Mediagazer: 500 layoffs expected today at Time Inc. (Keith J. Kelly/New York Post)

1:40 PM ET, February 4, 2014

Top News:

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

500 layoffs expected today at Time Inc. — Around mid-morning, staffers are expected to start hearing how deep the cuts will be as Time Inc. CEO Joe Ripp unveils what is likely the last big downsizing before Time Warner spins off the publishing group as a separate company later this year.

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY, Folio, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, @jasonrmcintyre, @daveweigel, Los Angeles Times, The Huffington Post and National Sports …

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Time Inc. Announces Layoffs as It Prepares to Go Public — Time Inc.'s chief executive, Joe Ripp, informed staff members in a memo Tuesday morning that long-expected layoffs would begin immediately as part of a company-wide restructuring. — Last year, Time Inc., which publishes long …

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

Andy Carvin, a pioneer in using Twitter for real-time journalism, joins Omidyar's First Look Media — First Look Media — the new media entity that eBay founder Pierre Omidyar is building and has promised to fund to the tune of at least $250 million — is still in its formative stages …

Discussion: Andy Carvin's Waste …, Washington Post, Poynter, @jasonleopold, @davidbauer, @michaelwolffnyc, @_arianna and @antderosa

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Pierre Omidyar's First Look Media Names Michael Rosen Chief Revenue Officer — Andy Carvin Joins to Work on Social Media — First Look Media, the journalism venture from eBay founder and Chairman Pierre Omidyar, has hired Michael Rosen as its chief revenue officer, making him the startup's first hire on its business side.

David D. Kirkpatrick / New York Times:

Video of Journalists' Arrest in Egypt Seen as Threat to Media — CAIRO — A leaked video of the arrest of two journalists offered a cinematic close-up on Monday of the new military-backed government's crackdown on dissent: slow-moving footage of a hotel room full of telecommunications equipment set …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, @kenroth, @kfahim and @mostafasalem8

Maxime Zech / NL Times:

Dutch journalist flees Egypt after being accused of aiding terrorist network linked to Al Jazeera — Dutch journalist escapes Egypt — Dutch journalist Rena Netjes is on her way back to the Netherlands after being accused by Egypt for aiding a terrorist network tied to news channel Al Jazeera.

Discussion: @jmalsin, TheBlot and Digits

Darren Boyle / Press Gazette:
Journalists protest at Egypt's Nairobi embassy over detention of Al Jazeera staff

Discussion: BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Video News Aggregator Watchup Raises $1M From Microsoft Ventures, Others — Video news startup Watchup, is announcing that it has raised $1 million in additional funding. — Co-founder Adriano Farano, a former journalist himself, has said that his goal is to create a new version of the daily newscast.

Discussion: @xdamman, @farano and Watchup

Nikki Usher / Nieman Journalism Lab:

In Des Moines, the Register's new newsroom space aims to be a symbol of its digital future — The Des Moines Register said goodbye to almost a century worth of memories in June when it left its 13-story home for a floor-and-a-half of commercial real estate in what had been vacant office space.

Discussion: @niemanlab and The Newspaper Guild

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

News UK chief exec Mike Darcey: 'Don't confuse Mail Online with a business that is based on professional journalism' — News UK chief executive Mike Darcey today revealed that The Times and Sunday Times were on the brink of turning a profit as he condemned The Guardian and Mail Online …

Discussion: Guardian

Joseph Ax / Reuters:

Apple, U.S. clash in court over e-books antitrust monitor — (Reuters) - Apple Inc urged a federal appeals court on Tuesday to put a court-appointed antitrust monitor on hold, arguing that his efforts were harming the company's business. — The iPhone maker asked the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court …

Discussion: SiliconBeat

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Adobe Partners With Microsoft's Azure To Power NBC's Sochi Olympics Video Streaming — NBC caught a lot of flak for its live video streams during the London Olympics, but for Sochi, the network promises to stream every event live. Just like during the London Olympics …

Discussion: Latest News & Headlines, Forbes and Gigaom

Jim Romenesko:

Cord Jefferson quits Gawker to write for LeBron James' Starz TV show — Cord Jefferson is leaving Gawker to write for LeBron James's new Starz TV show. Editor John Cook's memo also announces that Gawker has hired Jay Hathaway, Daily Dot news editor and one of “Twelve People Actually Worth Following On Twitter.”

Discussion: Mediaite, @megreenwell, @petersterne and @justinnxt

Roger Yu / USA Today:

Gannett Q4 income falls 12% due to lower ad sales — Gannett, the parent company of USA TODAY, said Tuesday its net earnings for the fourth quarter fell 12% from the quarter a year ago to $90.7 million due to the absence of political advertising from a year ago and a decline in print ad sales.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Poynter and Gannett Company, Inc.

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Netflix to Raise $400 Mil in Additional Debt to Fund Original Content, Euro Expansion — Netflix formally announced it is seeking to offer $400 million aggregate principal amount of senior notes due 2024 to institutional investors, coin it expects to use for acquiring original content and expanding into Europe.

Discussion: Gigaom, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, WebProNews, CNET, The Verge and Business Insider

Geoffrey King / Committee to Protect Journalists:

Turkish Internet bill would deepen press freedom crisis — The Turkish parliament is on the verge of voting on radical censorship measures that, if approved, would allow the government to block individual URLs without prior judicial review, mandate Internet data retention for periods of up to two years …

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Nets, Stations Push Back On Retrans Via TVfreedom.org — Will make case for broadcast programming and good faith negotiations — Broadcast networks and their affiliate associations have teamed up with broadcast groups, mobile digital broadcasters and others to launch TVfreedom.org …

Discussion: Radio & Television … and Variety

Lauren Hockenson / Gigaom:

Facebook's Paper is Facebook for people who hate Facebook — For the past couple years, Facebook has trained its mobile efforts on capturing various facets of social interaction. The social network has compartmentalized and optimized features (Messenger), mimicked the experiences …

Discussion: Poynter, Softpedia News, NYT Bits, @niemanlab, @mitali, @anttislaine, @epak, @matthewpennell, Business Insider, The Verge and Forbes

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:
Facebook and the race to make content go viral — meet the new boss, same as the old boss

Discussion: Digiday, Innovations, The Dish, @zimbalist, @jeffjohnroberts, @shafqatislam, @lhockenson and Business Insider

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Twitter and Facebook Win the Super Bowl. And Fox and the NFL Really Win the Super Bowl. — The numbers are in. And pretty much everyone who doesn't live or work in Denver won last night's game. — That is: Nielsen says this year's Super Bowl — boring by halftime and just about unwatchable …

Discussion: Forbes, PandoDaily and VatorNews