Mediagazer: Buzz off, Waxman — Congress can't tell a newspaper how to do business (Jack Shafer)

6:55 PM ET, January 8, 2014

Top News:

Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:

NYT redesign: an end to page breaks in articles and a focus on tablets and subscribers — ‘New York Times’ Website Redesign Goes Back to the Future — The New York Times has rolled out its largest website redesign in seven years, but readers familiar with the newspaper might feel like it's a step back in time

Discussion: Open, Fast Company, @ianadelman, @ianadelman, @jbenton, Slate, @nathan_ford, Poynter, @dangillmor and SND

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 …

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:
Times Designers Are Monitoring Reaction to the Redesign, With Adjustments Possible

Discussion: The Huffington Post

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: @dangillmor and Poynter

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Washington Post Seeking Ezra Klein's Replacement — The Washington Post has approached The Atlantic's Derek Thompson to be the next editor of Wonkblog, according to a source familiar with the matter. — Thompson has not yet accepted the job, but The Post's recruitment of a replacement suggests …

New York Times:

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.

Discussion: TVNewser, Erik Wemple, Mediaite and @joehagansays

Beth Healy / Boston Globe:

Globe publisher Christopher Mayer to step down — Boston Globe publisher Christopher Mayer said Wednesday that he plans to step down after nearly 30 years at the newspaper and four years at its helm, as part of a business transition under new owner John Henry.

Discussion: Media Nation

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

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

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Nick D'Aloisio touts positive Yahoo News Digest reviews likely written by Yahoo employees — The Curious Case Of Yahoo's App Reviews — Summly founder Nick D'Aloisio, in an interview with Yahoo's David Pogue, touted his new app's positive reviews. But who's writing them?

Discussion: TechCrunch, Gawker, Washington Post, PSFK, Business Insider and 9to5Mac

Rem Rieder / USA Today:
At CES, Yahoo shows its plans to compete as a media company

Discussion: Business Insider, Digits, Guardian, Gigaom, Softpedia News, VentureBeat, Yahoo, ReadWrite, The Verge and TechCrunch

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

Jack Shafer:

Buzz off, Waxman — Congress can't tell a newspaper how to do business — Oh to be a fly on the wall Jan. 15, when Tribune Co. executives meet with the staff of Rep. Henry A. Waxman, D-Calif., in a command performance to explain the media conglomerate's plans to spin off its newspapers …

Adam Weinstein / Gawker:

Advance subsidiary Reddit licensed its logo for use on AR-15 rifles — Reddit Licensed Its Logo To Online Scary Assault Weapons Sellers — An investigation published this morning by Mother Jones shows that Reddit licensed gun-sellers on its forums to hawk a notorious run of AR-15 assault rifles …

Discussion: Mother Jones, Gizmodo, Co.Labs and Business Insider

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Gabriel Snyder leaves The Wire, Andrew Golis takes over — Gabriel Snyder is leaving his job as editor-in-chief of The Wire, and Andrew Golis has been named “general manager” of the high-octane aggregation website published by Atlantic Media. Golis will conduct a search for a new editor-in-chief for the site.

Discussion: FOLIO, The New York Observer, FishbowlNY, @jessicavalenti, @gabrielsnyder, @rzgreenfield, @connorsimpson and @agolis

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

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