Mediagazer: John Siracusa's legendary - and lengthy - Apple reviews reach their 15th year (Chris Ip/Columbia Journalism Review)

5:00 PM ET, August 25, 2014

Top News:

Following layoffs memo, Jeff Zucker tells CNN employees they need to “do less and do it with less” — CNN chief: News operation will do less with less — CNN chief Jeff Zucker recently shared not so encouraging words with some of the news operation's employees, many of whom have been bracing for potential jobs cuts.

Discussion: The Wrap, TVNewser, @tvnewslab, @t_mcconnell, @brianstelter, @howardkurtz, @passantino, @mlcalderone, The Huffington Post and Inside Cable News

Jon Lafayette / Multichannel News:

Turner Broadcasting to offer buyouts to 500 senior staff tomorrow, CNN included — Buyouts Coming For 500 Staffers At Turner — Cost-cutting in Motion at Time Warner Unit — Some 500 senior Turner Broadcasting staffers will be offered buyouts tomorrow.

Discussion: Variety

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

NYT public editor says choice of words in Michael Brown profile a “regrettable mistake” — An Ill-Chosen Phrase, ‘No Angel,’ Brings a Storm of Protest — Two words — “no angel” — have become a flash point for many of the difficult, contentious, entrenched issues that have arisen …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, @naacp_ldf, @fmanjoo, @mlcalderone, @andykindler, @jamilsmith, @ggreenwald, @jennydeluxe, @jayrosen_nyu and The Week

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
New York Times defends Michael Brown Jr. ‘no angel’ characterization

Edmund Lee / Re/code:

New York Times's Digital Subscription Growth Story May Be Ending — The New York Times has bet on digital subscriptions to play a central role in its long-term future. But while selling access to the paper's Web and mobile versions was an initial hit, growth is slowing …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @mathewi, @mattzeitlin, @pkafka and @eduardosuarez

Amazon.com:

Amazon acquiring Twitch for $970M in cash — Amazon.com to Acquire Twitch — Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Twitch Interactive, Inc., the leading live video platform for gamers. In July, more than 55 million unique visitors viewed …

Discussion: twitch.tv, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Re/code, The Wrap, TechCrunch, The Information, Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, Softpedia News, Business Insider, Beet.TV, Hollywood Reporter, Business Insider, BetaBoston, @cyborgmatt, @sarahw and The Next Web

Joshua Brustein / Businessweek:

With high levels of engagement, Twitch users could make Amazon more attractive to advertisers — Why Amazon Is Paying $1 Billion to Help People Watch Video Games — For months Twitch, the video-game streaming service, was supposedly putting the finishing touches on a deal with Google (GOOG).

Discussion: Ars Technica and The Verge

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Time Inc. Faces a Looming Existential Magazine Deadline — What should a magazine company be now? The most storied one in America has to come up with an answer fast. — In the 92 years since Henry Luce co-founded Time Inc., there have been just seven journalists to hold the title of editor-in-chief.

Discussion: MediaWire Daily, PandoDaily, @raju, @pkafka, @peterlattman, @mathewi, @mlcalderone, @markleibovich, @gabrielsherman, @bgrueskin, @mikeisaac, @kvirella, @mattbuchanan, @sarahw, @harrymccracken, The Huffington Post and FishbowlNY

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

Quartz has a new look—and for the first time, a homepage — We just shipped version 3.0 of Quartz, which you are looking at right now. It's our second major redesign in as many years, a rapid pace of reinvention that makes good on our promise to continually evolve and improve on what a purely digital news organization can be.

Discussion: @markarms, @chiaraalbanese, @danieldrepper, @jackdearlove, @craigmod, Forbes, @baekdal, @gintautasd, @samuelrsolomon, @zseward, @joelcifer, @qoreilly, @davidbauer, @felixsalmon, @vivian, MediaWire Daily and Talking Biz News

Bill Carter / New York Times:

Profile of NBC News President Deborah Turness as she completes her first year in the role — NBC News President Rouses the Network — In her first year as president of NBC News, Deborah Turness received one message loud and clear: Welcome to the feeding frenzy.

Discussion: TVNewser, @joshsternberg, Talking Points Memo, @hgil, @brianstelter, Capital New York, Mediaite, The Wrap and FishbowlDC

David Carr / New York Times:

Its Edge Intact, Vice Is Chasing Hard News — In early 2010, I wrote a column about Vice in which Shane Smith, one of the founders, suggested that he and his band of insurgents were building “the next MTV.” And then there was a promise to become “the next CNN” — outrageous claims at the time …

Discussion: @jimavilaabc, @taratw, @shaunrandol, @margafret, @newsliteracy and @ellenbarrynyt

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

Yahoo rolls out its native ad network to other publishers, including Vox Media's SB Nation — Here Is Yahoo's Native Ad Network — Content Recommendation Box on Vox Media, CBS Interactive Sites Includes Yahoo's Ads — Yahoo's content recommendation box places its native ads on others' sites.

Discussion: Marketing Pilgrim, VentureBeat, Wall Street Journal and Business Insider

Chris Ip / Columbia Journalism Review:

John Siracusa's legendary - and lengthy - Apple reviews reach their 15th year — John Siracusa's legendary - and lengthy - Apple reviews reach their 15th year — Though he only write a major story every year or two, for the last decade and a half John Siracusa has built a reputation as one of Apple's most influential critics.

Discussion: @cjr

Andy Cush / Gawker:

Experts: Foley Execution Video Was Edited to Streamline Beheading — The clip depicting American James Foley's beheading at the hands of an ISIS jihadi may have been staged, according to forensic video analysts commissioned by the UK Times. The experts don't dispute that Foley was murdered …