Mediagazer: Local Papers Shine Light in Society's Dark Corners (David Carr/New York Times)

11:25 AM ET, February 10, 2014

Top News:

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Bill Keller, Former Editor of The Times, Is Leaving for News Nonprofit — Bill Keller, a columnist at The New York Times and its former executive editor, will leave the paper to become editor in chief of The Marshall Project, a nonprofit journalism start-up focused on the American criminal justice system.

The Intercept:

First Look Media announces new magazine, The Intercept — Welcome to The Intercept — We are very excited to welcome everyone to The Intercept, a publication of First Look Media (FLM). The Intercept, which the three of us created, is the first of what will be numerous digital magazines published by FLM.

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Welcome to Glenn Greenwald, Inc.? — The controversial columnist is the public face of a billionaire-backed new media play. And that could mean problems for a venture with ambitions way beyond the Snowden-verse. — Investigative reporter and columnist Glenn Greenwald was barely five minutes …

Discussion: The Intercept, @justinjm1, @thedailybeast and Softpedia News

Tom Moran:

New Jersey Star-Ledger regrets endorsing Christie, calls endorsement process “excruciating” — Chris Christie endorsement is regrettable: Moran — Gov. Chris Christie takes the oath of office in January. Even before he was embroiled in scandals, The Star-Ledger's endorsement of the governor was a close call.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, Business Insider, Talking Points Memo, TheBlaze.com, The Fix, The Hill, Mashable, New York Times, Gothamist, The Huffington Post, CNN, Mediaite, New York Magazine and The Week

David Carr / New York Times:

Local Papers Shine Light in Society's Dark Corners — A lot of important journalism begins with a simple, seemingly obvious question, like why traffic is snarled in New Jersey on the way into New York. — Traffic coverage may be the lowest species in the dog-bites-man pantheon of news, except when it is not.

Discussion: Re/code, @timothy_oconnor, @jeffjarvis, @ejdionne, @edpilkington, @carr2n, @mikehuckman, @om, @rsingel, @gloriapazmino, @jensmanuel, @semelm and @tcarmody

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

HLN Wants To Be The Cable News Network For The Social Media Generation — “Our headlines will be ripped from social media,” says Albie Hecht in his first interview after being named to lead the channel. A possible slogan: “We're not the news. You are.” — HLN Executive Vice President Albie Hecht

Discussion: TVNewser, Broadcasting & Cable, Los Angeles Times, PandoDaily, @tomgara, @mlcalderone, @brianstelter, @buzzfeedben, @shiralazar and @jonathanwald

Deanna Fei / Slate:

My Baby and AOL's Bottom Line — Late last week, Tim Armstrong, the chief executive officer of AOL, landed himself in a media firestorm when he held a town hall with employees to explain why he was paring their retirement benefits. After initially blaming Obamacare for driving …

Discussion: BusinessJournalism.org …, Mediaite, USA Today, New York Times, Guardian, prospect.org/blog/beat-press, TechCrunch, Capital New York, NBC News, CNET, Talking Biz News, @karaswisher, The Wrap, Gawker, Valleywag, Forbes and Business Insider

Dylan Byers / Politico:

CNN hires Smerconish for weekend show — Michael Smerconish, the satellite radio host and MSNBC contributor, has been hired by CNN to host a Saturday morning show, network president Jeff Zucker announced Monday. — Smerconish is perhaps best known as the guest-host for MSNBC's Hardball with Chris Matthews.

Discussion: TVNewser and @davidcorndc

Michael Malone / Broadcasting & Cable:

Scripps to Acquire Granite Stations In Detroit, Buffalo For $110 Million — Will make a duopoly in Motown alongside WXYZ — Scripps has agreed to acquire WMYD Detroit and WKBW Buffalo, the Granite Broadcasting-owned MyNetworkTV and ABC affiliates, respectively, for $110 million.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Wall Street Journal, PR Newswire, RTTNews and TVNewsCheck.com

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Time Inc. Appoints Editor in Chief for Entertainment Weekly — Matt Bean, a Sports Illustrated editor with extensive digital experience, has been named the new editor of Entertainment Weekly, Time Inc., said Monday. — His appointment is part of extensive reshuffling of executives at Time Inc …

Anne Penketh / Guardian:

Libération journalists fight investors' vision for future of French newspaper — Staff fear shareholders are intent on making money from brand and building, ‘with no mention of journalism’ — Three months ago a crazed gunman opened fire in the Paris offices of the iconoclastic …

Discussion: @benquinn75, @arusbridger and @jayrosen_nyu