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Tamron Hall to Host New Crime Show (Chicago Sun-Times / Voices)
Tamron Hall, the MSNBC host and NBC News correspondent — and former morning show co-anchor of Fox 32 News in Chicago — will host Deadline: Crime with Tamron Hall, a new weekly crime investigation series for Discovery’s ID (Investigation Discovery) network. The announcement was made by the peacock network at the semi-annual Television Correspondents Association meetings in Los Angeles. Hall has a direct, personal connection to violent crime. Her older sister was a murder victim in a case that is still officially unsolved. Deadline Hollywood In each one-hour episode, Hall will be joined by other correspondents to explore crimes. Among them: journalists Michelle Sigona and Angeline Hartmann and veteran America’s Most Wanted correspondent Tom Morris Jr. The new series also will feature appearances from ID regulars Aphrodite Jones (host of True Crime with Aphrodite Jones) and Keith Beauchamp (host of The Injustice Files). HuffPost Hall will host the program while continuing to anchor NewsNation on MSNBC. The first episode will look at the murder of a mentally ill wife and mother of two, and Robert Chambers, otherwise known as the “Preppie Killer.”

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Nate Silver Went Against The Grain for Some at The Times (NYT / Public Editor’s Journal)
I don’t think Nate Silver ever really fit into the Times culture and I think he was aware of that. He was, in a word, disruptive. Much like the Brad Pitt character in the movie Moneyball disrupted the old model of how to scout baseball players, Nate disrupted the traditional model of how to cover politics. A number of traditional and well-respected Times journalists disliked his work. The first time I wrote about him I suggested that print readers should have the same access to his writing that online readers were getting. I was surprised to quickly hear by email from three high-profile Times political journalists, criticizing him and his work. They were also tough on me for seeming to endorse what he wrote, since I was suggesting that it get more visibility. FishbowlNY This is all understandable. Old people don’t like change, and writers have egos. And maybe Silver acted a bit too above everyone else and that earned him some pages in the Times’ burn book. HuffPost / The Backstory On Monday afternoon, this reporter asked Silver about the Times public editor’s column, whether he felt constrained by the Times newsroom culture, and if he had enough support from colleagues. “I had plenty of support, I felt, from [executive editor Jill Abramson] and from other key people at the Times,” Silver said. “I don’t really want to dwell too much to my relationships there. It was not — I would say, I love the people at ESPN.” Silver added that any cultural issue was “not a big factor” in his decision. NY Mag / Daily Intelligencer “I’m interested in running a website, building out a business here, and having my opportunity to weigh in on different topics,” Silver said, responding to Times public editor Margaret Sullivan’s comments. “I’m not interested in who I’m getting a beer with. I have plenty of people in my social circles for that.” TheWrap / MediaAlley In a conference call with the press, ESPN president John Skipper said FiveThirtyEight will be similar to Bill Simmons’ Grantland, which is also owned by ESPN. The FiveThirtyEight name and URL were purchased for an undisclosed amount. Previously, Silver owned those rights and licensed them to The New York Times for a three-year contract. Its deal with Silver is a “long-term, multi-year deal.” TVNewser Put another way: If Silver leaves ESPN in a few years, FiveThirtyEight will not be going with him, but rather staying with ESPN and ABC. paidContent Silver stressed that “we’re not pulling back from politics. We’ll probably hire at least one more person to cover politics fulltime” and said that the new site’s only guaranteed coverage areas will be sports, politics and some economics. As for other topics, “if we find the right person, we might hire in that vertical… We’re looking for people who can think, do math and write. Those skills don’t always overlap, so it’s going to be an intense search process for us.” TVNewser Silver’s migration from the Times to ESPN represents more than a new URL — it augurs a sea change in the news business itself, experts say.

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Words of praise for New York Post staff reporter Kevin Fasick can be found throughout a recent profile piece in his Pennsylvania hometown newspaper the Altoona Mirror. And they speak volumes.

Post deputy metropolitan editor Danny Greenfield calls Fasick one of the paper’s “aces in the hole,” while a former Columbia journalism school teacher remembers the 2007 honors graduate as a “terrific reporter, tenacious without being a jerk.” In the fall of 2011, Fasick wrote a fond tribute to his former boxing mentor, Joe Frazier. That same year, he also scored a memorable exclusive video interview with Anthony Weiner. From the Altoona Mirror piece:

Fasick told the politician he could at least give him a couple minutes in light of his rudeness from a previous encounter. The interview, resulting in Weiner saying for the first time he was not going to resign from his post, went viral.

