Mediagazer: Amazon Includes Disclaimer on eBooks Priced by Agency Model (Jason Boog/GalleyCat)

1:40 PM ET, April 4, 2010

Top News:

Apple's iPad makes covers of Time, Newsweek — When was the last time that Time and Newsweek went with the same cover subject whose name wasn't Obama? — Clearly, such treatment would be reserved for a development so indisputably vital that it would change civilization as we know it.

Discussion: Recovering Journalist, MinOnline, Engadget, MarketWatch and Gawker

Damon Kiesow / Mobile Media:

Early iPad app downloads dominated by media offerings — The first day of public iPad use showed strong consumer interest in content-related apps for the tablet device. Among the top 10 free downloads were apps for iBooks, Netflix, ABC Player, Weatherbug, Weather Channel, The Wall Street Journal, NYT Editors' Choice and NPR.

Discussion: paidContent and Gawker

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

The Fool's Gold At The End Of The iPad Rainbow — The media has been making a huge deal about how the iPad is supposed to “save the business,” because suddenly everything will return to apps, and people pay for apps, and toss in a big dose of “Steve Jobs!” and there's some sort of magic formula …

Discussion: BuzzMachine, TechCrunch, Danny O'Brien's Oblomovka, Kindle Review and TeleRead

New York Post:

Men's Health ready for iPad — The techno-geeks at the front of the line to buy their iPads tomorrow will find a digital version of Men's Health. Editor-in-chief Dave Zinczenko and brand editor Matt Bean quietly built a top-secret TV studio in their offices, and have been tap ing workout videos …

Discussion: Bits, The Next Web, FishBowlNY and Mediaite

Om Malik / GigaOM: Why the iPad Will Change Blogging for Me

Andrew Alexander / Washington Post:

Online readers need a chance to comment, but not to abuse — Anonymous online commenting has always been rowdy and raucous, especially when public figures are the targets. — “Excellent!” exulted a Post commenter when conservative columnist Robert Novak died in August. “Hope he suffered.”

MediaShift:

Magazines Require Innovation, Experiments in Digital and Print — Some magazine fans may feel like their favorite publications are dissolving into fragments of their former selves: fractured content distributed throughout the web, social media, digital editions and the surviving print versions.

Discussion: Tuned In, Mashable!, Newspay, WHAT'S NEXT and SivekMedia.com

Michael Hirschorn / New York Magazine:

Don't Cry for CNN — Thirty years ago, CNN, now in decline, was as revolutionary as Google. It had a pretty good run. — In the end, it's usually our principles that betray us. Former CNN chief Rick Kaplan told Ken Auletta in his 2004 biography of founder Ted Turner, “Basically, the Fox prime-time schedule is just talk radio.

Jason Boog / GalleyCat:

Amazon Includes Disclaimer on eBooks Priced by Agency Model — As the agency model takes effect today on many eBooks, Amazon has begun labeling eBooks priced by publishers with a new disclaimer—disavowing their role in pricing and sending a clear message to customers.

Clark Hoyt / New York Times:

Censored in Singapore — LAST month, on the same day The New York Times praised Google for standing up to censorship in China, a sister newspaper, The International Herald Tribune, apologized to Singapore's rulers and agreed to pay damages because it broke a 1994 legal agreement and referred to them in a way they did not like.

Jim Kozubek / Providence Journal:

N.H. newspaper story-sharing bad journalism — PORTSMOUTH, N.H. — On Feb. 8, newspaper executives from virtually all major daily newspapers in New Hampshire entered a trial of a mutual agreement called “News Exchange.” — At the end of the trial period, news executives will have an opportunity to extend the agreement.

Discussion: Romenesko

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Why Ancient Mayans and Media Barons Are Alike — Clay Shirky doesn't write a lot — he's averaged about one post every two months over the past year — but when he does write something, it's usually well worth reading. His latest looks at what the media theorist calls “The Collapse of Complex Business Models.”

Kevin Fagan / San Francisco Chronicle:

Chronicle outdoors writer arrested in pot case — (04-02) 11:57 PDT WEED, SISKIYOU COUNTY — Chronicle outdoors writer Tom Stienstra and his wife were arrested at their Northern California home on suspicion of possession of marijuana for sale, and later released with no charges filed pending an investigation, officials said.

Discussion: The Wire