Mediagazer: Hal Varian Is Right: Newspapers Need to Engage (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Hal Varian Is Right: Newspapers Need to Engage — As part of the Federal Trade Commission's ongoing hearings into the future of journalism, Google's chief economist, Hal Varian, gave a presentation on newspapers and their financial problems that is well worth taking some time to read (or view).

Discussion: Silicon Valley Watcher and Tom Foremski: IMHO

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Google's Chief Economist: “Newspapers Have Never Made Much Money From News” — Earlier today, Google chief economist Hal Varian gave a presentation to an FTC workshop on the changing economics of the newspaper industry. We all know that newspaper ad revenues have been falling off a cliff for years.

Discussion: Newspaper Death Watch, TeleRead and Thoughts of Nigel

Gillian Reagan / The Business Insider:
Google's Insider View On Why Newspapers Are Screwed (GOOG)

Discussion: Fitz & Jen

Hal Varian / Google Public Policy Blog:
Newspaper economics: online and offline

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Between the Lines, Romenesko, paidContent, The Atlantic Online, WHAT'S NEXT and Kirk LaPointe's …

Mercedes Bunz / Guardian:
Engage your users to survive, Google tells newspapers

Discussion: Federal Trade Commission

Robert Feder / blogs.vocalo.org:

Memo puts WGN news staffers at a loss for words — Sure, you'd think the chief executive officer of a company struggling to emerge from bankruptcy and desperate to salvage an $8 billion buyout-gone-bad would have better things to do than pester his underlings with crazy proclamations.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Gawker, You Don't Say and Mediaite

MediaGuardian / paidContent:

News Corp's Miller: Paywalls And Free Model Can Co-Exist — By Jane Martinson: Jonathan Miller, head of digital media at News Corporation (NYSE: NWS), said today that “dual revenue streams” are likely to co-exist as media organisations try ways of making money online.

Discussion: Variety, The Wire and Guardian

Discussion: Times of London, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal and Guardian

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

EMI Music Swaps Chief For Chairman Allen As Trouble Looms — In 2008, Terra Firma hired the guy who ran the company which makes Cillit Bang and Air Wick to turn EMI Music around. But now the record label finds itself seeking a reported £100 million to avoid breaching banking covenants.

Discussion: Media Decoder

Discussion: industry.bnet.com

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

Bay Area News Project has high hopes, few employees — A wealthy philanthropist has kicked in $5 million in seed money. A top management consultant has come up with a business plan. A renowned university will lend not only its students but research help.

Discussion: Romenesko

Michael Schneider / Variety:

Clock winds down for ‘24’ — Fox appears close to ending series run — “24's” time is almost up. — 20th Century Fox TV and Fox appear ready to end the long-running hit after this season, the show's eighth. — Studio and network execs declined comment — but it's believed …

Discussion: TVbytheNumbers, New York Magazine and Perez Hilton

Jeff Bercovici / DailyFinance:

BusinessWeek Prepares for Round Two of Layoffs — The other shoe is about to drop at BusinessWeek — or Bloomberg BusinessWeek, as it's been officially known since the financial news giant bought it last October. — Shortly after taking over the 80-year-old magazine, Bloomberg pruned its staff by a reported 30%.

Discussion: New York Post, mediabistro.com and Silicon Alley Insider

Bob Egelko / San Francisco Chronicle:

Guardian awarded half of SF Weekly's ad revenue — (03-09) 18:13 PST SAN FRANCISCO — The San Francisco Bay Guardian is entitled to half the advertising revenue of the rival SF Weekly to help collect $21 million in damages after a jury verdict of illegal price-cutting, a Superior Court commissioner ruled Tuesday.

Discussion: Romenesko

Joe Clark / A List Apart:

Web Standards for E-books — The internet did not replace television, which did not replace cinema, which did not replace books. E-books aren't going to replace books either. E-books are books, merely with a different form. — The electronic book is the latest example of how HTML continues …

Discussion: TeleRead

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Covering the Street Protests in Tehran: How Reuters Curates UGC via Twitter — LONDON — In Iran, with significant limits on what it can cover from its bureau in Tehran, Reuters is following a cadre of citizen journalists on Twitter who provide camera-phone videos of street protests …

Stuart Elliott / New York Times:

Advertising: ‘Mad Men’ Dolls in Barbie's World, but Cocktails Stay Behind — AFTER three seasons, “Mad Men,” the television series about advertising in the 1960s, has attained a level of popular-culture cachet. There have been magazine cover articles, calendars and an episode of …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Media Decoder and PopEater

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Girl With a One Track Mind smarts over ‘hooker’ headline — “Girl with a One Track Mind” blogger and author Zoe Margolis has said she is taking legal action against the Independent on Sunday after she was referred to as a “hooker” in a headline. — Margolis wrote an article for the Independent …

Dan Rather / Media on HuffingtonPost.com:

Watermelons, Washington, and What We Call News Today — I must confess that until recently I had no idea what Twitter was. Even now, I'm not completely sure how it's best used. When I want to post something, the younger, more tech-savvy people in my office help me out.

Discussion: Mediaite, Michael Calderone's Blog and NewsBusters.org

Elizabeth Jensen / Media Decoder:

Meacham of Newsweek in Talks for Weekly PBS Show — The Pulitzer Prize-winning editor of Newsweek, Jon Meacham, is negotiating to add a television job to his schedule. He is in final talks to be the co-host of a new PBS Friday night public affairs series called “Need to Know,” …

Discussion: CJR, Romenesko, The Huffington Post, The Wire, FishBowlNY, Michael Calderone's Blog and FAIR

Financial Times:

Bill threatens UK's reputation — From Mr Tom Alexander and others. — Sir, We regret that the House of Lords adopted amendment 120A to the digital economy bill ("Bill will censor internet, providers claim", March 6). This amendment not only significantly changes the injunctions procedure …

Discussion: Guardian, Telegraph, Journalism.co.uk, The Next Web and paidContent

Andy Alexander / Ombudsman Blog:

Readers react to photo of two men kissing — Powerful photographs can have lasting impact, and a Post photo of two men kissing is an image that many readers can neither forget nor accept. — The photo, which ran on the newspaper's front page and online last week, captured Jeremy Ames …

Discussion: City Desk, Romenesko, Mediaite and Towleroad News #gay

Greg Mitchell / E&P In Exile:

Strupp and Away, Mitchell Next — Hope you saw the Strupp posting below about his new job. Congrats to Joe, of course, and check out his links below. He's already off to a fast start. — As for me, I was hired for a very exciting new gig last month (includes a lot of Web stuff and new twitter feed) …