Mediagazer: Veteran business journalist named new director of Reynolds Center (businessjournalism.org)

4:15 PM ET, May 15, 2014

Top News:

Myles Tanzer / BuzzFeed:

Exclusive: Times Internal Report Painted Dire Digital Picture — “Our journalism advantage is shrinking,” a committee led by the publisher's son warned. A call to get rid of the metaphor of “Church and State.” — A 96-page internal New York Times report, sent to top executives last month …

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

What Might Leadership Change Mean for Times Readers? — Secrets don't normally last long at newspapers. But this was different: Most of the hundreds who gathered in the Times newsroom Wednesday afternoon were stunned by Arthur O. Sulzberger Jr.'s announcement that Jill Abramson had been fired.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Mediaite, @ali_gharib, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Kirk LaPointe's …, @edgecliffe, @dkthomp, @fmanjoo and @mathewi

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Sulzberger: ‘Not true’ that Abramson's compensation package was less than Keller's — New York Times publisher and Times Company chairman Arthutr Sulzberger Jr. hit back Thursday at a report the previous day suggesting part of the reason he fired executive editor Jill Abramson …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Politico, Washington Post, @justinelliott, @leahmcelrath, @jackshafer, @kairyssdal, @brianstelter, New York Magazine and Talking Points Memo

Ken Auletta / The New Yorker:

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 …

Discussion: The Guardian, vox.com, The Atlantic Online, New York Magazine, Bloomberg, HBR.org, The Wrap, WWD Media Headlines, Poynter, MediaWire Daily, New York Times, The New York Observer, Salon, @davidfolkenflik, Fox News, Gigaom, Mediaite, Financial Times, CNNMoney.com, Vox, USA Today, Poynter, The New York Observer, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, MediaPost, Vanity Fair, Talking Points Memo, Fortune, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, Politico, Fortune, Media & Entertainment, @jackshafer, Politico, Media Nation, @davidfolkenflik, Capital New York, WGBH News, @jaspjackson, Wall Street Journal, Wall Street Journal, FishbowlNY, @davidfolkenflik, Talking Biz News, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @davidfolkenflik, @dylanbyers, @margafret, @resnikoff, @emilybell, @jeffbercovici, @abeaujon, @schadenfraade, @ravisomaiya, @mathewi, @film_girl, Mashable, About.com Journalism, Adweek, @capetown_girl and @karaswisher

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

The homepage is dead, and the social web has won—even at the New York Times — Traffic to the New York Times homepage fell by half in the last two years, according to the newspaper's internal review of its digital strategy. Here's the very stark chart: — That's not necessarily …

Discussion: @ia, @antderosa, @dkthomp, @nycjim and @lukeoneil47

Rebecca Traister / The New Republic:

Jill Abramson's Firing Was Singularly Humiliating — Trying to explain a singularly humiliating firing — So far, accounts of why Jill Abramson, the first woman executive editor of The New York Times, was abruptly fired on Wednesday, don't leave us with a firm sense of what happened.

Amanda Hess / Slate:

Jill Abramson was everything to young women at the New York Times. — “Every executive editor stands on the shoulders of others,” Jill Abramson told the New York Times newsroom when she was named the newspaper's executive editor in September 2011. But not all shoulders are the same.

Discussion: Gawker, Politico and @alexis_ok

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: AdAge, Business Insider, @brycecovert, @drmabuse, @chadwickmatlin, @itsjina, @connieschultz, @morninggloria and @antderosa

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

NYT mishandles firing of executive editor, forces own reporters to rely on anonymous sources — The New York Times Is Run by a Human PR Disaster — The New York Times, and in particular its publisher, Pinch “Pinch” Sulzberger Jr., is taking a lot of flack for abruptly firing editor Jill Abramson yesterday.