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Layoff Day at The New York Post (Capital New York)
Brooklyn court reporter Mitch Maddux and staff writer Pedro Oliveira Jr. are among those that sources tell Capital lost their jobs at the New York Post Friday in a round of layoffs that was foreshadowed last month when editor Col Allan announced he was seeking a reduction of 10 percent of the paper’s staff. JimRomenesko.com Allan’s memo about Friday’s layoffs: “The decision to lay off employees is not one that we make lightly, but it is a necessary step as we continue to reduce costs, refocus our priorities, and re-imagine overall how we run as a company. The future of the Post is as vibrant as its brand, both in print and digitally, and we will continue to focus on the core areas we see key to a strong future.” NY Observer The news comes in advance of the expected June 28 News Corp split, when the book and newspaper assets will separate from the more lucrative TV and film properties. The shakeout is expected to be rough. Read more

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Mass. Pair Sues New York Post Over Marathon Bombing Portrayal (Boston Globe)
A Massachusetts teenager and his 24-year-old friend filed a defamation lawsuit against the New York Post Wednesday in Boston, accusing the tabloid of falsely portraying them as suspects in the deadly Marathon bombings by plastering their photograph on the front page under the headline, “Bag Men.” The lawsuit filed in Suffolk Superior Court said the photographs and articles published three days after the bombings made it appear that FBI agents were pursuing Salaheddin Barhoum and Yassine Zaimi, avid runners watching the Marathon. Poynter / MediaWire Barhoum is a 16-year-old high school student in Revere, Mass., the Globe reports, and Zaimi “works at a financial services firm while studying business part time.” Both men enjoy running. NY Mag / Daily Intelligencer The Post, well practiced in strongly suggesting things without coming right out and saying them, was deliberate in its wording, which could make the case hard to win: The story read, “Investigators probing the deadly Boston Marathon bombings are circulating photos of two men spotted chatting near the packed finish line… Meanwhile, officials have identified two potential suspects who were captured on surveillance videos taken shortly before the deadly blasts… It was not immediately clear if the men in the law-enforcement photos are the same men in the surveillance videos.” FishbowlNY The pair are accusing the Post of libel, but also “negligent infliction of emotional distress,” and invasion of privacy. Barhoum and Zaimi seek damages and an unknown monetary compensation. We hope they’re asking for a lot and they get every penny. Read more

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Yahoo! in Talks to Acquire Tumblr: Deal Could Reach As High As $1 Billion (Adweek)
Is Marissa Mayer about to make a game-changing acquisition? It appears so. Yahoo! is in serious talks with Tumblr to acquire the social blogging site, according to multiple sources familiar with the talks. While its revenue is modest, Tumblr has positioned itself as one of the few players in the digital ad world that is well-suited for brand advertising. And Tumblr is also the domain of the young, cool and creative crowd — not currently a Yahoo! sweet spot. AllThingsD Earlier this week, Yahoo! CFO Ken Goldman spoke at JPMorgan’s Global Technology conference and underscored the need for the aging Silicon Valley Internet giant to attract more users from the coveted 18-to-24-years-old age bracket. Along with more marketing, he explicitly said Yahoo! needed to be “cool again.” The Verge Since taking control of Yahoo!, Mayer has pursued a string of acquisitions, including Summly, Astrid, Jybe and others. In addition to the failed Dailymotion acquisition, the company has also been rumored to be looking at Hulu, although Mayer has previously said that the company is shopping for smaller targets valued in the $100 million range. Read more

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Top Editors Abruptly Leave Village Voice Over Staff Cuts (NYT)
The tumult that has characterized The Village Voice in recent years resurfaced on Thursday when the top two editors said they were leaving the weekly newspaper. Will Bourne, who became editor last November, and Jessica Lustig, the deputy editor since January, met with the staff at 11 a.m. on Thursday to announce their departure. In a phone interview, Bourne said that Christine Brennan, executive editor of Voice Media Group, had told them to lay off, or drastically reduce the roles of, five employees on the 20-person staff. Rather than carry out the cuts, he and Lustig resigned and left immediately, in the middle of closing next week’s paper. Gawker We hear that Michael Musto, the Village Voice‘s longtime society columnist and the last remaining vestige of the “classic” Voice, is one of the five Voice staffers targeted for layoffs — the proposed layoffs that caused the Voice‘s editors to quit today. Musto’s column, La Dolce Musto — a quirky mix of nightlife gossip, party talk, gay issues, and whatever the hell else has been happening in his life in the past week — has been running in the Voice for almost 30 years. NY Observer The downtown alt-weekly has been floundering of late. Last August, they had a significant round of layoffs and switched some full-time positions to part-time. Former editor-in-chief Tony Ortega left in September to focus full-time on debunking Scientology, prompting rumors the he was pushed out. Shortly after that, the newspaper chain underwent a corporate restructuring that separated the company’s papers from Backpage.com, the controversial and highly profitable adult online classifieds site that was a key source of revenue. FishbowlNY Bourne succeeded Ortega as editor of the Voice in late November. Read more

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