Mediagazer: The Netflix of kids' books? Epic launches on iPad for $9.99/month (Jeff John Roberts/Gigaom)

7:15 PM ET, January 28, 2014

Top News:

Elise Hu / NPR:

Obama's State Of The Union, Playing On A Second Screen Near You … Viewership is declining. Washington seems increasingly dysfunctional and irrelevant to the daily lives of Americans. The presidency isn't the bully pulpit it used to be. — In an age of social media and divided audiences …

Discussion: @charlienpr, @nprweekend, Political Capital, White House.gov Blog and Mashable

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

YouTube, news sites will livestream the State of the Union — YouTube will livestream President Obama's State of the Union address at 9 p.m. eastern, according to a press release from YouTube, “followed by the Republican response by Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers on Speaker Boehner's channel.

Discussion: FishbowlDC, The New Yorker Blog, Capital New York, New Yorker, Yahoo News, The Verge and Featured stories

Ashley Parker / New York Times:

Social media enable the crowd to influence conventional wisdom during the State of the Union — A Night No Longer Just the President's Pulpit — WASHINGTON — Twitter has fast become the conventional wisdom clearinghouse and real-time echo chamber for major political events …

Discussion: @davidplouffe and @mikeisaac

John Biggs / TechCrunch:

Lance Ulanoff Out As Editor Of Mashable — Lance Ulanoff, former editor-in-chief of PCMag.com, has been moved to an editor-at-large and chief correspondent position at Mashable, effectively removing him from the EIC position at that title. — A source close to the move said Jim Roberts …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Johana Bhuiyan / Capital New York:

Mashable expands into climate reporting — Andrew Freedman, most recently a senior science writer for Climate Central, will be Mashable's first climate, weather and environment reporter, the site said Tuesday. — Mashable chief content officer and executive editor Jim Roberts told Capital …

Discussion: @mashable

Mike Isaac / Re/code:

Medium, Evan Williams's Post-Twitter Media Startup, Raises $25 Million Round — Medium is about to become large. — The collaborative publishing startup has just closed a $25 million round of financing, the company confirmed, marking its first major funding raise since it launched a little more than a year ago.

Discussion: VentureBeat, TechCrunch, VatorNews, The Verge, @rsarver, @_bsiddiqui, @al0nd0n, @jason, @af, @goldman, @thinkup, @mg, @nbj914 and Mashable

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: @nycjim, Mashable, @mikepetroff, @prof_bearb, @jayrosen_nyu, The Next Web, @brianstelter, @burger and @dansinker

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Ezra Klein vs. Nate Silver: The Wonk Super Bowl

Discussion: @chanders and @anamariecox

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

Discussion: Gigaom, The New Yorker Blog, The Daily Caller, FishbowlNY, Mediaite, @gabrielsnyder, @binarybits, @dankennedy_nu, @brianstelter, @johnjcook, @jpheasly, @jaredbkeller, @ravisomaiya, @michaelroston and @jayrosen_nyu

Quentin Hardy / NYT Bits:

Jason Calacanis Shoots for Human Moments in News Feeds — This must be the fastest-moving month in the history of new media. The latest entrant features yet one more familiar face. — On Tuesday, Jason Calacanis, who was involved in Web publishing early in its dot-com days, started Inside.com …

Discussion: @qhardy, @gabrielsnyder, @moorehn, FishbowlNY and Re/code

Staci D. Kramer / Nieman Journalism Lab:
“I see this as the next CNN”: Jason Calacanis' Inside.com aims to solve news on mobile devices

Discussion: @jessicalessin, @jenny8lee, @niemanlab and @jbenton

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Inside's News Is Longer Than Twitter, Shorter Than Business Insider and Jason Calacanis Says You'll Love It

Discussion: The Verge, Business Insider, WebProNews, @antderosa, @digiphile, @digidave, Capital New York, @pkafka and @danielfletcher

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:
Jason Calacanis launches Inside, a mobile news-curation app powered by humans

Discussion: @mickhagen, CNET, TechCrunch, INSIDE, @mathewi, @peterc, @jason and The Next Web

Alexandra Steigrad / WWD:

More Layoffs to Hit Time Inc. — TIME TO GO?: Time Inc. staffers are bracing for layoffs, which could come as early as next week, WWD has learned. — Word of the job cuts came last month, when Time Inc. chief executive officer Joe Ripp told employees during a quarterly corporate meeting …

Discussion: Capital New York, FishbowlNY and Mediawire Daily

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Sue Douglas leaves Trinity Mirror as People.co.uk closes — Company says Sunday People's first dedicated seven-day digital version did not hit expected traffic targets — Sue Douglas, hired seven months ago to take charge of Trinity Mirror's Sunday People, is leaving the company …

Discussion: @buzzfeedben, @marksweney and @flashboy

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

Comcast Earnings: Profits Up 28 Percent Thanks to Broadcasting, Theme Parks — Comcast's profits spiked 28.6 percent during the cable giant's fourth quarter thanks to its resurgent primetime broadcast line-up and higher attendance at its Universal Studios theme parks.

Discussion: @timkarr, Los Angeles Times, Bloomberg, Radio & Television … and CNBC

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Comcast CEO: NBC Turnaround Is Happening ‘Faster’ Than Anticipated

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter

Guardian:

Mark Thompson to face MPs again over failed £99m Digital Media Initiative — Maragret Hodges, MP who chairs public accounts committee, calls saga ‘catalogue of how not to run a major programme’ — Mark Thompson is to face more questioning by MPs about his time in charge of the BBC next week …

Tara Conlan / Guardian:
BBC whistleblower says figures used to justify continuing DMI project were “like Enron”

Discussion: bbc.co.uk, Computerworld UK Public Sector, Daily Mail, TechWeekEurope UK, broadcastnow.co.uk, Financial Times, The Independent, TechRadar.com and Reuters

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

First Look Media Rethinking Newsroom Structure Ahead Of Launch — NEW YORK — After a couple months on the job, Eric Bates doesn't yet have a title at First Look Media. — “We're all working very collaboratively now,” Bates said in an interview with The Huffington Post. “We're not worried about titles or positions.

Discussion: Mediawire Daily, Politico and Poynter

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Business Insider investing in paid content, expanding BI Intelligence unit — Business Insider Has Ambitious Paid Content Plans — Business Insider is known for its clicky mix of business and gossip content, delivered in the form of rapid-fire posts, slideshows and videos.

Discussion: Business Insider and @lmoses

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Yahoo Q4 2013 Earnings Slide 6% To $1.27B On EPS Of $0.46, Display Ads Down 6% — Yahoo today reported its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2013, where it reported GAAP revenues of $1.27 billion and non-GAAP earnings per share of $0.46. Excluding traffic acquisition costs, revenues were $1.2 billion.

Discussion: Yahoo, AdAge, Forbes, VentureBeat, CNET, @jguynn, Re/code, @yahooinc, @dkberman, @samgustin, Reuters, CNET, Re/code, Business Insider and Digits

Richard Horgan / FishbowlNY:

Matthew Garrahan to become Financial Times global media editor — Financial Times Gives Matthew Garrahan a Major Promotion — Matthew Garrahan, the Financial Times' Los Angeles correspondent, is heading east. Sometime this summer, the well-liked journalist will relocate to New York …

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, @simonhoupt and Capital New York