Mediagazer: Is There Any Escape From ‘Recommended for You’? (Margaret Sullivan/The Public Editor's …)

4:30 PM ET, February 21, 2014

Top News:

Report: Baltimore City Paper staffers will lose their jobs, but could be rehired by the Sun — Fern Shen reports Baltimore City Paper staffers met Thursday afternoon with their new boss at the Sun and were told that everyone loses their jobs, but could be rehired.

Discussion: bizjournals, Baltimore Brew, @camilledodero, @maura, The Huffington Post and @carr2n

Tom Scocca / Gawker:

Baltimore Is One Step Closer to Being a Zero-Newspaper Town — It's not even possible to get mad at the Baltimore Sun now. The Baltimore Sun is a nursing home where newspapering goes to die, or to sink into terminal urine-soaked frailty and confusion. Yesterday it announced it had received …

Discussion: @johnmcquaid, @crash_landers, @tomscocca, @jackshafer, @max_read, Digital Media Wire, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Erik Wemple, AAN, Poynter and Baltimore Sun

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Is There Any Escape From ‘Recommended for You’? — Based on what The New York Times thinks I'm interested in reading, I am not a fun person. — “Recommended for You,” which tracks readers' habits and predicts their interests, finds me especially interested in the troubles of Gov. Chris Christie …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Proposed FCC study of news organizations sparks outcry — A proposed government study of how media organizations gather news has incited a powerful backlash, particularly among conservatives, who said that it could be part of an official effort to intimidate or second-guess journalists.

Discussion: Media Channel, Broadcasting & Cable, Poynter, Fox News, Mediaite, Hot Air, The Daily Caller, Mother Jones, @jondelano, Los Angeles Times, The Verge, The Newspaper Guild, Hit & Run and The Hill

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times: FCC's new closed captioning rules had long journey

Guardian:

Phone-hacking trial told of ‘bin man’ who sold documents to newspapers — Rebekah Brooks explains reference to ‘binology’ on invoice sent to the News of the World in 2001 while she was editor — A man who used to go through the bins of lawyers and other high profile people would sell material …

Pew Internet:

Mapping Twitter Topic Networks: From Polarized Crowds to Community Clusters — Summary of Findings — Polarized Crowds: Political conversations on Twitter — Conversations on Twitter create networks with identifiable contours as people reply to and mention one another in their tweets.

Discussion: Al Jazeera America, @jesseholcomb, PBS, Des Moines Register, @accenturesocial, Business Insider, The Technology Chronicles, CNET and Washington Post

Leo Mirani / Quartz:
Turns out Twitter is even more politically polarized than you thought

Discussion: @gregdklein, SocialTimes and AppNewser

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Sources say Amazon readying a Web TV box competing with Apple TV and Roku, for March rollout — Amazon Gets Its TV Box Ready, Again — Amazon is gearing up to take on Apple and Roku, again. — Industry sources say Amazon is getting ready to launch a Web TV box that would compete …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Pulse 2.0, Mashable, Polygon, WebProNews, 9to5Mac, Forbes, VatorNews, ReadWrite, BGR, MacRumors, The Verge, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, CNET, GeekWire, App Advice, Business Insider and VG247

Kara Swisher / Re/code:

Om-Niscient: A Much-Deserved Mash Note to Tech Blogger Om Malik — Of course, I was jammed yesterday with a trip and then the big news of Facebook forking over $19 billion for WhatsApp in the endless hamster-wheel cycle that is sometimes my life, so I missed the news about Om Malik.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Om Malik, @doctorparadox, @hunterwalk, @mhelft, @jayrosen_nyu, @mathewi, Talking Biz News, Pulse 2.0, PE Hub Blog, Gigaom, @carr2n, @thekenyeung, @pkedrosky, @alexia and @mikeisaac

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Southern Living Puts its Name on Branded Communities — Diehard fans of Time Inc.'s Southern Living can live in a Southern Living-branded house filled with Southern Living-branded décor, thanks to the brand's formidable stable of brand extensions. There are home goods (furniture …

Discussion: @steve_katz

Jeff Bercovici / Playboy:

