ Vicens / Mother Jones:

“We Rattled Too Many Cages:” An Eyewitness Account of Journalist Marie Colvin's Death in Syria — Syria is the deadliest place in the world for journalists, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday, with 29 killed in the country in 2013—more than the next five countries combined.

Discussion: @motherjones and @ncaplanbricker

Brian Solomon / Forbes:

John Malone's Liberty Media Wants To Absorb Rest Of Sirius XM — Billionaire John Malone's Liberty Media announced late Friday a proposal to turn Sirius XM Radio into a wholly-owned subsidiary by creating a third class of Liberty shares. Liberty already owns a controlling stake in Sirius XM …

Discussion: Radio & Television …, DealBook, Reuters, Variety, Bloomberg and Reuters

Jeremy Barr / Poynter:

Photographer says Spokesman-Review's drone-shot video occurred in a ‘gray area’ — While the journalism community is buzzing about drones' potential to help report hard-to-reach stories, the Federal Aviation Administration still largely bans the use of unmanned aircraft systems for commercial purposes, journalism included.

Peg Brickley / Wall Street Journal:

Inquirer's Owners Push Newspaper to Auction Block — Philadelphia Inquirer's Owners in Impasse Over Management — PHILADELPHIA—The Philadelphia Inquirer is being pushed back to the auction block by owners at odds over management of the newspaper operation and how to break the impasse at the top of the company.

Discussion: NewsWorks

Katie Roof / Fox Business:

Business Insider Turned Down $100M-Plus Buyout Offer: Source — BusinessInsider.com, an edgy financial and technology news website, may not technically be shopping itself, but that hasn't stopped potential suitors from calling, including one that recently offered more than $100 million …