Mediagazer: MSNBC president apologizes to RNC (Dylan Byers/Politico)

9:15 PM ET, January 30, 2014

Top News:

Lance Ulanoff / Mashable:

Facebook Paper Is Content — But Don't Call Facebook a Media Company — Is Facebook Paper short for Facebook NewsPaper? — Thursday's unveiling of a new standalone content curation app, Facebook Paper, comes after weeks of speculation and rumors about Facebook hiring editors …

Discussion: @jason, Wired, @agolis, Ars Technica and Guardian

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook's New “Creative Labs” Lets The 6,000-Employee Giant Move Fast Like A Startup — It's tough to experiment with a billion people watching. At that scale, Facebook's mantras of “move fast and break things” and “Done is better than perfect” don't quite work.

Discussion: Businessweek, CNET and The Huffington Post

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:
Facebook Gets Into The News Business With A New Story Curation App Called Paper

Discussion: The Verge, Facebook, TechCrunch, Re/code, NYT Bits, Digits, Kirk LaPointe's …, The Next Web, Fast Company, Engadget, Gigaom, App Advice and @brandwatch

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Tim Franklin is Poynter's new president — The Poynter Institute announced Thursday that its new president will be Tim Franklin, the Washington managing editor for Bloomberg News. Franklin was director of the National Sports Journalism Center at the Indiana University School of Journalism …

Discussion: Poynter, NetNewsCheck Latest, FishbowlNY, @davidfolkenflik 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, @jillpriluck, @alexmleo, @ledbetreuters, @kenli729, @moorehn and Talking Biz News

Ciara Byrne / Co.Labs:

Inside The Ad-Free, Crowdfunded Publication That Is Upending The Newspaper Business — For two years, Rob Wijnberg was the editor of NRC Next, a Dutch daily newspaper. After he was fired, he decided he would start over by launching his own publication—and using an entirely new business model.

Discussion: @fastcolabs, @mathewi and @mathewi

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:
The secret to having a successful paywall around your news is simple — it's about community

Discussion: @marklittlenews, The Dish and Capital New York

Dylan Byers / Politico:

MSNBC president apologizes to RNC — MSNBC President Phil Griffin apologized to Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus on Thursday for a tweet that suggested conservatives “hate” interracial marriages. — “The tweet last night was outrageous and unacceptable.

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wrap, Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Erik Wemple, BBC, @buzzfeedben, @abumuqawama, @thestalwart, New York Magazine, @tvnewslab, Associated Press, Business Insider, @stefanjbecket, @alexweprin and @reince

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Stock Price Stumbles After Hours On Revenue, Earnings Miss And Weak Guidance — Today after the market close Amazon reported its fourth quarter financial performance, including revenue of $25.59 billion, and earnings per share of $0.51. The company has operating income of $510 million …

Discussion: New York Times, Forbes, Digital Book World, ZDNet, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Digits, CNBC, The Verge and CNET

Donna Tam / CNET:
Amazon considers $40 increase in Prime subscription fee

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, TechCrunch, Home Media Magazine, @fmanjoo, Digits and @gregbensinger

Tom Jensen / Public Policy Polling:

Fox News once again most and least trusted name in news — PPP's 5th annual poll about trust in TV news continues to find what it does every year: Fox News is both the most trusted and least trusted name in news. — 35% of Americans say they trust Fox News more than any other TV news outlet …

Discussion: TVNewser, @atompkins, @umairh, @ppppolls, @bponsot, The Huffington Post and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

U.S. ‘Deeply Concerned’ Over Press Freedom In China As New York Times Reporter Forced Out — NEW YORK — White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said Thursday that the U.S is “deeply concerned” about the ability of foreign journalists to do their jobs in China, shortly after New York Times …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Daniel Halper / Weekly Standard:
Carney Concerned About Press in China Facing ‘Restrictions’

Discussion: Poynter and Politico

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: Nieman Journalism Lab, @joepompeo, @hornmultimedia, @profsamuels_nyu, @jbenton and @tmcgev

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Times raises paywall a little higher on mobile — The New York Times has tweaked its pay meter for mobile apps. The bottom line is you're likely, depending how you use them, to hit the paywall sooner. — Starting today, users reaching Times content on mobile apps will get free access …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and FishbowlNY

