Mediagazer: AOL sees $20 bln opportunity in quality gap on Web (Georgina Prodhan/Reuters)

Tim Redmond / sfbg.com:

SF Weekly owes us half its ad revenue — The San Francisco Superior Court ruled March 9th that SF Weekly must begin making payments on the Bay Guardian judgment by turning over half of the revenues it receives from advertising sales. — Commissioner Everett A. Hewlett, Jr. …

Discussion: The Latest Word, Editor and Publisher, San Francisco Chronicle, Editors Weblog and Fitz & Jen

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

Facebook threatens to sue Mail — Social networking site fears reputation permanently damaged by false claim that it let older men pressure teenage girls for sex — Facebook has threatened to sue the Daily Mail for damages after the paper wrongly claimed in a piece published on Wednesday …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Journalism.co.uk, The Independent and dot.Rory

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, The Next Web, ClickZ, paidContent, AdAge, Online, Silicon Alley Insider, Internet2Go, Mashable! and VentureBeat

Felix Salmon:

Why did Nick Denton truncate Gawker's RSS feeds? — Yesterday, Gawker Media truncated its RSS feeds, and former Gawker editorial honcho Lockhart Steele immediately tweeted that “the only thing that excited me about Gawker's RSS truncation was picturing @felixsalmon's head explode when he heard the news”.

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, FishBowlNY, Mediaite and New York Observer

Georgina Prodhan / Reuters:

AOL sees $20 bln opportunity in quality gap on Web — * CEO sees $20 bln opportunity in quality Web content — * Turnaround currently focused on simplifying technology — Newly independent Internet company AOL (AOL.N) is selectively hiring journalists and engineers after cutting a third …

Discussion: Bloomberg and Brainstorm Tech

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

Exclusive: CNN Developing New Morning-Show Pilot — CNN - which has been shuffling its weekend and evening lineups of late - is developing a new morning show pilot, with a format closer to MSNBC's “Morning Joe” and “Fox & Friends” than anything it has done, TheWrap has learned.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Comcast Is Absent From Campaign to Change Retransmission Rules — On Tuesday many of the country's biggest television providers signed on to a petition that asked the government to revamp station retransmission rules. Cablevision, Charter, DirecTV, Dish Network Time Warner Cable …

Discussion: New York Times

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

Nick Bilton / Bits:

TV May Be the New Google Reader Play's Best Venue — Google announced an experimental Web browsing feature on Wednesday that it will offer as an alternative view to explore content on the Google Reader Web site. The company is touting its simlplicity, but the advantage may be in the highly visual way it displays information.

Discussion: Guardian, Official Google Reader Blog, 901am, The Official Google Blog and The Next Web

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

Digital Ad Revenue to Rocket for Local Media — Digital revenue from mobile and Web platforms will grow at a 17.8 percent compound annual rate — The growth of digital advertising revenue for local TV and radio will outpace overall ad spending for those media between 2009 and 2014, according to a BIA/Kelsey study released yesterday.

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

Newsday, Union Trade Proposals, But Agreement ‘Still Far Off’ — Michael Amon, one of the leaders of the Graphic Communications Council of The Teamsters, which represents seven units at Newsday — including editorial — released an update Tuesday that declared both sides in the contract negotiations …

Discussion: FishBowlNY

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Big Media or Big SEO Spammers? — Faced with declining revenues and increasingly dismal prospects, some mainstream media outlets are adopting questionable tactics, specifically dead-end web pages stuffed with outbound links and pay-per-click ads. A liberally funded LA startup is only too quick to help them.

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog

Carl DiOrio / Hollywood Reporter:

MPAA: Domestic boxoffice up 10% in '09 — 3D helped Hollywood post an almost 8% boost worldwide — Movies released in 3D accounted for 11% of domestic boxoffice in 2009, up from just 2% in 2008. — A total 20 films were released in 3D last year, compared with 8 the previous year.

Discussion: The Wire

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Daylife And Demotix Partner On User-Gen Image Sales — News aggregator Daylife will begin reselling pictures posted by users of London-based citizen-photo journalism site Demotix to create an “open image wire service.” The arrangement is an expansion of Daylife's existing image programs.

Mauro Accurso / Online Journalism Blog:

The Human Journalism project in Spain — The journalist and photographer Javier Bauluz is the only Spanish winner of the Pullitzer. He has published a preview of his next project, focused on journalism and human rights, at periodismohumano.com. … Such is Bauluz's view of the current media crisis.

Bridget Carey / MiamiHerald.com:

We Media conference at the University of Miami offers peek at future — It's the fourth time the annual We Media brainstorming conference has come to the University of Miami, yet the media industry is still finding its way. — But instead of focusing on the doom and gloom of newspapers losing money …

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

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.”

Discussion: Crikey and Media Decoder

Drew Grant / Mediaite:

New York Times' Benefactor Carlos Slim Named Richest Man In World By Forbes — So why can't the Grey Lady scrape by with a little more profit? Forbes just announced it's annual rankings for the wealthiest people world-wide, and Carlos Slim Helu - who in 2008 became the largest shareholder …

Discussion: Bloomberg and Silicon Alley Insider

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