Mediagazer: Q&A with Baratunde Thurston on his new position co-hosting TakePart Live, Twitter, and his favorite kind of media (Brian Flood/TVNewser)

10:25 PM ET, November 17, 2014

Top News:

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Uber exec, at NYC dinner with CEO present, suggested digging up dirt on critical journalists — Uber Executive Suggests Digging Up Dirt On Journalists — Emil Michael floated making critics' personal lives fair game. Michael apologized Monday for the remarks.

Discussion: @daveweigel, PandoDaily, @sg, @daweiner, @ashleyrparker, @jason_pontin, @annehelen, @tomgara, @mims, @zpower, @heoj, @jmbooyah, @digiphile, @markberman, @jackshafer, @karaswisher, @sarahcuda, @kristyt, @bydanielvictor, @mims, @caitleg, @funnymonkey, @joeruiz, @shaneferro, @elcush, @emjbanks, @cerenomri, @elisewho and Business Insider

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

Podcasts are neither exploding nor dying - they've been steadily growing for a decade — Why podcasts are suddenly “back” — Did you hear? Podcasts were dead, and now they're back! — This story is suddenly everywhere. It's not extremely accurate, but I'll take it.

Discussion: @clarkhat, @beachwoodreport, @stan_alcorn, @jayrosen_nyu, @pmarca, @jsb and ParisLemon

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:
Podcast network Radiotopia raises over $620K on Kickstarter

Discussion: @kickstarter, @prx and @radiotopiafm

Emily Steel / New York Times:

Vice Hires Alyssa Mastromonaco, Former Official in Obama White House, as Top Executive — Vice Media, the news and entertainment group, is expected to announce Monday that it has hired Alyssa Mastromonaco, a former Obama administration official, as its chief operating officer.

Discussion: Variety, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, The New York Observer, @nitashatiku, @ericsundy, @no_redheads_pls, @diplomansky, @maxseddon, @viceukmedia, Mashable and Media Wire Daily

Peter Sterne / Capital New York:
Vice is expanding into science fiction with a new section called “Terraform” for Motherboard

Discussion: Publishers Weekly

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Economist EIC: We're no different from Sky or HBO - we all make most money from subscriptions — Micklethwait: 'Merkel listens to the Economist's audio app in the car' — The Economist's editor-in-chief on his big-name readers and rumours that the FT will sell its 50% stake

Discussion: @mediaguardian

Chris Amico / Homicide Watch DC:

After announcing it is shutting down, Homicide Watch DC is now seeking a local owner — Request for Proposals to Continue Homicide Watch D.C. — A week ago, we announced that we would close this site at the end of December, after covering the District of Columbia for more than four years.

Discussion: Poynter, @mikedebonis, @amlwhere, @homicidewatch and @aschweig

Simon Owens / Nieman Lab:

New York magazine's designers increase emphasis on online design with gifs, footnotes, video — It's small touches that can make a difference in New York's layouts — In a recent long New York magazine interview with Jon Stewart, the Daily Show host made an offhand reference …

Brian Flood / TVNewser:

Q&A with Baratunde Thurston on his new position co-hosting TakePart Live, Twitter, and his favorite kind of media — 5 Questions with... Baratunde Thurston, Taking a Sledgehammer to the Traditional Newscast — Baratunde Thurston is a modern-day Renaissance man.

Paul Linford / HoldTheFrontPage:

Mirror editor to oversee group's regional brands — The editor of the Daily Mirror is to have overall editorial responsibility for Trinity Mirror's regional news brands in a bid to create a “more streamlined structure.” — Lloyd Embley has been promoted to the role of group editor-in-chief …

Discussion: Guardian

Capital New York:

As NYT buyout deadline nears, speculation mounts about who is leaving the newsroom — New York Times buyout watch, 2014 — With a looming deadline for New York Times buyout applications, details about employees who have taken the package—or are believed to be strongly considering it—are starting to trickle out.

Discussion: Poynter and @joepompeo

Ronald Grover / Reuters:

Hasbro board votes to exit DreamWorks merger talks - source — Merger talks between Hasbro Inc and DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc formally ended on Monday morning, when the toy company's board voted to walk away, according to a person with knowledge of the board's actions.

Rem Rieder / USA Today:

How the 84-year-old owner of Philly newspapers is trying to save them by slimming down staff — Rieder: Philanthropist determined to save Philly papers — WEST CONSHOHOCKEN, Pa. — Gerry Lenfest never anticipated that, at age 84, he'd find himself the sole owner of a beleaguered media company …

Discussion: @ckrewson, @dhm, @ckrewson and @will_bunch

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

The Mobile Future of Wikipedia, According to Lila Tretikov (Full Video) — As Wikipedia's usage becomes more mobile — traffic to the online encyclopedia is now more than half mobile in North America, and even more in emerging markets — the site is adapting to the small screen.