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

When Super Bowl Advertisers Compete For the Web, Google Wins — Winning the Pre- and Post- Super Bowl Is Increasingly What Counts — The big game isn't until Sunday, but for Super Bowl advertisers the first quarter is already over. That's because increasingly the battle isn't for the game itself …

Discussion: Forbes, Speakeasy, VentureBeat, Globe and Mail, Gigaom, Latest News & Headlines and Variety

Beth Healy / Boston Globe:

John Henry appoints Mike Sheehan CEO of the Globe, names himself publisher — Well-known Boston advertising executive Mike Sheehan will become chief executive officer of The Boston Globe, and the newspaper company's new owner, John Henry, will assume the role of publisher …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter and Associated Press

Jay Rosen / Pressthink:

Keep me informed: parsing the logic of Ezra Klein's move to Vox Media — “We don't have a news system that keeps us informed and helps us grasp the stories we care deeply about. We have one that floods us with reports on a schedule that makes sense for the manufacturers.”

Discussion: @mathewi, @howardweaver, @niemanlab, @antderosa, @digidave, @jayrosen_nyu, BuzzFeed and Economist

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

N.F.L. creating digital channel: ‘NFL Now’ — The National Football League is creating a new HD digital video channel called “N.F.L. Now.” The channel, which launches this summer, will be available on any device, though apps for iOS, Android and Windows systems, and on web browsers through NFL.com/Now.

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Business Insider and Los Angeles Times

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: @johngapper, @johngapper, @johngapper, @emilybell, @johngapper, @ryanchittum, @emilybell, @emilybell, @emilybell, @jamesrbuk, Capital New York, Guardian and @janinegibson

Nic Christensen / mUmBRELLA:

Journalistic utopias don't work — The Global Mail's threatened closure is a huge missed opportunity for journalism, but there are lessons to be learned about letting journalists run the show, argues Mumbrella's Tim Burrowes. — Back in what I now realise were the final golden years of local newspapers …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA, @rwilliamson_, @nicchristensen, @mumbrella and Guardian

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Former Hulu Head Jason Kilar's Stealth Startup Pitches Magazine Publishers — Jason Kilar made a big splash in Web video and TV when he ran Hulu. — Now he's trying do the same thing with Web publishing and magazines. — Kilar has yet to talk publicly about The Fremont Project, the startup he began staffing up last fall.

Discussion: @delrey, @pkafka and @mathewi

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: Re/code, Emag.co.uk and @keyajay

Jennifer Silber / Folio:

La Presse+ Sees Significant Gains in First 9 Months — New digital edition installed on more than 400,000 iPads. — The free digital edition of Montreal-based daily newspaper La Presse has seen tremendous increases in the last nine months. Since its launch in April last year …

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Outside Magazine Gets into the Travel Business — Launches Outside Go to begin booking customized adventure excursions. — Mariah Media's Outside magazine has launched a new division that will begin booking the kind of adventure travel it's long been writing about.

Sarah Laskow / Columbia Journalism Review:

Pacific Standard is upping its Web game to “get the magazine in front of more eyeballs” — Pacific Standard is upping its Web game to “get the magazine in front of more eyeballs” — Pacific Standard has had an exciting January. It's been the magazine's biggest traffic month ever, on track to hit 1.25 million uniques.

P.J. Bednarski / MediaPost:

Machinima COO Reeves Leaves to Rejoin Start-Up — Nanea Reeves, Machinima's chief operating officer since March 2012, left the company at the beginning of the year, is no longer with the company, VideoInk is reporting. — VideoInk said multiple sources confirmed that Reeves left the online gamer network …

Discussion: VideoInk

Wall Street Journal:

Time Warner Cable Subscriber Figures Called “Dismal” — Company to Up Spending on Technology as It Tries to Fend Off Suitor — Under takeover pressure from Charter Communications Inc., Time Warner Cable Inc. reported weaker subscriber results for the fourth quarter but outlined …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Bloomberg, @wsj, @shaliniwsj, Reuters, Business Wire and Hollywood Reporter

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: Washington Post, The Raw Story and @theweek