Nick Denton: Gawker, Crowdsourcing & Kinja — Manti Te'o had a fake girlfriend. Rob Ford smoked crack. Brett Favre texted photos of his junk to a young woman. That these and countless other onetime secrets are now public knowledge is thanks to Nick Denton, the founder and owner …

Discussion: Forbes, The Wrap, Erik Wemple, Capital New York, @taylorlorenz, @thestalwart, @mslaurenrae, bookforum.com, @psigrist, @pkafka, @jayrosen_nyu, @lhfang and @jyarow

Robert D. McFadden / New York Times:

Garrick Utley, Former NBC Anchor and Foreign Correspondent, Dies at 74 — Garrick Utley, a former anchor for NBC News who for many years was one of a rare breed in television news reporting, a full-time foreign correspondent, died on Thursday night at his home in Manhattan. He was 74.

Discussion: Robert Feder, Capital New York and @louiseslaughter

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Telegraph: Jason Seiken confirms MacGregor and Evans in editing roles — TMG editorial chief also announces three deputies and creates digital director roles for content and visual journalism — Telegraph Media Group's editorial chief, Jason Seiken, has announced a number of changes to the senior editorial team.

Discussion: Press Gazette and @mediaguardian

Angela Doland / AdAge:

Western TV Hits a Big Draw for Online Viewers — and Advertisers — in China — Brands Reach Out to Young, Educated Audience That Loves ‘House of Cards’,'Sherlock' — How to Make Credible Green Marketing Claims — While Americans shell out for Netflix subscriptions to see the second season of …

Hadas Gold / Politico:

Venezuela revokes CNN press credentials — Venezuela President Nicolas Maduro on Friday revoked the press credentials of the CNN team in the country, following through on threats he made Thursday to kick the network out of the country for how they're covering the ongoing protests and civil unrest.

Discussion: Poynter, Mediaite, @maitwiter, BBC, @nickkristof, @cnnee and @hadas_gold

Eric Lipton / New York Times:

Comcast's Web of Lobbying and Philanthropy — WASHINGTON — Only a few hours had passed after the $45 billion merger between Comcast and Time Warner Cable was announced last week when an early voice emerged endorsing the giant deal. — “Win-win situation for American businesses,” …

Discussion: @nickjrusso, @tackettdc, @nickconfessore, @amychozick and @brianstelter

David Gelles / DealBook:

Barnes & Noble Receives Conditional Offer — G Asset Management, a little-known investment firm, offered on Thursday to acquire 51 percent of Barnes & Noble in a deal that would value the bookseller's shares at $22 apiece. — Barnes & Noble stock jumped 10 percent on the news in midday trading on Friday …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Wall Street Journal and CNBC

Frank Bajak / Associated Press:

Activists say Venezuela is blocking walkie-talkie app Zello and websites Pastebin and NTN24 — INTERNET A CRUCIAL VENEZUELA BATTLEGROUND — LIMA, Peru (AP) — The battle for Venezuela is being fought as vigorously online as in the streets, with authorities cutting off the Internet …

Discussion: @nancypelosi

New York Post:

Maxim owners sue over bungled buyout — Maxim's parent company has sued media mogul Calvin Darden Sr. over the $31 million buyout of the glossy men's mag that was bungled by his alleged scammer son. — In a lawsuit filed Thursday in Manhattan Supreme Court, Alpha Media Group …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and FishbowlNY

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Charter CEO Rutledge: After Losing Time Warner Cable, We're Still Interested in Acquiring Subscribers — Charter Communications may have been blindsided by Comcast's $45 billion bid last week for Time Warner Cable — topping Charter's hostile takeover offer — but president and CEO Tom Rutledge …

Discussion: MediaPost, USA Today, Reuters, Business Insider, Hollywood Reporter, Bloomberg and multichannel.com/rss

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Ireland's newspapers lose print sales, but national titles hold up well — Ireland's three home-grown national titles have enjoyed a reasonable six months in terms of circulation, according to the latest set of ABC audited sales figures. — But the year-on-year comparisons reveal …