Mediagazer: Wall Street Journal Sheds a Restaurant Critic (Pete Wells/Diner's Journal)

9:15 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, East Bay Express, Editor and Publisher, Romenesko, SFist, Fitz & Jen and bizjournals

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

Discussion: The Latest Word and Editor and Publisher

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

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

Rather Blames “Online & Cable Echo Chamber” For “Watermelon” Reaction — Dan Rather is responding today to the questionably-worded anecdote ("he couldn't sell watermelons if it, you gave him the state troopers to flag down the traffic") - and he's doing so in a decidedly un-140-character way.

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: Mediaite, Romenesko, New York Observer and FishBowlNY

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

Reuters:

News Corp says paywall plan for UK papers on track — News Corp (NWSA.O) will start charging for content for its British newspapers on the Web in the next weeks or months, the head of its European and Asian operations James Murdoch said on Wednesday. — News Corp is at the forefront of a move to charge for consumer content online.

Discussion: Guardian

MediaGuardian / paidContent:
News Corp's Miller: Paywalls And Free Model Can Co-Exist

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's … and Guardian

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: BIA/Kelsey Local Media Watch, Local Onliner, Silicon Valley Watcher and Center for Sustainable …

Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:

Sony Brings More Newspaper and Magazine Content to its E-Readers — Sony just announced that it is expanding its selection of newspapers and magazines in its e-book store. Starting today, users of Sony's e-readers will be able to subscribe to 20 new newspapers and magazines …

Discussion: Sony and TUAW

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: Mashable!, Bloomberg, paidContent and Agence France Presse

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Long-Form Journalism Is Not “Entirely Dead” and e-Readers May Give Rise to Entirely New Forms, The Economist's Daniel Franklin — LONDON — In August, Josh Tyrangiel, then managing editor of Time.com and now editor of Business Week, told Beet.TV that long-form journalism on the Web is “not working.”

Alex Weprin / Broadcasting & Cable:

Bravo Adding Fifth Night of Programming — Picks up four shows, announces seven in development — NBC Universal's Bravo network is adding a fifth night of original programming, boosting the number of originals hours by 20%. The network also announced that it picked up four shows …

Discussion: The Live Feed | THR, Gawker and Multichannel

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

Lacey Rose / Forbes:

TV's Biggest Moneymakers — From Fox's “American Idol” to ABC's “V,” a look at prime time's biggest revenue generators. — LOS ANGELES — At this time last year, Madison Avenue didn't know what to make of the Fox musical dramedy Glee. Without a clearly defined genre (was it a musical? A comedy?

Discussion: Company Town and The Huffington Post

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, MinOnline, mediaelites, Media Decoder, The Wire, FishBowlNY, Romenesko, Magazine Publishers of America, UnBeige, GalleyCat and Talking Biz News

WESH-TV:

Late Trainer's Family Wants Video Kept Private — Tilikum's Future At SeaWorld Uncertain — ORLANDO, Fla. — SeaWorld Orlando and the family of park trainer Dawn Brancheau are gearing up for a legal battle. — They want to prevent video footage and photographs of the Feb. 24 killer whale attack …

Discussion: Everyday Ethics and Al's Morning Meeting

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Clifford thrashed out privacy deal with Brooks — Press Gazette understands that publicist Max Clifford thrashed out a deal with News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks to settle a privacy action which could have brought further revelations about News of the World phone bugging.

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

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

FNC VP of Digital Mike Straka Out — TVNewser has learned Mike Straka, the VP of Fox News Digital, has departed the network. We hear Straka is headed to HDNet where he is going to host a mixed martial arts program. — A Fox News spokesperson confirms Straka's last day was yesterday.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

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: paidContent, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Media Decoder, The Daily Swarm and industry.bnet.com

Dan Zarrella:

Data Shows Articles with Digits May be Shared More on Facebook Than Those Without — More new Facebook data, continuing this series. — The next Facebook sharing data point I analyzed is the presence of numbers (in digit form, 1 through 9) in titles. In a wide range of marketing arenas digits have been shown to perform very well.

Discussion: All Facebook and Editors Weblog

Publishers Weekly:

Penguin Launches Science Imprint — Penguin is launching a new imprint called Current that will publish science books for a general audience. Adrian Zackheim, president and publisher of Penguin's Portfolio and Sentinel imprints, will oversee Current. The new imprint will also rely …

Discussion: Crain's New York Business and GalleyCat