Mediagazer: Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers (Greg Bensinger/Wall Street Journal)

11:20 AM ET, January 30, 2014

Top News:

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Major Expansion Ahead at The Washington Post — The Washington Post has significantly increased its budget and plans to make dozens of newsroom hires under its new owner, the Amazon founder Jeffrey P. Bezos, the paper's executive editor, Marty Baron, said in an interview on Wednesday.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Guardian, Adweek, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, @paula_span, @yarotrof, @adamnagourney, @abihabib, @ktumulty, @pkafka, Mediawire Daily, New York Magazine, FishbowlDC and Capital New York

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Tech isn't just a talking point, it's the media's new context — Tech isn't just a talking point, it's the media's new context. — Via youtube.com — If you want to understand Ezra Klein's departure from the Washington Post to Vox Media, as well as the context of the larger conversation about …

Discussion: metamedia, @psmith, @mat, @tldr, @blakehounshell, @yurivictor, @mattzeitlin, @tcarmody, @bethshanna, @ezraklein and @jayrosen_nyu

Harry Jaffe / Washingtonian:
Katharine Weymouth Defends Decision Not to Fund Ezra Klein's New Venture

Discussion: Media Nation, New York Times, @ravisomaiya, @jamesrbuk, bookforum.com, @mathewi, @jayrosen_nyu, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @raju, @mlcalderone, @harryjaffe, @sophiegg and Poynter

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Inc. Media Hires Jim Ledbetter from Thomson Reuters — Mansueto Ventures' Inc. Media is hiring Jim Ledbetter from Thomson Reuters as editor of its namesake magazine and website. The veteran business journalist was named the first op-ed editor at Reuters as part of a hiring spree three years ago.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, @antderosa, @jeffchu, @kenli729, @alexmleo, @moorehn, @jillpriluck, @ledbetreuters and Talking Biz News

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Tim Franklin is Poynter's new president — The Poynter Institute announced Thursday that Tim Franklin would become its new president. Its previous president, Karen Dunlap, announced last October that she planned to retire. — Franklin is currently the Washington managing editor for Bloomberg News.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @davidfolkenflik and @poynter

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

On the heels of Patch's hyperlocal failure, ad-driven GoLocal24 begins its national expansion — The newsonomics of the for-profit move in local online news — Josh Fenton is an ad guy running a local news startup. Therein lies our tale. — GoLocal24 is a different kind of online startup.

Discussion: Street Fight, GoLocal24, @golocalprov, @niemanlab and San Francisco Peninsula …

Jim Romenesko:
Report: Hundreds of Patch employees laid off

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BSkyB signs new five-year deal for exclusive rights to HBO TV catalogue — Broadcaster struck early to secure wide-ranging two-pronged deal with HBO and head off threat from rival BT — BSkyB has signed a five-year deal for the exclusive rights to the entire HBO TV catalogue …

Discussion: Financial Times, Reuters, The Independent, BBC, Reuters, Associated Press, BelfastTelegraph.co.uk and Telegraph

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:
BSkyB Revenue Increases as It Signs Up Record TV Customers

Discussion: Guardian, Hollywood Reporter, Wall Street Journal and Proactiveinvestors …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Andy Coulson ‘not in NoW office on day phone hacker said he heard voicemail’ — Dan Evans says he may have got day wrong as former editor's lawyer claims his client was away on day of alleged meeting — Andy Coulson was not in the News of the World office the day a self-confessed hacker claims …

Press Association:
Dan Evans ‘wanted to be caught’ phone-hacking, court told

Discussion: Guardian and Daily Mail

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

The Times' video dilemma — Early last year, The New York Times was making its first big sales push since revving up its digital video strategy, and it locked down two large upfront deals with two tony advertisers. — One was Acura, which signed on for a full year.

Discussion: @profsamuels_nyu, @jbenton and @tmcgev

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Why everyone is starting a news site: free-agent talent, cheap tech, maturing business models — The newsonomics of why everyone seems to be starting a news site — You'd think the new digital printing presses were minting money. — Just within the last month, all kinds of details …

Discussion: @om, @justinnxt, @niemanlab and Economist

David Carr / New York Times:
As I Was Saying About Web Journalism ... a Bubble, or a Lasting Business?

Discussion: @pximenez, @joshuatopolsky, @benhuh, @brandoncarte, @gregory, @justinnxt, @carltonpurvis, @digiphile, @viceukmedia, @suzykhimm, @dananorak, @dangillmor, @carr2n, @cappiwill, @jonathanwald, @peterlattman and @azi

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:

Facebook Gets Into The News Business With A New Story Curation App Called Paper — Facebook announced today it's launching a news curation app for iPhone called Paper. — The Paper app pulls in news stories, photos, and videos your friends share in their News Feeds and displays them in a photo-intensive layout.

