Mediagazer: “Publishers have virtually no standards” (Chicago Sun Times)

3:27 AM ET, April 3, 2010

Top News:

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

Turn Your iPad Into a Futuristic News Portal — Magazines that spring to life with video. Gorgeous, instantly-updated newspapers. Custom-tailored broadcasts. The iPad could revolutionize news along these lines, which helps explain why it makes people so giddy. The new era begins with these nine news apps.

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Media News International, FishBowlNY, DailyFinance, Newsweek Blogs, 901am, GigaOM, Gadget Lab, PC World, VentureBeat, Mashable!, Bits and Gizmodo

Steve Smith / MinOnline:

iPad App Store: Epi, GQ, Time, Nat Geo and Outside Ready at Launch — Now we know which print publications actually made the iPad App launch cut for this weekend's hotly anticipated rollout of the tablet device. The iTunes App Store added scores of iPad apps to its catalog yesterday.

Discussion: TVNewser, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable, CNN, paidContent, NewTeeVee and L.A. Times Tech Blog

Zee / The Next Web:

Kindle for the iPad Now Available in the App Store. Puts Standard Kindle To Shame. — Kindle for the iPad is now available to download and my isn't it pretty. — I don't own a Kindle but from what I've seen of the standard Kindle it puts it to shame. How you can even compare …

Discussion: Mashable! and 901am

Brad Stone / Bits:

NPR Moves Into a More Visual Medium: the iPad — Among the wave of news organizations migrating to the iPad to exploit its spacious, visually rich screen is one news brand that is more focused on sound: National Public Radio. — An NPR app for the iPad debuts Saturday, when the device goes on sale …

Discussion: Ars Technica and NPR

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Time Inc.'s Tablet Push Starts With Time Mag App At $4.99 An Issue — Sports Illustrated has been the Time Inc. (NYSE: TWX) tablet poster child for months but Time is first to market with an app. Time for iPhone is free but iPad Time runs $4.99 an issue, same as the newsstand price and available on Fridays.

Discussion: Media News International, MediaPost, Time, The Wire, Publishers Weekly, Online and Nieman Journalism Lab

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:
WSJ iPad subscription officially $17.29 per month — is Murdoch insane?

Discussion: MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, 901am, Techdirt, Talking Biz News and TUAW

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Shuster's CNN Dalliance May Bring MSNBC Response — David Shuster, an anchor on MSNBC, recently participated in a test of a new show. But not for his own network. — MSNBC executives were highly displeased when they learned about his test for the competing news channel CNN through …

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Felix Gillette / New York Observer:

Inside the CNN Stockroom: Network Recently Shot Pilot Staring MSNBC's Shuster and NPR's Martin — Amid the recent news of CNN's rough first quarter, there's been much speculation about what CNN U.S. chief Jon Klein should do to revitalize the cable news network's line up.

Discussion: TVNewser, TVWeek.com, Mediaite, mediabistro.com, Michael Calderone's Blog, The Huffington Post and Inside Cable News

John C. Dvorak / MarketWatch:

Publishing's last hope — Commentary: Old media is expecting too much from the iPad — BERKELEY, Calif. (MarketWatch) — Print media seem to be pinning a lot of hopes on the iPad. — In addition to creating a fantastic media promotional blitz to jack up the public for the iPad …

Discussion: Doc Searls Weblog

Wall Street Journal:
For Amazon, Arrival of the iPad Opens Door to More e-Book Sales

Discussion: TechFlash, TeleRead, Free Press, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check and Tech Trader Daily

Chicago Sun Times:

“Publishers have virtually no standards” — I'm an editor in the textbook industry, and allow me to confirm this for you: Textbook publishers have virtually no standards. We are, in effect, mercenaries providing big states (California, Texas, Florida) the product the ask for and then passing off that work on the rest of the nation.

