Mediagazer: Trouble for Aaron Kushner's contrarian bet in Southern California (Ryan Chittum/Columbia Journalism Review)

4:35 AM ET, January 19, 2014

Top News:

Hazel Cills / Gawker:

Twitter Explodes After Trans Subject of Golf Article Kills Herself — On Friday, journalist Caleb Hannan tweeted a link to a recent Grantland story he did, writing, “Not sure what to say other than this is the strangest story I've ever worked on.” — The piece, entitled “Dr. V's Magical Putter …

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:

After Leaving Office, Bloomberg Is More Hands-On at Old Company — At editorial meetings in Bloomberg L.P.'s headquarters this week, Michael R. Bloomberg gave clear signs that he would not be taking a hands-off approach as he returned to his old company. — Just two week's removed from City Hall …

Discussion: TVNewser, The Corsair, Mediawire Daily, @peterlattman, New York Magazine, @shirleybrady, @daschles and @nathanielpopper

BBC:

BBC World TV's Komla Dumor dies at 41 — BBC TV presenter Komla Dumor has died suddenly at his home in London at the age of 41, it has been announced. — Ghana-born Dumor was a presenter for BBC World News and its Focus on Africa programme. — One of Ghana's best-known journalists …

Discussion: TVNewser, BBC, Guardian, Al Jazeera English, @nycjim, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and @kattykaybbc

Daniel Boffey / Guardian:

Revealed: how Jimmy Savile abused up to 1,000 victims on BBC premises — Executives turned a blind eye to attacks, according to former judge's ‘shocking’ finding — The BBC will be plunged into a major crisis with the publication of a damning review, expected next month …

Discussion: Variety, BBC, @asawinstanley and @tenpercent

Alastair Reid / Journalism.co.uk:

GuardianWitness to hold first UGC awards — GuardianWitness, launched last year to source and showcase user-generated content, will award contributors in eleven categories — GuardianWitness, the Guardian's award-winning platform for user-generated content (UGC), is due to host …

Anna Clark / Columbia Journalism Review:

‘This used to be a newsroom’ — the scene at the Cleveland Plain Dealer — As a diminished staff adapts to new rules and new space, “newsroom culture is gone” — DETROIT, MI — As a major reorganization of the Cleveland Plain Dealer takes shape, veteran reporters are adjusting to …

Discussion: thefreelibrary.com and The Newspaper Guild

Lauren Kirchner / Columbia Journalism Review:

FOIA fight for NSA documents continues — The government has released some heavily-redacted legal opinions, but ProPublica, the ACLU, and others say that's not enough — This past November, ProPublica attempted to open up “the smallest nesting doll” of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review

Jonathan Stray / The Overview Project:

Algorithms are not enough: lessons bringing computer science to journalism — There are some amazing algorithms coming out the computer science community which promise to revolutionize how journalists deal with large quantities of information. But building a tool that journalists can use …

Discussion: @ahseeder, @ganley, @maxj_k, @skyedoherty and @joegermuska

Roberto Baldwin / Wired:

How Beats' New Music Service Plans to Crush Spotify — Beats Music won't be joining the most-tracks arms race when it launches Tuesday. Instead, the new subscription service brought to you by Jimmy Iovine and Dr. Dre will win converts through a potent mix of smarter algorithms and human curation.

Discussion: The Next Web and App Advice

Alexei Oreskovic / Reuters:

Facebook ‘relationships guy’ courts Hollywood, media in new push — (Reuters) - Beyonce fans got a big surprise at midnight on December 13, when the pop star announced her new album from out of the blue. — Just as surprising was her decision to announce the album by posting a 15-second video …

Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times:

End of film: Paramount first studio to stop distributing celluloid — Paramount's “The Wolf of Wall Street” is the first major Hollywood movie to be distributed entirely in digital format — without the use of film or film reels on which the industry has depended since it began.

Discussion: Variety

Steven Jacobs / Street Fight:

The Patch Saga, and Its Implications for Local Media — Aol's decision to unload its struggling hyperlocal network Patch earlier this week may not have been unexpected, but the distressed property's fire sale does carry with it some broader implications, even as many local media companies …

Katie Roof / Fox Business:
AOL's Patch May Be Dismantled: Source

Discussion: @alexweprin, @katie_roof and @timobrien

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Eight Percent of DirecTV Subscribers Would Switch Over Weather Channel Dispute — Fresh data in the ongoing DirecTV, Weather Channel carriage dispute reveals a third of DirecTV subscribers would switch, or consider switching, if The Weather Channel were no longer available on the satellite service.

Discussion: Inside Cable News