Mediagazer: Publishing Battle Should Be Covered, Not Joined (Margaret Sullivan/New York Times)

12:10 AM ET, October 7, 2014

Top News:

Brian Stelter / CNNMoney:

Turner to reduce headcount by 10% — Turner Broadcasting, the parent company of CNN, will cut its total workforce by about 10 percent in the coming weeks through a mix of buyouts, layoffs and other measures, the company said Monday. — The reductions are part of a broader effort to save money …

Gustavo Arellano / Navel Gazing:

OC Register subscribers inundate customer service with calls about missed deliveries — OC Register Employee: 30,000+ Complaint Calls This Weekend Over Delivery Screwups — How disastrous of a weekend was it for the Orange County Register? Not only did their new print times royally screw …

Discussion: @dannysullivan, @seasnork, @dannysullivan and FishbowlNY

John Tamny / Forbes:

Even If His Newspaper Investments Don't Work Out, Aaron Kushner Is A Hero For Trying — “It is the leap, not the look, that generates crucial information.” - George Gilder, Wealth and Poverty — In July of 2012 internet entrepreneur Aaron Kushner* acquired Freedom Communications, owner of the Orange County Register newspaper.

Discussion: @romenesko

Amy Calder / Morning Sentinel:

Risen: Journalists must fight or become irrelevant — Colby College's Lovejoy winner, a New York Times reporter, faces the possibility of being imprisoned for refusing to reveal his sources. — 207-861-9247 — New York Times investigative reporter James Risen speaks with journalism students …

Discussion: Politico, @eddyelfenbein, @20committee, @ggreenwald, Mediaite, Washington Post, The Huffington Post and American Press Institute

Brad Stone / Businessweek:

Washington Post working on curated news app for the new 8.9" Kindle Fire launching this fall — Jeff Bezos's New Plan for News: The Washington Post Becomes an Amazon Product — Jeff Bezos wants to turn the Washington Post into a national publication, and he's going to use his other company …

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google's “In The News” Box Now Lists More Than Traditional News Sites — Google has confirmed that new “In The News” box appearing in some of its search results now lists content from more than just the traditional news sites. Discussions at Reddit, blog posts, videos and more from non-news sites may turn up.

Discussion: @dr_pete, Engadget, The Next Web, @baekdal and @dannysullivan

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

Publishing Battle Should Be Covered, Not Joined — IS the fight between traditional publishers and Amazon “the end of the world as we know it,” in the words of the old R.E.M. song? — A prominent literary agent declares that “if Amazon is not stopped, we are facing the end of literary culture in America.”

Discussion: @oliverburkeman, @ryanchittum, @barryeisler, @joshgerstein, @laurahazardowen, @aoscott, @abwashbureau, @kevin_ashton, BusinessJournalism.org …, GalleyCat, Publishers Weekly, @jayrosen_nyu and @mathewi

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Sony's new Internet pay-TV service to have 100 channels, may cost between $60-80/month — Sony sets high price bar for Web TV — Sony's upcoming Internet-delivered TV service will carry 100 channels and a surprisingly high price tag of as much as $80 a month, The Post has learned.

Discussion: Multichannel News and Gigaom

Mark Armstrong / Longreads Blog:

Longreads member contributions will now fund original stories, with Automattic matching them — The Longreads Membership Is Now Twice as Powerful — Since 2009, Longreads has thrived as a service and a community thanks to your direct financial support. Without Longreads Members' contributions …

Discussion: Fast Company, VentureBeat, @brainpicker, @tommytomlinson, @rosegeorge3, @lyramckee, @jeffsharlet and @jcstearns

Hadas Gold / Politico:

AJAM launches midterms coverage — Al Jazeera America, the extremely well-financed and extremely low-rated network, is vying for a few more eyeballs during the 2014 midterms: On Monday, it will launch “America Votes 2014,” a series of election-related programs that will focus on the issues rather than the horserace.

Brian Steinberg / Variety:

ESPN and NBA agree on deal for “over-the-top” offering to stream games digitally — NBA Strikes 9-Year Deals With ESPN, Turner That Expand Digital Rights — In two deals that cement its media partnerships for nearly the next decade, the National Basketball Association selected …

Discussion: AdAge and Multichannel News

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
Why ESPN Thinks it Can Sell NBA Games on the Web Without Breaking Up its Pay TV Bundle

Discussion: Mashable, Deadspin, Bleacher Report, Wall Street Journal, @pkafka, CNBC, @danshanoff, Deadline and Engadget

Natasha Singer / New York Times:

Companies like NewsBios are selling intelligence dossiers on reporters to PR agencies — Just the Facts? This Dossier Goes Further — It was my birthday the other day, and, along with the usual private greetings from family and friends, I noticed a couple of public salutations about it on Twitter from entities I didn't recognize.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Gawker memo from Denton: traffic and revenue are great, Kinja and workplace ethos need work — Denton: ‘no other company has grown more consistently’ than Gawker Media — Competitors “come and go,” Gawker Media honcho Nick Denton says in a monthly newsletter sent to staff Monday.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, @niemanlab and @saila

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Breakthrough: Interception Commission orders police forces to reveal use of RIPA to identify journalistic sources — The Interception of Communications Commissioner has announced an inquiry into police use of spying powers against journalists. — The move comes just after a month …

Discussion: Press Association, Telegraph, @timescrime, @fleetstreetfox and Guardian