Mediagazer: Which News Organizations Influence Wikipedia? (Fergus Pitt/Tow Center for Digital …)

7:50 PM ET, January 19, 2014

Top News:

Josh Levin / Slate:

Digging Too Deep — Every journalist has worked on a story that started out being about one thing and ended up as something else entirely. That's what happened to Caleb Hannan, who got curious about a weird-looking golf club he found on YouTube and started quizzing the inventor about her far-out scientific theories.

Discussion: The New Republic, Nieman Storyboard, The Huffington Post and MetaFilter

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 …

Fergus Pitt / Tow Center for Digital Journalism:

Which News Organizations Influence Wikipedia? — The New York Times leads the Wikipedia record of 2013's biggest news stories, according to a very simple (and perhaps simplistic) analysis of the online encyclopedia's citations. The analysis and process are quite basic …

Discussion: @towcenter

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

After Mulling Sale, Business Insider Raising a New Round of Funding — Business Insider — which rejected an informal acquisition offer of around $100 million floated by AOL last year and has discussed other sale efforts — is likely to be raising a new round from its existing investors, including Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos.

Discussion: @carney, @zseward, @peterlauria3, @pkafka and Mediawire Daily

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, mUmBRELLA, @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, @nycjim, @kattykaybbc, Al Jazeera English, BBC, Ghana Broadcasting Corporation and Guardian

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Q&A: John Yemma on managing the Christian Science Monitor's leap from print to digital — John Yemma arrived as editor of The Christian Science Monitor in 2008, at one of the lowest moments of the modern newspaper industry. Within a few months, the century-old newspaper had decided radical change …

Discussion: @niemanlab

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 …

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: @tom_watson, Variety, @asawinstanley, @tenpercent and BBC

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

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 …