Mediagazer: Bully for BU! — A curious conflict of interest is followed … (Adam Reilly/thephoenix.com)

3:45 PM ET, March 11, 2010

Top News:

‘BusinessWeek’ Axes 25 Staffers — About 25 editorial staffers of Bloomberg BusinessWeek are being axed today. — The move follows a 22.4% drop in ad pages this year through its March 1 issue, according to the Mediaweek Monitor. — As the publication becomes more integrated with its new owner …

Discussion: Gawker, Mediaweek, The Business Insider and FishBowlNY

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:
Layoffs begin at BusinessWeek

Discussion: NY Post, New York Observer and FishBowlNY

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Big Media or Big SEO Spammers? — Updated: 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, NetNewsCheck Latest and FishBowlNY

Ian Chillag / NPR Blogs:

In Which I Try To Use All Of WGN's Newly Banned Words In One Sentence — Tribune Company CEO Randy Michaels has banned 119 “newsspeak” words and phrases from ever crossing the lips of anchors and reporters at WGN-AM. There's a list here, but if you'd like them in a sentence, how about this:

Discussion: National Review, Guardian, Romenesko, FishBowlNY, Silicon Alley Insider, Mediaite, Chicago Reader, Tower Ticker and blogs.vocalo.org

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

Facebook threatens to sue Daily 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 …

Discussion: Gawker, Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, dot.Rory, Silicon Alley Insider, Journalism.co.uk, Bloggasm, The Spy Report, The Independent, Press Gazette and Mashable!

Josef Adalian / The Wrap:

Exclusive: Coco A-Go-Go! The Conan Tour Starts April 12 — Conan O'Brien will begin his Legally Prohibited From Being Funny on Television Tour April 12 in Eugene, Oregon, working his way across the United States and Canada over the course of two months. — O'Brien will hit at least 20 states …

Discussion: Crain's New York Business, Mediaite, Media Decoder, The Live Feed | THR, Speakeasy, The Wire, Moraes on TV, Tuned In, Movieline, Company Town, ArtsBeat, Chickaboomer, TV Tattle and Show Tracker

Jon Fortt / Brainstorm Tech:

Top 5 moments from Eric Schmidt's talk in Abu Dhabi — Google CEO Eric Schmidt answered questions from attendees at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. Photo: Jon Fortt — ABU DHABI - Google CEO Eric Schmidt's speech and Q&A here was probably the most popular event at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit …

Discussion: ITP.net

Reuters: Smartphones will shake up paid content debate

Mercedes Bunz / Guardian:

Reuters sets up social media guidelines — Reuters has published some social media guidelines in its handbook of journalism. Dean Wright, Reuters' global editor for ethics, innovation and news standards, announced the new guidelines yesterday. — While the guidelines encourage Reuters journalists …

Discussion: For the Record, Reuters, Mashable!, Thoughts of Nigel and Talking Biz News

blogs.journalism.co.uk:
Reuters Handbook of Journalism: Don't scoop the wire

Discussion: The Wire

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”.

Discussion: Lifehacker, The Awl, State of the Fourth Estate and Daring Fireball

Associated Press:

China orders reporters trained in Marxist theory — BEIJING — China will toughen requirements for reporters by launching a new certification system that requires training in Marxist and communist theories of news, a media official said, citing problems with the current crop of mainland journalists.

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

Former Los Angeles Times Scribes Launching Non-Profit Investigative Team — The latest non-profit news outlet aimed at investigative reporting may well be FairWarning.org. — The brainchild of former Los Angeles Times reporters Myron Levin and Joanna Lin, the outfit plans …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Eric Alterman / The Nation:

Money for Nothing — On February 23 the New York Times reported that ABC News had decided to reduce its staff by a whopping 300 to 400 people, or approximately a quarter of its workforce. Three days later, the paper ran a full-page ad featuring a Photoshopped crowd of the network's biggest and best-compensated celebrities.

Discussion: Romenesko and The Wire

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: TVNewser, Inside Cable News, Chickaboomer, The Wire and TVWeek.com

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Newsonomics of new news syndication — [Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.] — It's tough to get the printer's ink out of news people's veins.

Noah Shachtman / Wired:

How Andrew Breitbart Hacks the Media — Andrew Breitbart has been waiting 45 minutes for a filet mignon. He drums his fingers on the table in this plush Italian restaurant off Times Square, a place where the media types he regularly trashes used to flaunt their expense accounts — back when they still had them.

Discussion: Big Journalism and Ben Smith's Blog

BBC:

Pink Floyd win EMI court ruling — Pink Floyd tracks may be removed from digital music services like iTunes after a High Court ruling went against record label EMI. — The band's latest record deal, signed before services like iTunes appeared, said their songs must not be sold individually without their permission.

Discussion: MediaMemo, Rolling Stone, Fast Company, Silicon Alley Insider and Gizmodo

Reuters:

Disney keeps ABC options open, including spin-off — (Reuters) - Walt Disney Co Chief Executive Bob Iger said on Wednesday the top U.S. media company is keeping its options open for dealing with TV network ABC and its struggling news division, including a spin-off.

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wire and Company Town

Karen Carmichael / American Journalism Review:

Investigations with Impact — The Huffington Post Investigative Fund aims to meld classic reporting with the power of the Web. — Karen Carmichael is an AJR editorial assistant. — Two months after its launch, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund published the story of Benjamin French …

Discussion: Romenesko and The Huffington Post

David Kaplan / paidContent:

@ Media Summit: Sulzberger: Metered Model Is Right Today—But 10 Years From Now, Who Knows? — Just a few weeks after NYTCo (NYSE: NYT) chairman and publisher Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. and president and CEO Janet Robinson discussed the company's new metering pay model at our conference, the pair continued to tease out the idea.

Discussion: Romenesko, Fitz & Jen and Guardian

Adam Reilly / thephoenix.com:

Bully for BU! — A curious conflict of interest is followed by a legal threat — from a journalism center! — After six years at the Phoenix, I recently got my first pre-emptive libel threat. It came, most unexpectedly, from an investigative reporter. And beyond the fact that this struck …

Discussion: Romenesko

Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:

EMI's New Chief Needs to Raise Money in ‘Make or Break’ Dash — Charles Allen, the new executive chairman of EMI Music, needs to raise money in a “make or break” dash, while stroking artists' egos to prevent the loss- making music company from being taken over.