Good morning. Here are 10 media stories.
- Washington Post looks toward national audience with new Kindle Fire app
This is important: It will not provide local news. Updates every day at 5 a.m. and 5 p.m. Free for six months, a buck for the next six months. (WP) | Post people said owner Jeff Bezos “had made it clear, through meetings with executives and through feedback on ideas and proposals, that The Post’s broad strategy should shift toward growing its national and international audience — in direct contrast to its previous mission of narrowing its focus to local news.” (NYT) | The Post also launched “BrandConnect Perspective” Thursday, a native advertising initiative for opinion pieces. First up is Bayer, with “Modern Agriculture is Based on Sound Science.” (WP) | Related: Former Post Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli‘s North Base Media is an investor in Inkl, a “Spotify for media content.” (StartupSmart)
- Bill Cosby and the media
“I think if you want to consider yourself to be serious, it will not appear anywhere,” he warns Brett Zongker after declining to comment on rape allegations. (AP) | Ta-Nehisi Coates: “I would not dismiss all journalists who’ve declined to mention these allegations as cowards.” (The Atlantic) | Cosby, Terrence Howard, R. Kelly: “a lot of arts writing is PR driven, and talk of arrests and assaults is off-message,” Bill Wyman wrote earlier this month. “But that doesn’t excuse the straight news sections’ inability to relate the basic facts of these cases.” (CJR)
- Reuters lets Jack Shafer go
“I’m fine,” the media columnist told Poynter. “My philosophy is that the job belongs to the employer. When they want to do something else with the money, that’s their prerogative.” (Poynter) | “Ours is a great business,” Shafer tells Peter Sterne. “I’d take your job.” (Capital) | Thomson Reuters plans to eliminate as many as 55 editorial jobs. (BuzzFeed)
- The Uber stories continue
Michael Wolff invited BuzzFeed EIC Ben Smith to the dinner for “influentials” where a company executive mused publicly about spending a million bucks to dig up dirt on a critical journalist. The night “was a convivial evening” and “Smith’s portrait is at odds with the event,” he writes. (USA Today) | Dylan Byers: “it’s troubling to watch the digital lynch mob on Twitter promote the idea that a man should be fired from his job because he floated an idea, however unsavory, over dinner.” (Politico) | Silicon Valley publications are in a tight spot with this and similar stories because “many of these publications make a significant portion of their revenue from live events and conferences that feature appearances by the big-name tech executives they cover. Some publications also rely on investments from venture capital firms that have stakes in the start-ups they cover.” (NYT) | What Uber drivers make. (BuzzFeed) | U.S. Sen. Al Franken writes the company, asks whether it disciplined the blabby executive, Emil Michael. (Al Franken) | Uber’s more guarded about customer data when New York’s taxi commission wants it than, say, when it wants to blog about “Rides of Glory.” (Capital)
- MailOnline will rip off Daily Mail’s name
Kidding, kidding, they’re part of the same publication. MailOnline has massive traffic but profitability eludes. So it will become DailyMail.com in the U.S. to help bridge the brand gap. CEO Jon Steinberg plans to goose sales of native ads, which MailOnline reporters create. (WSJ)
- It’s Old Newsboys Day in St. Louis
Volunteers sell a special newspaper this morning around town to help raise money for local children’s charities. Here’s where you can find a newsboy: (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
- Media orgs are obsessed with intersections
Erik Wemple takes apart the cliché. (WP)
- Watch your pens around Josh Mankeiwicz
The NBC News reporter bombs a lie detector test when asked about stealing office supplies. (NBC News)
- Front page of the day, curated by Kristen Hare
A Depew, New York, resident tries to tunnel out. More snow is falling. Also, the band Interpol is stuck. (Courtesy the Newseum)
- Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin
Anthony DeMaio is now publisher of Slate. Previously, he was president of national sales there. (Politico) | Chelsea Janes will cover the Washington Nationals for The Washington Post. She covers high school sports there. (Washington Post) | Sophia Papaioannou is now editorial director at HuffPost Greece. She hosts “360 Degrees”. Nikos Agouros is now editor-in-chief of HuffPost Greece. Previously, he was editor-in-chief of VimaMen. (Huffington Post) | Steve Unger will be interim CEO at Ofcom. He is director of strategy, international technology and economy there. (The Guardian) | The Associated Press is looking for a supervisory correspondent in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Get your résumés in! (Journalism Jobs) | Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.
Corrections? Tips? Please email me: abeaujon@poynter.org. Would you like to get this roundup emailed to you every morning? Sign up here.
Correction: This post originally said the Post’s Kindle app would cost $1 per month after a trial period. Six months’ access will cost $1 after the trial period.
