Mediagazer: Newser May Be Obnoxious, But That Doesn't Mean It's Illegal (Dennis Yang/Techdirt)

4:30 PM ET, April 8, 2010

Top News:

Michael Wolff / Newser:

Sound and Fury: Here's What Sharon Waxman Really Wants — Follow him on Twitter @MichaelWolffNYC — Sharon Waxman, who runs a website called the Wrap, which covers show business, continues to accuse Newser of various ethical sleights of hand with regard to the way we present the news …

Discussion: Mediaite, paidContent, MediaMemo and Newser

Dennis Yang / Techdirt:

Newser May Be Obnoxious, But That Doesn't Mean It's Illegal — from the why-can't-we-all-just-get-along dept — There's been a bit of a kerfuffle going on between the news aggregator Newser and entertainment news site TheWrap. Newser summarizes news that it aggregates, and apparently, TheWrap was not happy with this practice.

Discussion: Mediaite and The Wire

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:
TheWrap's Cease & Desist Letter to Newser

Discussion: FishBowlNY, Mediaite, Adam Sherk, CJR, The Wire, paidContent, MediaMemo and Romenesko

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

In Big Bet, Oprah to Become Nocturnal — The Queen of Daytime Is Becoming Nocturnal; A Big Bet for Her Network — Ms. Winfrey at a ‘Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire’ press conference in 2009. — America's daytime talk-show queen is heading out at night.

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Three ways Apple's iAd might impact the news industry's continued advertising woes — Apple's Steve Jobs just unveiled iAd, the company's new advertising platform for the iPhone and iPad. It's an ad platform designed for apps, like the news apps that many news organizations make …

Discussion: Engadget, TechCrunch, MediaMemo, New York Observer, Mobile Marketing Watch, TiPb, Silicon Alley Insider, Poynter Online, The Huffington Post, AppleInsider, App Advice, GigaOM, TeleRead, MobileCrunch and Gizmodo

David Kaplan / paidContent:

HuffPo Launches Separate ‘Twitter Edition’; More Focus On Real-Time News — The Huffington Post is launching a “Twitter edition” that is intended to serve as an extension and a distinct entity from the main news and opinion site, the company told paidContent.

Discussion: Gawker, Media on HuffingtonPost.com, The Wire, Strupp, Journalism.co.uk, Reinventing the Newsroom, Editors Weblog, Romenesko and Brand Republic

Jason Fell / Folio:

Lawsuit Alleges Darker Side of Regional Lifestyle Publisher — Sometimes even the fastest-growing media companies hit a financial wall. Arizona-based magazine publisher 944 Media, which just last year said it was the largest and fastest growing lifestyle media conglomerate in the industry …

Discussion: Riptide 2.0

Jason Fell / Folio:
944 Media Files for Chapter 11

Discussion: MinOnline and FishBowlNY

Lacey Rose / Forbes:

Glenn Beck Inc — In his empire there's the ideology—and then there's the money machine. — Five and a half hours before showtime Glenn Beck still isn't quite sure how he'll provide tonight's entertainment, “The Future of History”—two hours of monologue (and answers to preselected questions) …

Discussion: Mediaite, GalleyCat, Think Progress, The Wire, Daily Kos, Guardian, Washington Monthly, Media Matters for America, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, TVWeek.com, Gawker and TPM LiveWire

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Wall Street Journal Pro Edition Now Available For Consumers ($49 per Month) — Back in October 2009, Dow Jones debuted a premium business news site dubbed The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition in an attempt to get companies to pay up $588 a year for access to more personalized, business-related news and analysis.

Discussion: PR Newswire, Romenesko, The Wire, eMedia Vitals, WebNewser, Talking Biz News, Media Buyer Planner, Editor and Publisher and 901am

Hiroko Tabuchi / New York Times:

Nikkei Restricts Links to Its New Web Site — TOKYO — As news sites the world over scramble for revenue online, the largest Japanese business newspaper, The Nikkei, unveiled a new pay-to-view Web site last week. But it shocked readers with its hard-line policy banning links — even to its home page.

