Mediagazer: Stephen Colbert won't save us, “Game of Thrones” is not that good: This “golden age” of TV is a big sham (Alexander Zaitchik/Salon)

11:25 AM ET, May 7, 2014

Top News:

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Jet Magazine to Shift to Digital Publishing Next Month — Jet, the pioneering African-American weekly magazine that rose to prominence covering the civil rights movement, is expected to announce Wednesday morning that it will no longer publish a regular print edition, the latest in a growing list …

Discussion: AdAge, Chicago Tribune, USA Today, O'Dwyer's Blog, The Root, stlamerican.com, MadameNoire, Wall Street Journal, The Week, @mrspradley and MediaWire Daily

Neil MacFarquhar / New York Times:

Russia Quietly Tightens Reins on Web With ‘Bloggers Law’ — MOSCOW — Russia has taken another major step toward restricting its once freewheeling Internet, as President Vladimir V. Putin quietly signed a new law requiring popular online voices to register with the government, a measure that lawyers …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, @ihnatko, @danahoule, @nycjim, The Verge, @hughhewitt, @jameeljaffer, @propublica, WABE 90.1 FM, @jesselynradack, @nytimesworld and Media Law Prof Blog

Olga Razumovskaya / Wall Street Journal:
Putin Signs Law to Restrict ‘Foul Language’ in Books, on Stage and in Film

Discussion: CNN, Slate, Telegraph, The Wrap and Mediaite

Nic Christensen / mUmBRELLA:

Fairfax announces 70-80 redundancies across production, lifestyle and photographic — Fairfax Media has announced a proposal that could see more than 70 positions go from its newspaper arm Australian Publishing Media (APM) across its editorial production, lifestyle and photographic sections.

Sharri Markson / The Australian:
Staff strike as Fairfax takes sword to snappers, subs

Discussion: ABC, Reuters, Sydney Morning Herald, GlobalPost, Mark Skulley, ABC, NEWS.com.au, @tanyachilcott, @michaelsin_, Guardian, @meadea, @larasinclair, @domsequitur, HeraldSun, @belindaseeney and @ivorytowerjourn

Press Gazette:

Hacking trial summing up: ‘Who polices the journalists? No Mrs Brooks[’ — Jurors in the phone-hacking trial were today told to consider who knew about the “rotten state of affairs” that went to the top of the News of the World. — Former editors Rebekah Brooks (pictured above: Reuters) …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Prosecution tells hacking trail it was role of Rebekah Brooks, Andy Coulson and Stuart Kuttner to know what they were doing

Discussion: Bloomberg, BBC, The Independent and thedrum.com

Londn Evening Standard:

BBC Trust scandals may scare off new chair candidates, MP warns — The Government may struggle to persuade a strong enough candidate to head the BBC Trust after the wave of scandals that have hit the corporation, a senior MP warned today. — “You only have to look at Chris Patten's experiences …

John Plunkett / Guardian:
Howard Stringer and Marjorie Scardino in line to replace Lord Patten

Discussion: Guardian, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, The Wrap, MediaTel, Herald Scotland, Sky News, Rapid TV News, thesundaily.my and Hollywood Reporter

Chris Cillizza / Washington Post:

Just 7 percent of journalists are Republicans. That's far fewer than even a decade ago. — A majority of American journalists identify themselves as political independents although among those who choose a side Democrats outnumber Republicans four to one, according to a new study …

Discussion: The Awl, Politico, @jayrosen_nyu, Washington Examiner, NY Daily News, The Week and Mediaite

Gideon Spanier / London Evening Standard:

ITV is sitting pretty, but problems lurk — As ITV's Adam Crozier prepares for his fifth annual meeting as chief executive next Wednesday, he can claim he deserves his £8.4 million pay and bonus. — ITV has been on a golden run since the ex-Royal Mail boss joined in 2010 with a five-year …

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:
ITV, UK's biggest commercial broadcaster, acquires 80% of Leftfield Entertainment for $360M

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Guardian, broadcastnow.co.uk, Telegraph, Hollywood Reporter, ifamagazine.com, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, thedrum.com, Financial Times, The Irish Times, Variety, Deadline.com and Wall Street Journal

Patrick Frater / Variety:

Why Alibaba's IPO Matters to Hollywood — As China's e-commerce giant seeks a $150 billion flotation it is building an array of video and internet options and moving upstream into content. — Asia Bureau Chief — HONG KONG — The proposed share sale in the US of Chinese e-commerce group Alibaba …

Discussion: Latest News & Headlines and Hollywood Reporter

Ben Fischer / New York Business Journal:

BuzzFeed chairman Ken Lerer pledges independence, says IPO is a possibility — BuzzFeed Chairman Ken Lerer said Tuesday the growing media powerhouse won't sell itself and strongly hinted at an initial public offering one day, while not exactly denying recent reports of failed acquisition talks with The Walt Disney Co.

