Mediagazer: Sun-Times disbands Grid staff (Chris Roush/Talking Biz News)

6:00 PM ET, January 20, 2014

Top News:

Christina Kahrl / Grantland:

What Grantland Got Wrong — Understanding the serious errors in “Dr. V's Magical Putter” — When you're a writer, you want something you create to have a long life, to be something that readers will remember and revisit for years to come. If such was Caleb Hannan's wish, it's been granted …

Discussion: BuzzFeed, @edgeofsports, @melissagira, @barroldbonds, @markharrisnyc, The New Republic and ThinkProgress

Bill Simmons / Grantland:

Grantland editor apologizes for publishing “Dr. V's Magical Putter” — The Dr. V Story: A Letter From the Editor — How “Dr. V's Magical Putter” came to be published — “How could you guys run that?” — We started hearing that question on Friday afternoon, West Coast time …

Discussion: @chrisgeidner, @buzzfeedandrew, @petersterne, @rgay, @themarkberman, @petersterne, @jeffjohnroberts, @petersterne, BuzzFeed, VICE and Beautiful, Terrible …

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Grantland and Dr. V: What happens when niche journalism meets the network effect — Like any niche pursuit, sports journalism can be a strange beast: magazines like Sports Illustrated often spend enormous amounts of time on stories that few outside the bubble of the sports world have even heard of, let alone care about.

Discussion: Guardian, Nieman Storyboard, Feministing, Boing Boing and Slate

David Carr / New York Times:

Print focus at OC Register fails to stem bleeding as publisher Aaron Kushner tries to scale — Publisher Stumbles in Wild Chase for Growth — Timing matters when it comes to news. I had been reading about Aaron Kushner's audacious strategy to invest in journalism ever since he bought …

Discussion: Street Fight, @jennifersaba, @peterlattman, @ezraklein, @carr2n, @publiceyestl and @mattdpearce

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Sun-Times disbands Grid staff — The Chicago Sun-Times has disbanded the staff of its business publication Grid, with publisher Brandon Copple leaving last week, reports Lynn Marek of Crain's Chicago. — Marek writes, “The Grid brand, which devolved from a print publication to an online product …

Discussion: Chicago Business

Matt McGee / Search Engine Land:

Matt Cutts: “Stick A Fork In It, Guest Blogging Is Done” — Google — and Matt Cutts, in particular — has made a number of statements about guest blogging over the past year as the tactic has grown as a link building tactic. — None of those statements are as clear as the one Cutts wrote today on his personal blog.

Discussion: Matt Cutts, @dannysullivan and WebProNews

Amy Wallace / New York Times:

Life as a Female Journalist: Hot or Not? — LOS ANGELES — IN 2009, I wrote a cover story for Wired magazine about the anti-vaccine movement and profiled Paul Offit, a leading proponent of vaccines for children. Dr. Offit is a man. I am a woman. That was sufficient grounds for things to get ugly.

Discussion: Forbes, @pcronald, @meta_porter, @dr_krystal, @trenni, @theopedproject, @semayer, @rachelsklar, @ccriadoperez, @laneflorsheim, @gqmagazine and @frankbruni

Henry Taylor / TheMediaBriefing.com:

UsVsTh3m at nine months and Ampp3d at six weeks: What has Trinity Mirror learned? — For any established media company, coming up with new ideas and finding out fast if they've got a future is a big challenge. — So for Trinity Mirror to place an (admittedly small) bet on UsVsTh3m last last May was a pretty ballsy move.

Discussion: @iainpope73 and @joannauk

Todd Spangler / Variety:

As Netflix Rises, More People Are Canceling HBO and Showtime — U.S. households subscribing to premium cable channels dropped 6 percentage points over 18-month period, while Netflix and other SVOD services grew 4 points — Netflix may be putting a dent in premium cable subscriptions …

Discussion: Betabeat, WebProNews, Gigaom, The Verge and Electronista

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

After the Times Redesign, Complaints and Changes — I've seldom had as much response to any post as to one last week - from the first day of the redesign of The Times's website: about 1,000 comments on this blog, in addition to hundreds of emails to my office.

Discussion: @vivianschiller, @janinegibson, @katierosman, @albertocairo, @wblau, @tonybrancato, @sulliview and @bdeskin

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

In France, value of legacy media companies plummets — Those media assets that are worth nothing — The valuation gap between high tech and media companies has never been wider. The erosion of their revenue model might be the main culprit, but management teams, unions and boards …

Discussion: @s_m_i, @blathnaidhealy and @frasermatthew

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

International editors warn UK Government sending ‘negative message’ to world on press freedom — The World Association of Newspapers (WAN-IFRA) two-day press freedom mission to the UK concluded with a warning that changes to press regulation and Government “intimidation” of The Guardian were sending a …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's … and @pressgazette