New York Times:

Hollywood Tries to Block Veriana and Cantor Futures Markets — LOS ANGELES — In a show of solidarity, many of the film industry's major players, and some sympathetic lawmakers, have aligned in an 11th-hour push to block new financial instruments that would allow traders to swap contracts tied to box-office results.

Discussion: The Wire and The Atlantic Online

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:

The Journal New York Newsroom vs. the Times: A Tale of the Tape — The Wall Street Journal's brand-new New York city section is set to debut on April 26, with the not-so-hidden goal of escalating Rupert Murdoch's turf war with Arthur Sulzberger Jr. and the New York Times.

Discussion: Romenesko and News Corp. Blog

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Freedom Communications' Valley Morning Star Drops Its Pay Wall — The Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas, which was a test-bed for Freedom Communications' plans to potentially charge users for online access to its papers, returned to a free site last week less than a year after beginning to charge for online content.

Discussion: Romenesko and Editors Weblog

Helia Ebrahimi / Telegraph:

Gorkana founders online for £20m windfall — Online media business Gorkana has been sold to a private equity firm in a deal that will net its two entrepreneur founders a windfall of up to £20m. — Gorkana, an online jobs site with a database of more than 130,000 journalists …

Discussion: BusinessJournalism.org …, Guardian, paidContent, Editor and Publisher and FishBowlNY

Lauren Hatch / The Wire:

How Mediaite's Traffic Jumped More Than 50% Last Month — Mediaite.com, the media news site launched by NBC News chief legal analyst Dan Abrams, had a recent surge in traffic that hints at a bright future for the nearly one-year-old site. — Unique monthly visitors jumped from 1,051,283 …

Business Week:

Conan O'Brien's Work in Progress — The former Tonight Show host is in play, but prospective TV and cable networks are struggling to find him the right time slot — The last time America saw Conan O'Brien, the red-haired, late-night talk show host was riffing on an electric guitar as comedian …

Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times:

The MPAA's Joan Graves watches out for the movie watchers — Graves heads the Motion Picture Assn. of America's ratings board, which grades movies to help parents decide what children can see. — Joan Graves has never published a movie review in her life, but she is arguably more powerful than any movie critic in the country.

Leila Atassi / Metro:

Cuyahoga County Judge Shirley Strickland Saffold files $50 million lawsuit against The Plain Dealer and others … A Cuyahoga County judge sued The Plain Dealer and affiliated companies Wednesday, claiming that they breached a Web site privacy policy when stories linked an e-mail account used …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Gawker, Romenesko, Courthouse News Service, mediabistro.com and Technology & …

Shane Richmond / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:

Does Rupert Murdoch understand copyright? — Rupert Murdoch has gone on the offensive to justify his plan to put his newspaper's websites behind a paywall. He told a National Press Club event at George Washington University: … In an interview with Martin Kalb for The Kalb Report …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, TVNewser and Beyond Search

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

TV Sports: Woods's Nike Ad Provokes More Questions Than Answers — Nike could not wait to package the contrition of Tiger Woods in a 30-second ad. — In it, a mute Woods stares blankly at the camera. Speaking from the hereafter, his father, Earl, says: “I want to find out what your feelings are.

Discussion: The Big Lead

Nat Ives / AdAge:

USA Today Outsources New Web Section to Demand Media — But Don't Call Us a Content Farm, Supplier Says — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — USA Today's website has started running thousands of pieces of original travel editorial from the Demand Media content farm, making USA Today …

Discussion: paidContent, Los Angeles Times, Romenesko, Editor and Publisher, Journalism.co.uk, NetNewsCheck Latest and Gannett Blog

Guy Trebay / New York Times:

Paper Magazine Editor Is Powerful, but No Power Snob — DOES anyone remember that, long before Madonna was a zillionairess with a fake British accent, she used to dance at the Roxy with a posse of Latino b-boys? Kim Hastreiter does. Are there many who recall when Jean-Michel Basquiat's paintings …

Discussion: New York Observer