Discussion: @mjenkins and TechCrunch

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Digital Publisher Inkling Lays Off Consumer Staff To Focus On Enterprise Business — Inkling is shutting down its consumer business and laid off part of its workforce yesterday. We first heard the news from a source who said the layoffs represented 25 percent of the company's workforce.

Discussion: Publishers Weekly and PR Newswire

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Here are the BBC's plans for the first ‘24/7 World Cup’ — The BBC has been upping the game for digital sports coverage in recent times, with the Olympic Games and its Winter counterpart showing what an all-encompassing, cross-platform broadcasting extravaganza can look like in an age of near-ubiquitous connectivity.

Ryan Sharrow / Baltimore Business Journal:

Sinclair Broadcast Group profit soars on Super Bowl, Olympics advertising — Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc.'s first-quarter profit rose 64 percent, boosted by advertising from the Super Bowl and Winter Olympics. The Hunt Valley owner and operator of television stations posted a quarterly profit of $27.7 million, or 27 cents per share.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Baltimore Sun, PR Newswire, AllAccess.com, Ticker Report, RTTNews and TVSpy

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Good Magazine plots an editorial comeback — In 2012, cause-driven magazine Good magazine made a fateful decision, laying off six of its nine editorial staffers in favor of pushing a “community-based publishing system.” The platform, which was essentially reddit for social good …

Discussion: Poynter, @paleofuture, @mims, @choire, @petersterne, @jaredbkeller and @kiragoldenberg

Alexander Zaitchik / Salon:

Stephen Colbert won't save us, “Game of Thrones” is not that good: This “golden age” of TV is a big sham — It's still the Idiot Box, even if you like “Girls,” Jon Stewart and “The Wire” — I think it happened around Season 3 of “The Wire.” Maybe it was “The Sopranos.” “Curb Your Enthusiasm”?

Brian Lowry / Variety:

Sports Networks' Crazy Math: Even More Games You Don't Care About Watching — The Pac-12 Network recently announced plans to increase its annual package of live events to 750 this year and 850 next, which certainly sounds impressive. — At least, until you realize less than 25% …

Discussion: @stevedittmore and Los Angeles Times

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Inside The Financial Times' digital strategy — Publishers today are subject to that most timeworn of business imperatives: Grow as large an audience as possible, then sell that scaled audience to the advertisers who want to reach it. It's a business model that has stubbornly persisted …

Discussion: @digiday

Elon Green / Salon:

Bloomberg News' hack nightmare: Why did it “double down” with Halperin & Heilemann? — It's good that Bloomberg wants to strengthen its political coverage — but this is like throwing out $2 million — The weekend brought some disappointing, unsurprising and vaguely peculiar media news …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What does a design director at ProPublica do? David Sleight on what happens when you engage design with reporting — Last month, ProPublica, the investigative nonprofit news organization, published a nearly 9,000-word examination of the re-emergence of segregation in public schools.

Discussion: @clockwerks, @litherland and @ezraklein

Jeff Baumgartner / Multichannel News:

Suddenlink To Offer Netflix On TiVo Devices — MSO To Add Support For OTT Video Service This Summer — Suddenlink Communications has become the latest U.S. cable operator - and the largest domestic MSO, so far - to strike a deal to offer access to Netflix on leased TiVo-powered set-top boxes.

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Reuters and Variety

Andrew Flanagan / Billboard:

Pandora Launches Beta of Brand-Curated Stations — Pandora has announced the beta launch of ‘Promoted Stations,’ a way for the service to better serve advertisers by providing users with a custom-curated stations from brands. The beta, available to 10% of users initially, is the …

Discussion: AdAge and NetNewsCheck Latest

Soham Chatterjee / Reuters:

AOL first-quarter revenue rises 8 percent on higher ad sales — The AOL logo is seen at the company's office in New York November 5, 2013. — (Reuters) - Digital media and entertainment company AOL Inc reported an 8 percent rise in first-quarter revenue, helped by an increase in ad sales.

Discussion: Re/code, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal and Business Insider

Jim Bach / American Journalism Review:

Reporter Pay Falls Below U.S. Average Wage — Sarah Rose, 27, works full time as a newspaper reporter in Kentucky, but is considering taking a part-time job to help cover living expenses. — Rose earns $24,000 a year at the Glasgow Daily Times, where mandatory furloughs this year are projected to reduce her modest salary by $2,000.

Discussion: @abhabhattarai, @pabloweather, @alexlobov and The Huffington Post