Mediagazer: Layoffs come at OC Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise (Ken Bensinger/Los Angeles Times)

9:45 AM ET, January 17, 2014

Top News:

Bumps on a Road to Revival for Yahoo — SAN FRANCISCO — It looks as if the Google pixie dust isn't so easy to spread around. — Marissa Mayer's arrival at Yahoo as chief executive a year and a half ago was widely hailed as an opportunity to infuse the struggling Internet pioneer …

Discussion: @lachlanfharris, @karaswisher, @om and @deanemurphy

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Exclusive: Yahoo's Editor-in-Chief Jai Singh Departs Company — According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo's Editor-in-Chief Jai Singh has quit the company, a major departure which comes in the wake of changes made to its media unit after the firing of COO Henrique De Castro yesterday.

Discussion: Capital New York, VatorNews, @karaswisher, @mhelft, Softpedia News, @jpodhoretz, TechCrunch, Business Insider, @ivanthek, @rafat, @awallenstein, @mathewi, DealBook, Beyond Search and WebProNews

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Fired Yahoo Exec's $109M Golden Parachute Was One Of The Biggest Ever

Discussion: Capital New York, NetNewsCheck Latest, @adater, Business Insider, @mmasnick, @gitagovinda, @bupbin and Re/code

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:

Kushner announces new team at Register, explains ‘restructuring’ * — The Orange County Register shed more than 30 newsroom staffers today via layoffs, buyouts and retirement. The departing include editor Ken Brusic, as we noted earlier. It's all about restructuring for the future …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Los Angeles Times and Orange County Register

Ken Bensinger / Los Angeles Times:

Layoffs come at OC Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise — Newsroom layoffs hit the Orange Country Register and Riverside Press-Enterprise on Thursday, a troubling sign for the papers. Above, the Register's Santa Ana headquarters. (Karen Tapia Andersen / Los Angeles Times / January 16, 2014)

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Navel Gazing, @pwthornton, @thegarywarner, @mtdukes, @registertravel, @genepark, @jeichelberger84, @frumpymom, @medodif, @jbenton, @haileyerin, @antonprtweets, Talking Biz News, @dlboardman, @ricksforza, @jbenton and @mjenkins

Mary Ann Milbourn / Orange County Register:
Register names new newsroom leadership

Discussion: Poynter, @lilyshumleung and LA Observed

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Farhad Manjoo heads to NYT after 4 months at WSJ to replace David Pogue — The New York Times Gets Its David Pogue Replacement From the Wall Street Journal — The New York Times has found a replacement for David Pogue, its high-profile tech reviewer: Sources say the Times is filling …

Discussion: New York Times, LinkedIn Pulse, Valleywag, @deanemurphy, @edbott, @deanemurphy, @amir, @dannysullivan, @jmbooyah, @fmanjoo, @nytfridge, @felixsalmon, @stefanjbecket, @gaberivera, @karaswisher and Talking Biz News

Arif Durrani / Media Week:

London Evening Standard profits double in 2013 — The London Evening Standard has more than doubled its profits in the year to September 2013, to around £2.5 million, while the embattled Independent slashed its losses by 50% in the same period, according to sources. inShare 1 London Evening Standard …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Alexander Lebedev sounding out buyers for Independent titles

Discussion: Telegraph, Financial Times, @david_hewson, MediaTel, Telegraph, Guardian and Guardian

Andrew Adam Newman / New York Times:

Promoting Its Own Products, a Magazine Labels an Ad as News — CONTENT from advertisers that resembles editorial coverage, commonly called native advertising, is drawing heightened scrutiny from the Federal Trade Commission, which wants to establish guidelines for labeling it clearly.

Discussion: Mediawire Daily and @_mediaspace

Todd Spangler / Variety:

HBO Go Is Coming to PlayStation — HBO announced that its broadband-video service, HBO Go, will be coming “soon” to Sony's PlayStation 3 videogame console with an app for the just-released PS4 to follow. — Netflix has been available on the PlayStation 3 since 2009, and was one of 11 …

Discussion: PlayStation.Blog, Multichannel.com, The Slanted, computerandvideogames.com, SlashGear, CNET, Engadget, Home Media Magazine and Pocket-lint

Tom Grubisich / Street Fight:

Borrell Report Details Legacy Media's Struggles in the Digital World — In a new report “The Future of Legacy Media” (free executive summary here), research and consulting firm Borrell Associates has both good and bad news for old media (newspapers, TV, radio, magazines) …

Discussion: @niemanlab

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Phone hacking: Wall Street Journal wins ruling on reporting restrictions — US-based newspaper will be able to report fully report on the trial of Rebekah Brooks and others without signing written agreement — The Wall Street Journal has won a ruling allowing it to fully report …

Discussion: thedrum.com

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Financial documents being shown to potential buyers raise questions about its future growth. Has Forbes peaked? And can it justify the high price it's seeking — The newsonomics of Forbes' real performance and price potential — The bidding for Forbes is now moving into round two, with a sale expected within a month.

