Mediagazer: Cord Jefferson quits Gawker to write for LeBron James' Starz TV show (Jim Romenesko)

10:10 AM ET, February 4, 2014

Top News:

Darren Boyle / Press Gazette:

Journalists protest at Egypt's Nairobi embassy over detention of Al Jazeera staff — Almost 100 journalists protested outside the Egyptian embassy in Nairobi to call for the immediate release of two Al-Jazeera reporters detained in Cairo. — Peter Greste and Mohammed Fahmy were arrested …

Discussion: BelfastTelegraph.co.uk

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: The Lede

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: TheBlot, @jmalsin and Digits

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: Poynter and Gannett Company, Inc.

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

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, NYT Bits, Softpedia News, @niemanlab, @epak, @anttislaine, @matthewpennell, @mitali, 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: @zimbalist, @jeffjohnroberts, @shafqatislam, @lhockenson and Business Insider

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

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

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

Tim Franklin, incoming president of the Poynter Institute, talks with TheWrap about the need for urgency — Tim Franklin, incoming president of the Poynter Institute, believes that paywalls and the Ezra Keins of the business are its future. — The outgoing Washington managing editor …

Paul M. Barrett / Businessweek:

Media Watch: Why We Need Shoe-Leather Local Reporters — Buckle up for a lecture about the civic virtues of old-fashioned journalism. This is a business story for the media industry. It's also a concern of the first order for society at large. We are losing a vital resource as local reporters fade from the scene.

Discussion: Guardian, @jordanr1000 and @josephcneff, Thanks:@jaredbkeller

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 …

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Super Bowl: Netflix Traffic Fell 20% in First Half, But Then Bounced Back to Normal Levels

Discussion: Capital New York, Softpedia News, Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, AdAge and The Wrap

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Trinity Mirror shares rise after profit upgrade — Daily Mirror and Sunday People publisher says results will be ahead of expectations thanks to digital growth in late 2013 — Trinity Mirror's share price rose 6% in early trading on Tuesday on the back of a profit upgrade for 2013 …

Discussion: Life Style Extra, Reuters, London News, PrintWeek and thedrum.com

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Former Washington Post owner starts scholarship fund to send undocumented students to college — The Washington Post's former owner wants to send dreamers to college — Donald E. Graham, a former owner of The Washington Post, has created a fund to help send “dreamers” …

Discussion: Washington Post and @kristenhare

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

BBC attempts to break into a global audience by harnessing the viral power of YouTube — Newsnight and Radio 1 are leading the charge a new strategy by the BBC to break out of the confines of the schedule and find a new global audience via YouTube. — The BBC2 flagship news programme …

Discussion: @niemanlab, @sunny_hundal, @highamnews and @iankatz1000