Mediagazer: With Redesign, NYTimes.com Unveils Native Ad Platform (Lucia Moses/Adweek)

2:40 PM ET, January 8, 2014

Top News:

New bio of Fox News Chief Roger Ailes details power struggles, desire for political influence — Biography Casts Critical Light on Fox News Chief — Roger Ailes was so eager to influence national politics that in the run-up to the 2012 presidential election, he told fellow Fox News executives point-blank …

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Roger Ailes biographer Gabriel Sherman strikes back: The book is fact-checked — Gabriel Sherman, the author of a highly anticipated biography of Roger Ailes, is hitting back at the Fox News chief's assertion that Sherman and his publisher did not fact-check the book prior to its publication.

Brian Stelter / CNN Money:

New York Times redesign points to future of online publishing — The last time The New York Times embarked on a wholesale redesign of its Web site, in 2006, the iPhone wasn't on the market. Tablets like the iPad were still years away. — So the new design that The Times is unveiling Wednesday …

Lucia Moses / Adweek:
With Redesign, NYTimes.com Unveils Native Ad Platform

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Capital New York, New York Times, The New York Observer, The Dish, Business Insider, The Huffington Post, @bgrueskin and Refinery29

Joe Strupp / Media Matters:

Exclusive: Washington Post Reader Representative Departs, Replacement Unclear — Less than a year after taking the newly created post of reader representative at The Washington Post, Doug Feaver has left the paper, Editorial Page Editor Fred Hiatt confirmed Wednesday.

Discussion: Poynter and @dangillmor

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

At CES, Yahoo shows its plans to compete as a media company — Yahoo doubles down with new tech, food sites — Executives say it's just the beginning, and more initiatives are in the offing. — Yahoo is doubling down on content as it launches ambitious websites covering technology and food.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Digits, Guardian, ReadWrite, Yahoo, Softpedia News, The Switch and Gigaom

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Yahoo's sleek News Digest app swims against the stream

Discussion: Search Engine Land, @drmattcarlson, Business Insider, Cult of Mac, ZDNet, Betabeat, @mikeisaac, @tapbot_paul and @jeffsonderman

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Yahoo Launches News Digest, Its First App Based On Summly

Discussion: Yahoo, Business Insider, @jason, Softpedia News, @dannysullivan, 9to5Mac, @rafe and VentureBeat

Ben Fritz / Wall Street Journal:

Sales of Online Movies Jumps; DVDs Continue to Decline — Delaying Availability of DVDs, Rentals Nudged Consumers … After years of trying to convince consumers to buy movies online, Hollywood found a solution in 2013: Make it the only option. — Digital movie purchases surged 47% …

Discussion: @benfritz

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Sony Doesn't Have the Deals It Needs for Web TV — But That's Not Its Real Problem — Last year, Intel said it was going to deliver pay TV over the Web by the end of 2013. That didn't work out. — Now Sony says it will deliver pay TV over the Web sometime in 2014. Can it deliver? — Maybe!

Discussion: FierceOnlineVideo News and @jessicalessin

Ina Fried / Re/code:
Kaz Hirai on Why Sony's Pay TV Bid Can Succeed Where Intel and Others Stumbled

Discussion: CNNMoney.com, CNET, The Verge and Variety

Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

AMA: How a Weird Internet Thing Became a Mainstream Delight — Reddit's question-and-answer format imports the aspirational norms of honesty and authenticity from pseudonymous Internet forums into mainstream interviews. — Barack Obama, Jerry Seinfeld, a line cook at Applebee's, and a guy with two penises walk into a bar.

Thanks:@steverubel

New York Times:

Janice Min to be named co-president, chief creative officer for Hollywood Reporter, Billboard — New Leader at Billboard Sees Future in Visuals — Janice Min, who gave The Hollywood Reporter a renewed relevance by transforming the daily trade paper into a much-read weekly magazine and website …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, Billboard, @jmbooyah and @janicebmin

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Bob Costas Says NBC's Olympics Broadcast Won't Ignore Russia's Anti-Gay Laws — NEW YORK — Bob Costas, the face of NBC's primetime Sochi Olympics coverage, recently made headlines by telling the Associated Press that he was more interested in interviewing President Vladimir Putin …

Discussion: Mediaite

Chris Taylor / Mashable:

Newspaper to Put All Reporters Through Social Media Boot Camp — One of the country's oldest remaining big city newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle, is set to announce a radical plan to arrest circulation decline and remain relevant in the digital age, Mashable has learned.

Discussion: Poynter, @mashbusiness, @kcheunglarivee, @audreycoopersf, @gordonmacmillan, @fmanjoo and @anthonyadornato

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Guardian launches new monthly print supplement for Saturday edition: Do Something — Guardian News and Media has announced the launch this weekend of a new monthly print supplement called Do Something published with its Saturday edition. — The monthly magazine will “encourage readers to develop new skills and try new experiences.

Discussion: @arusbridger, @beckybarnicoat, @pressgazette, GNM press office and Brand Republic

Beth Healy / The Boston Globe:

John Henry vows to make Globe ‘aggressively relevant’ — Boston Globe owner John Henry pledged to help make the newspaper and its websites “aggressively relevant” and successful in the coming years during a speech to a Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce breakfast Wednesday.

Discussion: @mviser and @romenesko

Ken Kurson / The New York Observer:

Two-Year-Old Observer Story About Soccer Mom Madam Incorrectly Named Post Editor — On March 29, 2012, the Observer ran a story that suggested the New York Post's editor in chief, Col Allan, was among the “powerful men found in transcripts of the surveillance audio from the five-year-long investigation” of Ms. Gristina.

Discussion: Capital New York and Capital New York

Agence France-Presse:

Two Swedish reporters missing in Syria freed: ICRC, diplomatic sources — Two Swedish journalists reported missing in Syria in November have been freed, diplomatic sources and an official of the International Committee of the Red Cross said on Wednesday. — “A Swedish journalist missing …

Discussion: Associated Press, Naharnet and Poynter