Mediagazer: Are Sportswriters Really Necessary? (Justin Bachman/Business Week)

Mark Fitzgerald / Editor and Publisher:

What Does Philadelphia Newspaper Auction Say About the Value of Newspapers? — CHICAGO The furious last-minute bidding for Philadelphia Newspapers — which saw the price bumping up $10 million in cash each round, according to participants — thrilled some newspaper brokers as much as losing bidder Brian Tierney.

Discussion: The Biz Blog, eMedia Vitals, BrauBlog and Reflections of a Newsosaur

Will Bunch / Philly.com:

Papers' new publisher, CEO to push digital content — The brave new world for the Daily News, Inquirer and Philly.com under new ownership quickly got newer and braver last night as Internet and mobile-phone journalism pioneer Greg Osberg was announced as the new publisher and chief executive.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, paidContent, mediabistro.com, Romenesko, New York Observer and FishbowlNY

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Apple To Shut Down Lala On May 31, iTunes.com Launch Impending? — Lala - where music will stop playing ... In a brief message that was just posted on the Lala.com website, Apple has announced that the service will be shut down on May 31st, 2010. Apple will not be accepting new users …

Discussion: MediaPost, paidContent, GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb, Ars Technica, Yahoo! News, NEWSFACTOR, PC World, Agence France Presse, Boy Genius Report and VentureBeat

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

AP Wants To Negotiate Mobile, Wireless Deals for Members, News Industry — During its annual meeting today, the Associated Press board conducted the usual business—adding Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth and New York Times Co. Vice Chairman Michael Golden to the board …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, eMedia Vitals, Romenesko and Media Decoder

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Romenesko and ap.org

Editor and Publisher:
Michael Golden, Katharine Weymouth Join AP Board

Discussion: ap.org

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Cuts Prices in Tiff With Penguin — In the latest round of the book pricing wars, Amazon.com Inc. has begun selling a number of new hardcover books published this month by Pearson PLC's Penguin Group (USA) for only $9.99 amid a dispute between the two companies over electronic books.

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, TeleRead, Gizmodo and theBookseller.com

John Cook / Yahoo! News:

Times-Union case puts newspaper in awkward position of blocking reach of state ‘sunshine’ law — Newspapers are supposed to support sunshine laws, right? That's how they pry crucial documents from the hands of secrecy-obsessed government bureaucrats. — That's also why states such as New York …

Discussion: sergio hernandez, New York Observer and Romenesko

Discussion: Strupp

James McQuivey / paidContent:

Why Some Media Companies Are Quietly Cheering The Apple-Adobe Tiff — The Apple-Adobe (NSDQ: ADBE) tussle is heating up to bizarre proportions, with Steve Jobs yesterday issuing a public defense for Apple's anti-Flash stance. Call it a blog-heard-round-the-world, due to how quickly Jobs' comments spread.

Discussion: MediaPost

Justin Bachman / Business Week:

Are Sportswriters Really Necessary? — Narrative Science's software takes sports stats and spits out articles — Below are the opening lines of three stories written about a recent college baseball game. Two are from schools' sports information departments.

Discussion: Gannett Blog and New York Observer

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Washington Post Plans Hundreds of LiveTV Shows from Newsroom Staff — The Washington Post, the first and most innovative major U.S. newspaper to use video as part of its online news offering, is launching a platform for hundreds of reporters to host their own programs live from their desks on Webcams …

Discussion: NewTeeVee and live.washingtonpost.com

Kurt Soller / New York Magazine:

So, What Really Happens After You Assist a Top Condé Nast Editor? — This week, Jonathan Kelly, the former assistant to Vanity Fair's editor (since 2004), can officially stop answering the phone with “Graydon Carter's office.” He's joined up with the new Bloomberg BusinessWeek, as “Senior Editor of Etc.”

Charlie Gasparino / FOXBusiness.com:

NBC Universal Lost $223 Million on Olympics, Leno — Jeff Zucker, who will be president and chief executive of NBC Universal following its sale of a majority interest to Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), will make a base salary of $6.3 million in 2010, though his total compensation could be $20 million or more.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, National Review and Chickaboomer

Claire Atkinson / Broadcasting & Cable:

Andrea Wong Swaps Lifetime for Liberty — Former Women's Executive Joins Liberty Media Board — Liberty Media Corp. announced Thursday April 29 that former Lifetime chief, Andrea Wong, has joined its board. — The former president and chief executive of the women's channel will sit alongside other …

Discussion: Company Town and MediaPost

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

FT ad revenue growing again — Owner Pearson reports 7% group revenue increase in first quarter, with improving but ‘volatile’ newspaper ad market — Pearson, the publishing group that owns the Financial Times, has reported a 7% increase in revenues in the first quarter, helped by …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

The Independent:

How Mrs Duffy refused to dance to anti-Brown tune played by ‘The Sun’ — Newspaper tried to ‘buy up’ voter called a bigot by the PM in a day of cloak-and-dagger manoeuvres. Andy McSmith reports — Gillian Duffy, the Rochdale pensioner whom Gordon Brown described as “a sort of bigoted woman” …

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian

Steve Smith / MinOnline:

iPad Gut Check: Time and PopSci Lead Early Media Sales — Time Inc.'s strategy of establishing Time Magazine's iPad presence early and at a price premium may be paying off in the short term. In a quick spot check of bestsellers across the iPad app library, Time's weekly $4.99 issues …

Dylan Stableford / TheWrap.com:

Newspapering as Blood Sport: WSJ vs. NYT — It's Rupert V. Pinch, fighting a 20th century war in the 21st century — For months, New York Times executives have been downplaying the brewing rivalry with the Wall Street Journal — while simultaneously digging in for a fight. — Well, it's on now.

Discussion: CJR

Tony Hirst / OUseful.Info, the blog:

Programming, Not Coding: Infoskills for Journalists (and Librarians..?! ;-) — A recent post on the journalism.co.uk site asks: How much computer science does a journalist really need?, commenting that whilst coding skills may undoubtedly be useful for journalists, knowing what can be achieved easily …

Richard Prince's Journal-isms:

Fox News Skips Height Service for “Hoax” — MSNBC, CNN, TV One, C-Span Carry President's Eulogy — MSNBC, CNN, TV One, C-Span Carry President's Eulogy — Fox News Channel was the only cable news channel not to carry the funeral service for Dr. Dorothy Height Thursday morning …

Discussion: Media Matters for America

Twitter Media:

The four elements of @anywhere — The four elements of hip-hop are MCing, DJing, break-dancing, and graffiti. — The four elements of @anywhere are hovercards, follow buttons, tweet boxes, and sign-in/sign-up. — If you don't see the relationship yet—you will.

Sarah Perez / ReadWriteWeb:

Location-Based Ads a Goldmine, Says Survey - 50% of Users Take Action — Although the privacy issues surrounding Facebook's new, opt-out only data sharing policies are making people uncomfortable, one area where folks are apparently happy to have their private data shared is on their mobile phones.