Mediagazer: The limits of Ezra Klein's star power (Jack Shafer)

12:05 AM ET, January 28, 2014

Top News:

The limits of Ezra Klein's star power — No greater act of press criticism exists than to launch your own publication. Starting anew allows a journalist to leave the cracked glass, dents and rust of the old behind, to reject the past and all its mistakes and compromises, and to show by example how the work should be done.

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff on Ezra Klein's Plan to Re-Imagine the News — News and Culture Site Expected to Launch in the Spring — The parent company of tech news site The Verge and sports blog SB Nation has lured The Washington Post's recently departed politics-and-policy wunderkind Ezra Klein …

Discussion: VentureBeat, CNNMoney.com, Gigaom, @darrenheitner, The Corsair, Business Insider, Recovering Journalist, BuzzMachine and Mediawire Daily

Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:

China Appears Set to Force Times Reporter to Leave — BEIJING — Despite objections raised by Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. in meetings with its top leaders, China appears set to force a correspondent for The New York Times to leave the country this week, and it is continuing to block …

Discussion: Politico, The Huffington Post, @barbarademick and FishbowlNY

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Bloomberg's China business grows despite ‘brouhaha’

Discussion: Forbes

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Comcast, Charter Said to Near Pact on Time Warner Cable Assets — Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) is near a deal to buy New York City, North Carolina and New England cable assets from Charter Communications Inc. if shareholders approve Charter's takeover bid for Time Warner Cable Inc., people with knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: Deadline.com, Reuters, The Verge, Variety and Broadcasting & Cable

Susan Crawford / Bloomberg:
Time Warner Cable Sale Will Cost Us All

Discussion: Light Reading

Wall Street Journal:
ESPN seeks to profit from demand for online sports content without pushing away pay-TV customers

Discussion: Forbes, Gigaom, NetNewsCheck Latest and @zseward

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Omidyar: First Look plans to launch ‘family of digital magazines’ — In a video explaining his plans for First Look Media, founder/funder Pierre Omidyar says that in addition to a flagship site covering news, entertainment, sports and politics, the venture plans to launch “a family of digital magazines.”

Discussion: Mashable and NetNewsCheck Latest

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Pierre Omidyar releases video previewing First Look Media

Discussion: @pierre, The Huffington Post and @dylanbyers

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Facebook Is Seeking “Editors” for News App — For years, Facebook has sworn by the power of algorithms to serve users a personalized mix of status updates, stories and photos. It's what makes up the heart of the company's premier product, the News Feed. — Soon, Facebook will add another approach …

Discussion: Mashable, @blathnaidhealy, @pkafka, @hblodget, @dangillmor, @kenli729, @mathewi and @romenesko

Rachele Kanigel / Mediashift:

SF Chronicle Hopes Incubator Will ‘Turn Around Legacy Media Company’ — After two decades of being pummeled by savvy tech companies that have stolen its readers, its advertisers and perhaps even its place as the leading media company in town, the San Francisco Chronicle has decided to fight innovation with innovation.

Discussion: @mediatwit

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Quentin Tarantino Suing Gawker Over Leaked ‘Hateful Eight’ Script (Exclusive) — The director takes legal action over the distribution of his script. — Quentin Tarantino — Quentin Tarantino has filed a copyright lawsuit against Gawker Media for allegedly disseminating copies of his script, The Hateful Eight.

Discussion: The Wrap, Deadline.com, Gawker, CNET, WebProNews, Daily Dot, The Verge, Mashable, NBCNews, Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, @popcultini, Guardian, Online NewsHour, Mother Jones, @eriqgardner, TIME and Variety

William Launder / Wall Street Journal:

News Websites Proliferate, Stretching Thin Ad Dollars — Many Generate Revenue by Hosting Conferences — Big profits in online news may be as scarce as buried gold but that isn't deterring journalists and investors from rushing into the sector. — In the past few months …

Discussion: @aburnspolitico and @mattyglesias

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

Nate Silver has hired 15 journalists for FiveThirtyEight and plans relaunch “early this year” — Status Update: Building FiveThirtyEight — We're continuing to build our team of journalists at FiveThirtyEight as we prepare for re-launch with our partners at ESPN and ABC News early this year.

Discussion: @brianstelter, @dansinker and @burger

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:

ProPublica's Richard Tofel: ‘Our mission is to end abuses of power’ — The president of the non-profit investigative journalism website on measuring impact, team work - and Edward Snowden — Richard Tofel has had a dream. It came upon him the night before we meet and he is still a little rattled by it.

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

To Cover State of the Union, Fusion Taps Talking Animals and A Chatty Hot Dog — Cable net backed by Univision and ABC News strikes out in satirical direction to stand apart from TV-news pack — When President Obama delivers his State of the Union address Tuesday evening, NBC News will trot out Brian Williams to anchor its coverage.

Discussion: TVNewser and @rove

Robert Lipsyte / ESPN:

ESPN Ombudsman criticises Grantland's Dr. V story, calls it “inexcusable” — Dr. V story understandable, inexcusable — A young golfer's obsession with an oddly shaped putter invented by a mysterious scientist and endorsed on YouTube? I will give that kind of story …

Discussion: @coreyinscoe, Kirk LaPointe's …, @el_skootro, @andrewrgoldman, @marynmck, @dangainor, @mrharrybay, @craigsilverman, @drewmtips, @sulliview, @mathewi, @king_kaufman, @ourand_sbj and @mattdpearce

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Q&A: Andrew Golis on matching great journalism with big audiences (and, oh yeah, dollars) — Andrew Golis has been hanging out at The Atlantic for the past six months or so, getting to know people and working on whatever interests him. Golis was hired in June to inaugurate the role …

Discussion: @agolis, @ceodonovan and @amlwhere

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Why Capital New York's $6,000 paywall will probably work — When Politico's owner bought Capital New York in September, the move came as a surprise to many of us, but it could certainly be seen as a concrete assertion of the viability of Politico's business model, which is hybrid …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Al Jazeera America to get prime new channel space — As it prepares to launch a new marketing campaign, Al Jazeera America will be getting some prime new channel placement for Time Warner Cable subscribers in New York. — Tomorrow, January 28, AJAM will be moving from channel 181 …