Mediagazer: Apple's Beats Deal May Not Be Finalized Until Next Week (Peter Kafka/Re/code)

10:10 AM ET, May 15, 2014

Top News:

A pay dispute, friction with new CEO and hiring disagreements led to the firing of NYT executive editor, Jill Abramson — Why Jill Abramson Was Fired — At the annual City University Journalism School dinner, on Monday, Dean Baquet, the managing editor of the New York Times …

New York Times:

Jill Abramson unexpectedly leaving as executive editor at NYT, to be replaced by Dean Baquet — Times Ousts Its Executive Editor, Elevating Second in Command — The New York Times dismissed Jill Abramson as executive editor on Wednesday, replacing her with Dean Baquet, the managing editor, in an abrupt change of leadership.

Discussion: The Guardian, @dgelles, Vox, Politico, MediaWire Daily, Washington Post, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, Businessweek, Washington Post, Forbes, JIMROMENESKO.COM, BuzzFeed, @patcohennyt, @brianstelter, investors.nytco.com, Mashable, Vox, Adweek, Talking Biz News, @huffpostbiz, Poynter, @natesilver538, @lauriegnyt, @c_heller, Fox News, Vanity Fair, Politico, @antderosa, @nytfridge, @jasoncherkis, The Maynard Institute …, Pressing Issues, @matthewwells, @moorehn, @moorehn, @jbenton, @samir, @gaberivera, @emilcdc, WWD, @alexkoppelman, @joepompeo, @ezraklein, @antderosa, @nxthompson, @nataliekitro, CNNMoney.com, New York Magazine, NPR, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day, @robedits, The Huffington Post, @edmundlee, Talking Points Memo, Poynter, @gabrielsnyder, @tcarmody, FAIR Blog, Business Insider, Al Jazeera America, Wall Street Journal, The Root, Columbia Journalism Review, Fortune, Variety, The Wrap, Mediaite, The Wire, FishbowlDC, @mckaycoppins, @irastoll, @pogue, Gawker, Cision, The Newspaper Guild and Gothamist

Chadwick Matlin / FiveThirtyEight:

Jill Abramson Wouldn't Be the Only Female Editor to Face a Pay Gap — On Wednesday afternoon, The New York Times replaced Jill Abramson as editor-in-chief. She had been on the job for less than three years, and the newsroom was caught off guard: … Among media wags, the question quickly became why Abramson was dismissed.

Discussion: Business Insider, @chadwickmatlin, @morninggloria, @itsjina, @connieschultz, @drmabuse, @antderosa, @nytfridge, @mpoppel, @loyalelectron, @agolis, @emmamoodywsj, BBC, Forbes, Talking Points Memo, FishbowlNY and Kirk LaPointe's …

Kate Aurthur / BuzzFeed:

Jill Abramson's Firing And The New York Times' Chaotic Future — The abrupt dismissal of the executive editor portends a bumpy road ahead for her successor, Dean Baquet, and the rest of the newsroom. — Brad Barket / Getty Images for WIRED — When the news broke that Jill Abramson …

Discussion: @abarnardnyt, @stuartpstevens, @erinnthered, @thefix and @ajfriedenberger

Dylan Byers / Politico:

N.Y. Times: Abramson's compensation ‘was not less than’ Bill Keller's — The New York Times is pushing back against a report that Jill Abramson was fired in part because she complained that her salary was less than that of her male predecessor, Bill Keller.

Discussion: Gawker, Salon, Poynter, @petersterne, Mediaite, Forbes, Washington Post, Talking Points Memo, The New York Observer, MediaWire Daily, @neetzan, @dylanmatt and @thestalwart

Politico:

Why Jill Abramson's departure will ricochet — Brilliant journalist rockets to the top of a newsroom, then discovers that the traits that make a great reporter or writer are not the same — indeed, can sometimes be the very opposite — as the traits that make someone a capable newsroom leader.

Discussion: Vox, @dylanbyers, @nayantararai, @zbergson, @fmanjoo, @nickbilton and @nayantararai

Kelly McBride / Poynter:
The New York Times owes the audience an explanation

Discussion: The Huffington Post, SocialTimes, @lexinyt, @lexinyt, @drudge, Capital New York, @kellymcb, Mediaite and Talking Points Memo

Richard Prince / Quartz:

Yes, it's a huge deal to have a black journalist run the New York Times — It's a long time since 1945, when the New York Times hired George Streator as its first African American reporter. Streator's tenure did not end happily. In their 1999 book, The Trust, Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones write …

Discussion: @tcarmody and @mlcalderone

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

The unceremonial rise of Dean Baquet — It was 1984 when Dean Baquet left his job as a reporter for the Times-Picayune in his native New Orleans to become an investigative reporter at The Chicago Tribune, and the tale of his transition was summed up to Capital like this: The mayor of New Orleans called the mayor of Chicago to warn him.