Discussion: @counternotions, @jlauf, @eamonn, @bobbymacreports, @rafat, @raju, Bloomberg, Gigaom, PandoDaily, Wall Street Journal, @carr2n, @foxjust, @jeffjohnroberts, @pkafka and @niemanlab

Stan Alcorn / Digg:

Why Audio Never Goes Viral — With a community of creators uncomfortable with the value of virality, an audience content to watch grainy dashcam videos, and platforms that discourage sharing, is a hit-machine for audio possible? And is it something anyone even wants?

Discussion: TechCrunch, @alexcornell, @grvlx001, MetaFilter and @thomasraukamp

Economist:

Chinese investigative journalist circumvents censors with popular messaging app WeChat — Chinese investigative journalist circumvents censors by using popular messaging app WeChat — After a crackdown on microblogs, sensitive online discussion has shifted

Discussion: Quartz, @letahong, @stinson, @zseward and @gadyepstein

Carolyn Kellogg / Los Angeles Times:

Goodreads enlists its 100,000th author — Goodreads is attracting authors as well as readers. (Goodreads) — Although its website only tallies 99,961, Goodreads has announced Wednesday that membership in its verified author program has reached 100,000.

Discussion: Good E-Reader, Guardian, GalleyCat and Book trade news from Book2book

RIA Novosti:

Ukrainian Journalist Discharged From Hospital After Attack — A prominent Ukrainian female investigative journalist and activist Tatiana Chornovil, who was beaten up late last year, has been discharged from hospital, Ukraine's UNIAN news agency said on Thursday.

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

And The Most Downloaded Torrent of 2013 is.... Completely Legal — Earlier today we published a list of the top 20 most-pirated artists. With well over 5 million downloads this chart was topped by Bruno Mars. Interestingly enough, the honor of the most-downloaded artist on BitTorrent goes to a legal download.

Discussion: Computerworld, The Official BitTorrent Blog, Softpedia News, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Google Research Blog:

Google visualizes data from Google Play Music to show changes in music genres over the decades — Explore the history of Pop — and Punk, Jazz, and Folk — with the Music Timeline — With newspapers, blogs, and websites wrapping up their Top Ten album lists for 2013 …

Discussion: The Next Web, The Verge, Gigaom and Gizmodo

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Noah Shachtman, formerly of Foreign Policy and Wired, joins Daily Beast as executive editor — After Tina Brown's Exit, Daily Beast Brings In Editing Help — The Daily Beast has hired Noah Shachtman, a former editor at Foreign Policy and Wired, as its new executive editor …

Discussion: @johnavlon, @shaneharris, @noahshachtman, @hunterw, @erikmal and @miriamelder

Tom Warren / The Verge:

YouTube starts airing 2014 Super Bowl commercials ahead of the game — This year's Super Bowl might not take place until February 2nd, but that's not stopping some ads from running early. While Super Bowl advertisers have traditionally surprised the millions of people who tune …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, New York Times, Softpedia News, The Next Web, Business Insider and Mashable

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:

Radio's Answer to Spotify? Less Variety — Stations Create More Repetition, Fearing Listeners Will Tune Out Unfamiliar Tunes — Synth-pop band Capital Cities has plenty of songs on its debut album that it wants to promote as singles—if only radio programmers would allow it.

Discussion: @walkermoskop

Emma McGarthy / Press Gazette:

NUJ: BBC is not doing enough to tackle harassment and bullying in the workplace — The National Union of Journalists (NUJ) has called for a new approach towards bullying and harassment at the BBC. — Addressed to director general of the BBC Tony Hall the motion follows an investigation …

Guido Fawkes:

Tim Shipman is New Sunday Times Political Editor — As Media Guido exclusively revealed on Twitter last night, Tim Shipman deputy political editor of the Daily Mail, has won the race to succeed Isabel Oakeshott as the new Sunday Times political editor.

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian

Nick Hopkins / Guardian:

Alan Rusbridger: Westminster is hoping Snowden revelations go away — Guardian editor accuses UK politicians of failing to tackle issues raised by NSA revelations, which have sparked US debate — Britain's political class has been closing its eyes and hoping the revelations from Edward Snowden …

Discussion: Gawker, The New Yorker Blog, BBC, @glynmoody, @nycjim, AppNewser and SlashGear

Rehema Figueiredo / Guardian:

Al-Jazeera journalists held in Egypt accused of harming national security — Prosecutors say three are still being investigated on suspicion of joining the Muslim Brotherhood — Egyptian prosecutors have said three journalists working for al-Jazeera English are being interrogated on suspicion …