Mediagazer: Publishers to Ezra Klein: Good Luck! You'll Need it! (John McDermott/Digiday)

12:10 PM ET, January 23, 2014

Top News:

AP severs ties with photographer who altered work — NEW YORK (AP) — The Associated Press has severed ties with a freelance photographer who it says violated its ethical standards by altering a photo he took while covering the war in Syria in 2013. — The news service said Wednesday …

Adam Weinstein / Gawker:

Should the AP Really Have Fired This Pulitzer-Prize War Photographer? — The Associated Press announced Wednesday that it had parted ways with Narciso Contreras, a freelance photographer who shared in a Pulitzer for his work in Syria last year. The reason Contreras was let go, basically …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

CNN laid off more than 40 journalists at end of 2013 — CNN and HLN “laid off more than 40 senior journalists in its newsgathering operation” at the end of 2013, Matthew Garrahan reports in the Financial Times. — The cuts “coincide with changes to the network's programming,” Garrahan writes.

Discussion: Politico, @brianstelter and Business Insider

Michael Calderone / @mlcalderone:

CNN lays off 40 senior journalists, including a “pregnant producer who was two weeks away from giving birth to twins” http://on.ft.com/1dyx1q6

Discussion: Financial Times and TVNewser

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Dozens of journalists injured in Kiev during protests, five people killed — This AP photo made its way across Twitter Wednesday, showing journalists covering protests in Kiev. One, as you can see, wears a colander to protect his head instead of a helmet. Helmets, you see, were banned by the government.

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, @poynter, kyivpost.com, The Lede and UPI

Heather Murphy / The Lede:
Targeted text message sends chills to protesters and journalists in Ukraine

Discussion: @mattbuchanan, @crimethinc, TechCrunch, The Independent, Techdirt, Gawker and The Verge

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

NewsCred Raises $25 Million to Fill a Content-Marketing War Chest. (What's Content Marketing Again?) — Advertisers have spent the last few years toiling away in the social media fields, and now have long lists of followers on Twitter, Facebook and other platforms to show for their efforts.

Discussion: Gigaom, TechCrunch, Business Wire, Tech City News and PandoDaily

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:

CNN.com tests new ideas on its Arabic-language channel — CNN has just launched the redesigned CNNArabic.com, the networkÂ's only Arabic-language outlet (and a small territory in its digital portfolio). But it's more important than that. The new features introduced …

Discussion: @niemanlab

Dugald Baird / Guardian:

Stan Collymore returns to Twitter and hits out at the Sun — Former England footballer asks for ‘solutions to help Twitter police itself’ after suspending account following racist abuse — Stan Collymore has criticised the Sun as he returned to Twitter after suspending his account over racist abuse that he received on the site.

Discussion: Press Gazette

Bloomberg:

Gannett Seen Divorcing Print From TV After Belo: Real M&A — After doubling down on broadcast stations, Gannett Co. (GCI) could create even more value for shareholders by joining a long line of media companies splitting publishing from television in recent years.

PTI:

Huffington Post plans India edition; launch in May — Davos: US-based leading online newspaper Huffington Post is planning to launch an India edition by May this year and negotiations are currently underway to finalise a local partner for this venture. — “We are working very hard on our India edition.

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Setting Its Sights On Content Personalization, AOL To Acquire Gravity For $90.7M — AOL is announcing that it has reached a deal to acquire content personalization startup Gravity for an initial $83 million, with another $7.7 million paid out over the next two years.

Discussion: Re/code, New York Times, CNET, Gigaom, ZDNet, Variety, Business Insider and Softpedia News

John McDermott / Digiday:

Publishers to Ezra Klein: Good Luck! You'll Need it! — Ezra Klein, the wunderkind behind the popular Washington Post policy blog Wonkblog, will be leaving the D.C. daily at the end of this week to pursue his own media venture. — Digital publishing executives have a message for him: Good luck: You're going to need it.