Discussion: New York Times

Joe Coscarelli / New York Magazine:
Everything You Need to Know About Dean Baquet, the First Black Executive Editor of the New York Times

Discussion: TIME, The Huffington Post, @juliadavisnews and @palafo

Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:

Warner, Universal, Sony Buy Stakes in Music App Shazam — Shazam Entertainment, the music-identification app, landed small investments from the world's biggest record companies, according to people familiar with the matter. — Warner Music Group owner Access Industries …

Discussion: hypebot, Billboard, @chriswelch, Reuters and Digital Media Wire

Todd Spangler / Variety:
NCM to Bring Disney's Maker, Twitter, Shazam and Grammys to In-Theater Ad Network

Discussion: TechCrunch

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Apple's Beats Deal May Not Be Finalized Until Next Week — More time for people to speculate about what it all means: Apple's planned deal to buy Beats Electronics for $3.2 billion may not be finalized until next week, according to people familiar with the transaction.

Discussion: Cult of Mac, Business Insider, Electronista, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, BGR, App Advice and hypebot

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

Trinity Mirror reports 3 per cent revenue decline and notes ongoing investigation into hacking at Mirror titles — Newspaper publisher Trinity Mirror has reported a 3 per cent year-on-year revenue decline for the first 17 weeks of 2014. — An interim management statement released today showed …

Discussion: journallive, Guardian and HoldTheFrontPage

Jonathan Zittrain / New York Times:

Don't Force Google to ‘Forget’ — CAMBRIDGE, Mass. — THE European Court of Justice ruled on Tuesday that Europeans have a limited “right to be forgotten” by search engines like Google. According to the ruling, an individual can compel Google to remove certain reputation-harming search results …

Jack Shafer:

The (misguided) passion of Glenn Greenwald — It's not that journalists have thin skins — it's that they have no skins. — This adage gets trotted out once a month or more in better newsrooms to provide context for the overreaction of a reporter or editor who has found himself …

Discussion: Mediaite, @gammonator, @jackshafer, @fieldproducer, @dominicumile, @froomkin, @sauravdatta29, @leftleaningec, @joanneleon and The New York Observer

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Police didn't publicise scale of hacking to protect victims, says NoW reporter — Clive Goodman tells court names including Kate Middleton have only emerged now because they were not disclosed in 2006-7 — Police did not want the full extent of hacking including that of Kate Middleton …

S.P. / Economist:

French newspapers: Blood on the cutting room floor — IS THERE a curse on French newspaper editors? This morning, after a turbulent few weeks, Natalie Nougayrède announced her resignation as editor of Le Monde. She had been in the job for just 14 months and is the fifth editor at the paper in seven years.

Discussion: Reuters

Mercy Pilkington / Good E-Reader:

IndieReader Launches First of Its Kind App and eBookstore for Self-Published Works — Self-published authors have a new sales and distribution opportunity, thanks to the pioneers in indie book promotion, IndieReader. The company, long known for its awareness-raising efforts for self-published …

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear: ‘We are like an ant versus Goliath when it comes to the BBC’ — Channel 4 News editor Ben de Pear has mixed feelings about the BBC. He sees Newsnight as his main rival and variously describes the corporation as “stifling”, “crippling” and “a monster”.

Owen Bowcott / Guardian:

David Miranda allowed to appeal against ruling on Heathrow detention — Partner of former Guardian reporter to challenge high court ruling on legality of his detention under counter-terrorism powers — David Miranda, partner of the former Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald …

Discussion: The Voice of Russia, News

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Contextly Launches Its Editorial Tools To Find “Related Content” That's Actually Related — If you're tired of seeing “related content” widgets that are full of links that are, at best, kinda, sorta related, a startup called Contextly is trying to make things better.

Discussion: Context

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

James Risen Recalls ‘Game Of Chicken’ With New York Times Editors To Reveal NSA Spying — NEW YORK — In the fall of 2005, New York Times reporter James Risen invited a colleague, Eric Lichtblau, to his house to read a chapter from his forthcoming book, State of War.

Discussion: Washington Post, Pressing Issues, RT and WGBH News

Mary Ann Badavi / The Atlantic Online:

Choire Sicha, co-founder of The Awl, shares his concerns about how we digest information online — Choire Sicha, co-founder of The Awl, shares his concerns about how we digest information online. — “You want [writers] to flower into their floweriness,” said Choire Sicha, smiling slyly at the audience at last week's New York Ideas.

Discussion: @mthomps, @kashhill and @niemanlab

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC pay offer of 1% ‘completely unacceptable’ say trade unions — Rise only applies to those on less than £50,000 as Tony Hall calls for continued austerity in run-up to charter renewal — Trade unions have branded as “completely unacceptable” a BBC pay offer of 1% to staff earning less than £50,000.

Discussion: National Union of Journalists and Press Gazette