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

NBC Blocks Free TV Episodes on iPad — The NBC broadcast network has, for now, ditched its plans to stream full television episodes onto the Apple iPad. — Last week NBC executives showed a reporter a mock-up for an iPad-optimized version of its mobile Web site and indicated …

Discussion: Online Video News, New York Times, Gizmodo, TVWeek.com and Free Press

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Google Acquires Online Video Hosting Platform Episodic — Google has acquired Episodic an online video hosting platform, according to a blog post on the startup's site. Google has confirmed the acquisition. We are told that Episodic's technology will be folded into YouTube …

Discussion: Episodic, ReadWriteWeb, The Business Of Online Video, MediaMemo, MediaPost and paidContent

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Updated: NYT Raises E-Edition Rates By 33 Percent But, Hey, First iPad App Free — Subscribers to the New York Times E-Edition, an exact digital replica of the print version, got word today that rates are being hiked to $19.99 a month— a 33.4 percent increase from $14.99.

Discussion: TechCrunch and Silicon Alley Insider

Annalee Newitz / io9:

5 Ways The Google Book Settlement Will Change The Future of Reading — If you care about the future of books, you need to understand the Google Book Settlement. It's a complicated legal document, but we've talked to some of its architects, detractors, and defenders - and break it all down for you.

Discussion: Gizmodo

CNA Daily News:

Satan behind media attacks on the Pope, asserts Italian exorcist — Rome, Italy, Mar 31, 2010 / 11:47 am (CNA).- Noted Italian exorcist Father Gabriele Amorth, commented this week that the recent defamatory reporting on Pope Benedict XVI, especially by the New York Times, was “prompted by the devil.”

Discussion: NPR, New York Times, Yahoo! News, Newsweek Blogs, Gawker, Michael Calderone's Blog, The Awl and Associated Press

Eric Spitznagel / Vanity Fair:

CNBC's Erin Burnett Doesn't Think All Rich People Are Evil — Courtesy NBC. Erin Burnett has a face that's made for high-definition. The first time I saw her, she was filling in as a guest anchor on NBC's Today, and the sight of her in HD nearly gave me an aneurysm.

Discussion: TVNewser, Jezebel, Clusterstock, Inside Cable News and Talking Biz News

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Ads Venturing Further Into Magazines' Editorial Pages — You've Got to See These Magazine Ads — No Really, You've Got No Choice — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Magazines are getting more comfortable with ads that run right through their editorial pages, a onetime taboo that's under pressure …

Discussion: Romenesko

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

We Just Tested Twitter's @anywhere Platform (Screenshots) — During his keynote at SXSW last month, Twitter CEO Evan Wiliams announced an upcoming new platform called @anywhere, which would allow third party sites to integrate Twitter features (he also showed off some of the partners …

Discussion: louisgray.com and VentureBeat

Thomas Morgan / AdAge:

TV Works on the Web, but TV Advertising Won't — Will TV Everywhere Simply Become an Extension of TV Advertising? Let's Hope Not — As the vision of TV Everywhere comes to market, there are significant pressures on both broadcast and cable networks to close the “parity gap” …

Neal Gabler / Los Angeles Times:

Cable vs. broadcast: TV's different mindsets — Broadcast offers comfort and closure, while cable speaks to our doubts and anxieties. — Back in May 2001, then- NBC President Robert Wright was fuming. He fired off a bristling letter to producers and executives throughout broadcast television …

Matea Gold / Company Town:

ABC News business correspondent Betsy Stark laid off as network begins cutting correspondent ranks — ABC News laid off business correspondent Betsy Stark on Thursday as part of a wrenching series of cuts in the news division that will ultimately see the departure of a quarter of the staff.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Chickaboomer

Bloomberg:

Murdoch Faces New Claims From Ex-Supermarket Promotion Rival — News Corp.'s $500 million settlement of Valassis Communications Inc.'s unfair competition complaints has stirred a former rival in the business of supermarket promotions to try to reopen a closed case to take another crack at the company built by Rupert Murdoch.