Discussion: @digiday, @jayrosen_nyu and Paul Krugman

John Cassidy / The New Yorker Blog:
Maybe Ezra Klein and Jeff Bezos Are Both Right

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, @murraymatt, Columbia Journalism Review, @gregorydjohnsen, @jtes, @joshuafoust, @tnyjohncassidy and Mediaite

Sam Kirkland / Poynter:

As CNN mobile traffic hits 40%, editor calls web vs. apps debate ‘red herring’ — CNN announced last week that mobile page views accounted for 40 percent of its overall traffic, the result of equally emphasizing its mobile website and mobile apps even as some in the industry remain stuck in an either-or debate.

Discussion: INMA

Alice Speri / Al Jazeera America:

Intimidated journalists in Russia hesitate to criticize Sochi Games … Last April, Russian journalist Mikhail Beketov, who had exposed corruption in the construction of a highway linking Moscow to St. Petersburg, died of injuries sustained in a brutal beating he had received years earlier.

Discussion: @plew108

Marina Walker Guevara / The Global Muckraker:

How a multinational journalism team investigated the offshore holdings of China's elite — How we did Offshore Leaks China — A multinational team of journalists spent months combing through secret tax haven records revealing offshore holdings of China's rich and powerful.

Discussion: New York Times, Poynter, @icijorg, Bloomberg, Media Channel, Guardian and BBC

James Doleman / The Drum:

Police officer arrested for leaks to the Guardian, phone-hacking trial hears — Police officer arrested in 2011 for “leaking stories” to the Guardian — Brooks called Dowler story a “a proper Guardian, old labour, BBC hit” — Judge reminds jury “just because something appears in newspaper doesn't mean it's true”

Discussion: Guardian

Knight Foundation:

24 new projects will go from idea to demo with funding from Knight Foundation — Knight Prototype Fund introduces a focus on human-centered design — The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation today announced funding for 24 new projects out of the Knight Prototype Fund …

Discussion: Idea Lab, Nieman Journalism Lab, @habitatmap, @rcheetham, @stadsbeeld and SocialTimes

Patrick Frater / Variety:

China Tightens Control of Online Video, Book Publishing — HONG KONG - Chinese authorities have announced new controls on the posting of content to online video sites. Separately, there is to be additional scrutiny of Chinese-language book publishing. — The State General Administration …

Discussion: NYT Bits, Hollywood Reporter and TeleRead

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Court OKs subpoena for Nola.com commenters' identities — The NOLA Media Group has 10 days to hand over the identities of two online commenters, Juliet Linderman reports. … Ellyn Angelotti, a lawyer and Poynter faculty, said that there aren't clear standards on First Amendment protections for online commentators.

Discussion: New Orleans Times-Picayune

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

‘Newsbeat’ chief Rod McKenzie moved after complaints of bullying from over 30 BBC staff — The BBC has moved one of its senior news executives from his job in charge of Newsbeat, the broadcaster's youth news service, following complaints from more than 30 members of staff …

Discussion: Daily Mail, @banthebbc, Radio Today, @milominder, @mattkmoore and Press Gazette

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Netflix's momentum continues with 2.33 million new US customers in Q4 — Netflix revealed its fourth quarter earnings today, capping off a banner year that saw the streaming service surpass HBO in subscriber count and earn critical acclaim for its original programming.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Guardian, New York Times, The Wrap, Businessweek, @microfundy, @ceciliakang, @timjhanrahan, BuzzFeed, Mashable, Business Insider, Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg and Wall Street Journal

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:
Netflix Beats Analyst Expectations With 2.3M New Domestic Subscribers, Earnings Of 79 Cents A Share

Discussion: Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, Home Media Magazine, CNET, Reuters, ZDNet and MarketWatch

Michael O'Connell / Hollywood Reporter:

Cord-Cutting Study Comes Down as Cable Nets Cry Foul — HBO, Showtime and Starz release stats on subscriber growth after a NPD Group study, no longer on the firm's website, claims households with premium cable are on the decline. — Within a day of research firm NPD Group releasing its State …

Discussion: Capital New York and The Wrap