Mediagazer: Viral Video Hitmaker OK Go Does Just That; Parts Ways With EMI (Staci D. Kramer/paidContent)

4:50 PM ET, March 10, 2010

Top News:

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 Awl, The Wire, You Don't Say, Gawker, The Huffington Post, LA Observed and Mediaite

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko: Tribune CEO lists 119 words he doesn't want heard on WGN radio

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: Editors Weblog, Editor and Publisher, East Bay Express, Fitz & Jen, Romenesko, SFist and bizjournals

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:
“SF Weekly is not going out of business,” says owner

Discussion: The Latest Word and Editor and Publisher

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: Kirk LaPointe's …, The Wire, Variety and Guardian

Reuters:
News Corp says paywall plan for UK papers on track

Discussion: Guardian and The Awl

Guardian:

Max Clifford drops News of the World phone hacking action in 1m deal — Tabloid accused of buying silence after persuading celebrity PR agent to drop case over interception of voicemail messages — The News of the World was tonight accused of buying silence in the phone-hacking scandal …

Discussion: The Register, Agence France Presse, This Is London, Press Gazette, Journalism.co.uk and The Independent

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette: Clifford thrashed out privacy deal with Brooks

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: Silicon Valley Watcher and Center for Sustainable …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

EMI Gets a New Boss. When Does It Get a New Owner? — Terra Firma, the private equity fund that owns EMI Music Group, has brought in a new CEO for the music label. Elio Leoni-Sceti is out; Charles Allen, the former CEO of British broadcaster ITV replaces him.

Discussion: industry.bnet.com

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
EMI Music Swaps Chief For Chairman Allen As Trouble Looms

Discussion: The Wrap, Media Decoder and Variety

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, paidContent, The Next Web and Journalism.co.uk

Telegraph: Website blocking plans attacked by Google, Facebook and Stephen Fry

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, Gawker, Michael Calderone's Blog, Romenesko, New York Magazine, WebNewser, NewsBusters.org, TVNewser and Chickaboomer

Josh Dickey / The Wrap:

Variety Sued Over ‘Iron Cross’; Campaign ‘Ruined by Bad Review’ — The producers of “Iron Cross” sued Variety on Tuesday, claiming the trade lured the indie film into a $400,000 promotion campaign with promises of Oscar attention that would lead to a major distribution deal — then trashing it all with a scathing review.

Discussion: New York Times, Romenesko, Gawker, Cinematical, The Wire, LA Observed and Mediaite

Michael Cieply / Media Decoder:
Variety Is Sued Over a Bad Review

Discussion: The Hot Blog

Aaron / YouTube Biz Blog:

YouTube calling: Now serving ads on the YouTube mobile site — Mobile phones are rapidly becoming essential tools for surfing the web, connecting with friends, and sharing and watching video online, and we're seeing these effects at YouTube. The YouTube mobile site is more popular than ever …

Discussion: MediaMemo, NewTeeVee, AdAge, paidContent, ClickZ, Mashable!, Internet2Go, VentureBeat and Silicon Alley Insider

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 …

Discussion: WebNewser and NewTeeVee

Pete Wells / Diner's Journal:

Wall Street Journal Sheds a Restaurant Critic — Raymond Sokolov, who has reviewed restaurants for The Wall Street Journal since 2006, is leaving the paper. Mr. Sokolov said his editors had told him The Journal was abandoning restaurant criticism, and asked him to report on food trends instead.

Discussion: Romenesko

Mike Taylor / FishBowlNY:

CNN President Jon Klein More Afraid of Facebook Than Fox News — CNN President Jon Klein spoke with Bloomberg BusinessWeek Editor Josh Tyrangiel at the McGraw-Hill Building in Manhattan this morning. — In an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek editor Josh Tyrangiel at BusinessWeek's annual media summit …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Agence France Presse, Mashable!, TVNewser and paidContent

Bill Mickey / Folio:

New York, New Yorker and Nat Geo Lead in Print Ellie Noms — Out of 300 magazines that submitted 1,758 entries, 51 will be honored. — MPA announced today the finalists for its 45th annual National Magazine Awards, or Ellies, as they're commonly called. The New Yorker, New York and National Geographic lead in nominations.

Discussion: Mediaite, mediaelites, MinOnline, The Wire, Media Decoder, Romenesko, FishBowlNY, UnBeige, GalleyCat and Talking Biz News

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: Tuned In, The Wrap, TVbytheNumbers, New York Magazine and Perez Hilton

Felix Gillette / New York Observer:

Mutu-Elle Friends: Hachette Introduces Internal Social Network — On Thursday, Feb. 25, Hachette Filipacchi Media chief Alain Lemarchand sent an email to his several hundred staffers, informing them of an imminent new companywide social media network designed to better facilitate communication among cubicles.

Discussion: FishBowlNY and The Wire

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: Guardian, Silicon Alley Insider, Between the Lines and Media Musings