Discussion: Facebook, The Verge, Businessweek, TechCrunch, Re/code, NYT Bits, The Next Web, Gigaom, Digits, @brandwatch, App Advice, Engadget and ReadWrite

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

With New Funding From Omidyar, Versa Launches Its Network For Sponsored Op-Eds — Versa is launching a new network for sponsored op-eds, which it calls Featured Perspectives. — The startup is also announcing that it has raised additional funding led by The Omidyar Network …

Discussion: PR Newswire and @keyajay

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

The Guardian's windfall ensures its long-term future — The Guardian's windfall ensures its long-term future — The Guardian, which until not that long ago was respected but little-read outside the UK, is now in the front ranks of English-language newspapers and one of the most important …

Discussion: Capital New York, Guardian and @janinegibson

Megan Reynolds / mUmBRELLA:

The Global Mail faces closure after Wood withdraws funding — The Global Mail faces the closure of its online operation after its philanthropist funder withdrew his financial commitment for the website Businessman Graeme Wood had pledged $15 to $20m to fund the site over five years …

Discussion: The Global Mail, @matt_levinson and Guardian

Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon to Offer Kindle Checkout System to Physical Retailers — Project Would Give E-Commerce Firm Access to More Customer Data — Amazon.com Inc. plans to offer brick-and-mortar retailers a checkout system that uses Kindle tablets as soon as this summer, people briefed on the company's plans said.

Discussion: Business Insider, @wsjd, @karaswisher, Electronista, Softpedia News, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch, The Verge and Mashable

Jasper Jackson / TheMediaBriefing.com:

People.co.uk & UsvsTh3m: Has Trinity Mirror learned from their contrasting fortunes? — Advertising, Consumer Media, Digital Media, Finance and Deals, Mobile, Newspapers — Trinity Mirror's closure of People.co.uk and its promotion of the people behind UsVsTh3m and Ampp3d show …

Discussion: Trinity Mirror plc and BuzzFeed

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Breaking News From Twitter: There's Breaking News on Twitter — News today from Twitter: Twitter would like to provide more of your news. — That's the upshot of a press event in New York today, where Twitter, CNN and Dataminr, a Twitter-blessed data company, announced a new tool designed to help journalists find news on Twitter.

Discussion: @margafret and @edmundlee

Vivian Schiller / Twitter blog:
A faster, easier way for newsrooms to find breaking news on Twitter

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Gigaom, Poynter, Dataminr, Capital New York, Daily Dot, TechCrunch, Mashable, Wired, CNET, @vivianschiller, @edmundlee, Kirk LaPointe's …, @ericaamerica, @cpen, @marksluckie, @joannauk, @sladurantaye and The Verge

Clair Lorell / Digiday:

FTW: How USA Today Mastered Viral Sports Content — Who said old dogs can't learn new tricks — and get them shared on Facebook millions of times. — USA Today has looked for inspiration in the current crop of viral media darlings, BuzzFeed and Upworthy, for a sports section that mixes original …

Discussion: Capital New York and @pkafka, Thanks:@bmorrissey

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

James Clapper Suggests Journalists Could Be Edward Snowden's ‘Accomplices’ — NEW YORK — Director of National Intelligence James Clapper urged former NSA contractor Edward Snowden and his “accomplices” to return leaked documents during a hearing on Wednesday.

Discussion: Prof Chris Daly's Blog, UT Documents, Techdirt, TheHill, Mashable, @trevortimm, Politico, @huffpostmedia, The Lede, Washington Post, @mlcalderone and @gaberivera

J. David Goodman / New York Times:

Attack on Gay Journalist Not a Hate Crime, Police Say — The police on Wednesday charged a Queens man in the beating of a gay journalist in Midtown Manhattan but said the attack was not a hate crime. — Detectives said the man, Leighton Jennings, 24, had been seen by witnesses …

Discussion: CBS News, International Business Times, Associated Press, New York Post and The Huffington Post

Damon Linker / The Week:

Is National Review doomed? — The conservative movement's leading magazine faces a lawsuit that could bring it to its knees — N — ational Review, founded by William F. Buckley, Jr. in 1955, has had an enormous impact on the nation's politics. Its writers formulated the ideology …

Discussion: @theweek

Aaron Souppouris / The Verge:

Screenwriters warn against overreaching copyright laws ahead of reform — One of America's foremost groups of movie and TV writers has written a detailed statement on the current and future states of copyright law. The Writers Guilt of America West (WGAW) begins its letter …

Discussion: Techdirt

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

‘Hidden away’ in Deregulation Bill - plan to make it easier for police to seize journalistic material — The Newspaper Society has urged the Government to withdraw plans to change the law to make it easier for the police to seize journalistic material. — The changes to the Police …

Jim Romenesko:

Task force recommends Society of Professional Journalists not change its name to Society for Professional Journalism — Some at SPJ wanted to change the focus of the organization to upholding and advocating the principles of professional journalism rather than the people performing it …