Mediagazer: Gawker Fires Back at Quentin Tarantino: We Didn't Leak Your Script (Lucas Shaw/The Wrap)

8:45 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.

Discussion: Felix Salmon, Columbia Journalism Review, @gabrielsnyder, The New Yorker Blog, @binarybits, @dankennedy_nu, @brianstelter, @johnjcook, @jpheasly, @jaredbkeller, @ravisomaiya, @michaelroston, @jayrosen_nyu, @carr2n, Newsonomics, FishbowlNY, Erik Wemple and AJR.org

Tim Peterson / AdAge:
Vox Media CEO Jim Bankoff on Ezra Klein's Plan to Re-Imagine the News

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

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

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Inside's News Is Longer Than Twitter, Shorter Than Business Insider and Jason Calacanis Says You'll Love It — It's 2014. Do we need another service that summarizes news other people have written? — Yes, says Jason Calacanis. And because Jason Calacanis is a very persuasive pitchman …

Discussion: Capital New York, Capital New York, The Verge, @danielfletcher, @antderosa and @digidave

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

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

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Gawker Fires Back at Quentin Tarantino: We Didn't Leak Your Script — Gawker rejected Quentin Tarantino's claims that it leaked a copy of his latest script, “The Hateful Eight,” in a post by editor-in-chief John Cook. Cook wrote the piece after Tarantino's lawyer Marty Singer filed suit …

Discussion: Pocket-lint

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Quentin Tarantino Suing Gawker Over Leaked ‘Hateful Eight’ Script (Exclusive)

Discussion: Gawker, FishbowlNY, Deadline.com, The Wrap, Guardian, Telegraph, Mashable, CNET, The Verge, WebProNews, Daily Dot, Los Angeles Times, Online NewsHour, NBCNews, Mother Jones, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, @popcultini, @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: @evanasmith, @sarahneedleman, @aburnspolitico, @mattyglesias and @jbenton

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 primetime broadcast line-up and higher attendance at its Universal Studios theme parks.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and CNBC

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: @pkafka, Mashable, @owenthomas, @hblodget, App Advice, @blathnaidhealy, @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, @pbsidealab, @pbsmediashift and @rakeshlobster

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

Comcast in talks to license technology to Cox -sources — (Reuters) - Comcast Corp, the No. 1 U.S. cable operator, is in advanced discussions about licensing its “X1” video operating system to Cox Communications, the third-largest cable operator, according to people familiar with the matter.

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: @helene_fr, @nickkristof, @andrewjacobsnyt, @mitch_moxley, @barbarademick, @nycjim, @matthewkeyslive, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY and Politico

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The mobile inevitability: How CNN is prepping for the majority-mobile audience coming in 2014 — This will be the year CNN sees the majority of its online audience come from mobile devices. — There's a level of inevitability to that stat that almost seems boring at this point.

Discussion: @digitalanika, @ampress, @iammobilebob and @niemanlab

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.

Discussion: @dangreen100, @jacobwe and @emilybell

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

How Russia Is Censoring Reporting On Sochi Olympics Controversies — NEW YORK - Corruption. Environmental damage. Forced evictions. Exploitation of migrant workers. — Journalists would be expected to dive headfirst into such headline-grabbing allegations, especially when tied …

Discussion: Forbes, The Daily Beast and Committee to Protect …

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Twitter's Grammy Traffic Is Flat — And So Are the Grammys' TV Ratings — For the past few years, Twitter has been telling TV programmers and advertisers that it can bring them more eyeballs, because people on Twitter spend a lot of time talking about TV, reading about TV and watching TV at the same time.

Michael Depp / NetNewsCheck Latest:

NPR Eyes More Personalized Digital Platform — Public radio network NPR is developing a new app aimed at fostering a more seamless listening experience between devices that employs geotargeting and algorithms to better integrate local content and play to users' taste, as well as features DVR-like time-shifting.

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The New York Times animates the tragic tale of olive oil — It's no small secret the New York Times is trying to expand its multimedia efforts across all sections. They're producing the Times Minute, a brief news recap, as well as features videos, summaries, and short features in Op-Docs.

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, @pftompkins, @rove and @janiehaddad

Roger Yu / USA Today:

Battle of the brands: A newspaper war in New Orleans — Local Times-Picayune fights to fend off an invasion by Baton Rouge's Advocate in New Orleans. — NEW ORLEANS - The pirate flag hanging in the New Orleans Advocate's office in downtown is something of an inside joke …