Discussion: Washington Post, @arimelber, Mediaite, Quartz and @markhor

Kate Aurthur / BuzzFeed:
Jill Abramson's Firing And The New York Times' Chaotic Future

Discussion: Smartertimes.com, The Wrap, New York Magazine and @abarnardnyt

Politico:
Why Jill Abramson's departure will ricochet

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

Dylan Byers / Politico:
N.Y. Times: Abramson's compensation ‘was not less than’ Bill Keller's

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, Jezebel, @petersterne and FishbowlNY

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

Discussion: Fortune, Businessweek, @lexinyt, Vox, SocialTimes, MediaWire Daily, @drudge, @lexinyt and New York Times

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: All Digitocracy, @mlcalderone and @tcarmody

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review: The Times' new editor must navigate business-side challenges, and still match the great journalism …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
The unceremonial rise of Dean Baquet

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 and @palafo

Guardian:

Guardian, Associated Press and local Missouri papers sue state over lethal injection secrecy — Guardian challenges lethal injection secrecy in landmark Missouri lawsuit — Challenge brought by Guardian, AP and three newspapers says US public has a right to know about how drugs are being used

Discussion: Poynter, Associated Press, Mother Jones, @guardianus, @guardian, The Wire and @cjr

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC votes for Internet “fast lanes,” but could change its mind later — Chairman: “There is one Internet: Not a fast internet. Not a slow Internet.” — The Federal Communications Commission today voted in favor of a preliminary proposal to allow Internet “fast lanes,” …

Discussion: Gigaom, Variety, TechCrunch, The Wrap, Bloomberg, @amy_schatz, Mashable, Business Insider, Washington Post, Hit & Run, Re/code and @jbrodkin

Adi Robertson / The Verge:
The real battle for net neutrality just began

Discussion: VentureBeat, Washington Post, PandoDaily, MarketWatch, Reuters and SocialTimes

Financial Times:

Financial Times appoints Gillian Tett US managing editor — Distinguished editor Martin Dickson to retire — The Financial Times today announces the appointment of Gillian Tett to the role of US managing editor. Tett returns to oversee the FT's print and online editions in the Americas from 1 September.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, @jackshafer, @edmundlee, @s_m_i and @edgecliffe

Lucia Moses / Digiday:
FT's focus on video means longer, un-paywalled pieces; new video studio opening in NYC in June

Discussion: @digiday and @raju

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Huffington Post Founders Settle Lawsuit Over Its Origins — A three-year-old lawsuit over the origins of the Huffington Post, involving claims that stretch back over a decade, has been quietly settled. — Arianna Huffington and her cofounder, Ken Lerer, have insisted all along that Daou …

Discussion: Gigaom and PETER DAOU

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 …

Discussion: Telegraph, CNN, Guardian, CBC News, Associated Press, ZDNet, Daily Mail, The Independent, The Hill, @nytopinion, @julianhuppert, Phys.org, Guardian, Tech2, TIME, @zittrain, Wall Street Journal and Slate

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: Gigaom, Billboard, Inc.com, Digital Music News and hypebot

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

businessjournalism.org:

Veteran business journalist named new director of Reynolds Center — Micheline Maynard, Reynolds Center Director — Micheline Maynard, a former New York Times senior business correspondent, will be the new director of the Donald W. Reynolds National Center for Business Journalism …

Discussion: Poynter

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Fox and Apollo Global Management in talks on TV joint venture — Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and the private equity firm Apollo Global Management have entered into a preliminary agreement to create a joint venture consisting of several leading television production companies, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Variety, Business Wire and @jbflint

Laura Dean / Associated Press:

Hunger-striking Al-Jazeera reporter attends court — CAIRO (AP) — Looking thin and weak, an Al-Jazeera journalist held without charges in Egypt vowed Thursday to continue his more than 100-day hunger strike despite being moved to solitary confinement. — Arabic service journalist Abdullah …

Discussion: Al Jazeera English, Los Angeles Times, @lauracdean, @lauracdean and @lauracdean

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: thedrum.com, journallive, Guardian and HoldTheFrontPage