Mediagazer: Leadership Change May Signal New Start for Billboard Magazine (Ben Sisario/New York Times)

8:35 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, Slate, @jbenton, Poynter, @dangillmor, SND, @nathan_ford, @ianadelman and @ianadelman

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: Kirk LaPointe's … and @dangillmor

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 …

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’

Discussion: @mviser and @romenesko

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: Erik Wemple, TVNewser, Mediaite and @joehagansays

New York Times:
New bio of Fox News Chief Roger Ailes details power struggles, desire for political influence

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: BGR and @benfritz

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Leadership Change May Signal New Start for Billboard Magazine — Billboard magazine first appeared in 1894 to cover the outdoor advertising market, reporting on “all that is new, bright and interesting on the boards,” as it proclaimed in its first issue. But for almost a century …

Discussion: Music. And its business and hypebot

New York Times:
Janice Min to be named co-president, chief creative officer for Hollywood Reporter, Billboard

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

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

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, 9to5Mac and VentureBeat

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

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

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