Mediagazer: The Random Guardian — Bored? Try something random! (Guardian)

12:55 PM ET, March 28, 2010

Top News:

The Random Guardian — Bored? Try something random! — During a presentation yesterday about the future of news media with Clay Shirky, the idea of “a chatroulette for news” was jokingly mentioned by Chris Thorpe. — Inspired by this, and knowing that we produce lots of interesting content …

Robert Niles / Online Journalism Review:

If you can't manage comments well, don't offer comments at all — By Robert Niles: I've long advocated that newspapers include comment sections on their online stories, to provide readers with the opportunity to discuss, extend or even correct those news articles.

Stephan Faris / Time:

New Media Shaking Up Italy's Media Landscape — Italian TV host and journalist Michele Santoro — The last time Michele Santoro was forced off the airwaves, the Italian television presenter had to fight for four years before he was able to broadcast again. This time, thanks to the Internet, it's taken him less than a month.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Associated Content: Hey, We Were Here First! — Demand Media and AOL's Seed project have been getting lots of attention lately, in part because they've both become poster children (although Demand more so than Seed) for the idea of a digital “content factory” — a virtual sweatshop filled …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Can NewsLabs Give Laid-Off Journalists Another Chance? — So you used to write stories for a newspaper and now you're out of work? Odds are, you are going to have to find something else to do. — But some of you may be able to transform yourselves into one-person news factories …

Discussion: Kindle Review

Michael Wolff / Vanity Fair:

Murdoch to Sulzberger: You Are a Girly Man — It's not just that Rupert Murdoch doesn't like Arthur Sulzberger, or doesn't think he's a serious newspaper publisher. It's that he think he's weak—girly. Sulzberger—"young Arthur"—was a frequent subject during the many hours I talked to Murdoch when I was writing his biography.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Wall Street Journal and Gawker

Philip Elmer-DeWitt / Brainstorm Tech:

Newsweek hates, then loves, the iPad — The author of Newsweek's glowing iPad cover story sang a different tune at the unveiling — “Some say the iPad heralds a new era of computing, and I'm inclined to believe them,” writes Dan Lyons in the lead story of Newsweek's April 5 cover story.

Discussion: TechCrunch

Choire / The Awl:

Photo: Gawker HQ's Telescreen Displays List of Most-Successful Blog Posts — This screen, mounted above the reception desk at Gawker Media's headquarters, currently displays blog posts from across the network with the most unique visitors over the course of the last hour. The names of the posts' authors are included.

Rick Forgione / Niagara Gazette:

Journalism is alive ... and clicking — NIAGARA FALLS — I was having a conversation recently about some of the changes and downsizing going on at newspapers across the country when someone cut in with a less-than-inspirational remark. — “Well, the newspaper industry is dying anyway,” Miss Opinion said.

Jeff Jarvis / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch's pathetic paywall — So Murdoch has decided to milk his dying cash cow dry, one pound at a time, and leave the future to the rest of us. Poor guy — Rupert Murdoch has declared surrender. The future defeated him. — By building his paywall around Times Newspapers …

Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:

Eye-Tracking Tablets and the Promise of Text 2.0 — The best thing about reading a book on a tablet (so far) is how closely it approximates reading a “real” book — which is why the Kindle's screen is matte like paper rather than luminescent like a laptop. Some (not all) fear for the demise …

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:

More Than You Ever Wanted To Know About The Economics Of The Online News Business — A TWEETIFESTO — Yesterday, a Reuters blogger named Felix Salmon attacked Business Insider for, in effect, producing content that readers want to read. — Felix didn't put it that way, of course …

Discussion: mathewingram.com/work, Spiersblr, Vanity Fair and Felix Salmon