Mediagazer: Newsweek's hazy future (Howard Kurtz/Washington Post)

7:35 AM ET, May 7, 2010

Top News:

Newsweek's hazy future — Can Newsweek magazine survive? — The answer is that no one, including the people who work there, knows for sure. — With yesterday's bombshell announcement that The Washington Post Co. is putting the magazine up for sale, Time remains the last newsmagazine standing.

Discussion: Tuned In, Newser, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, New York Observer, Mediaite and New York Magazine

Stephanie Clifford / New York Times:
Newsweek on Block as Era of the Newsweekly Fades

Discussion: Folio, The New Yorker Blog, FishbowlNY, The Big Money, Media Research Center, Free Press, eMedia Vitals, The Future of Capitalism, The Wire, AdAge and Dorian Benkoil

Emily Bryson York / AdAge:

McDonald's to Use Facebook's Upcoming Location Feature — Brands Eager to Build Apps Once Massive Social Network Launches Its Own Foursquare Competitor — CHICAGO (AdAge.com) — Facebook is preparing to launch location-based status updates for its users.

Discussion: Screenwerk, Mashable!, MediaMemo, TechCrunch, GigaOM, Inside Facebook, Fast Company and the Econsultancy blog

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

On a Dramatic Afternoon for Dow, a Scramble to Cover the Story — Cable news anchors and financial Web sites struggled to keep up as the Dow fell nearly 1,000 points and then mostly rebounded in a matter of minutes Thursday afternoon. — As my colleague David Carr put it just now …

Discussion: CNBC, TechCrunch, Felix Salmon, Silicon Alley Insider, TVNewser, Wonkette, VentureBeat, Newsbroke and Talking Biz News

Andrew Romano / Newsweek Blogs:

Why the Media Ignored the Nashville Flood — As you may have heard, torrential downpours in the southeast flooded the Tennessee capital of Nashville over the weekend, lifting the Cumberland River 13 feet above flood stage, causing an estimated $1 billion in damage, and killing more than 30 people.

Discussion: Romenesko, Big Journalism, Hot Air, Random Mumblings and Mediaite

Ian Shapira / Story Lab:

Should journalists out each other's sources? — On Wednesday morning, I read a piece on the Politico web site speculating about the identity of confidential sources who helped me break a story about negotiations to sell The Washington Times. Initially, the Politico headline …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Gawker, The Politico and Romenesko

Alexei Oreskovic / MediaFile:

Actually, Yahoo is not spending another $85 million on ads — The news that Yahoo is spending $75 million to $85 million on an ad blitz has provoked a wave of disparagement in the blogosphere, with many critics slamming Yahoo for throwing more money away on an ineffective marketing strategy.

Discussion: Media News and Silicon Alley Insider

Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo Launches New Ad Blitz

Discussion: Search Engine Land, BoomTown, Silicon Alley Insider, paidContent and Mashable!

Maureen O'Connor / Gawker:

Guy Who Sent Us Washington Post's Malcolm X-Obama Mix-Up Denies Hoax — The Washington Post claims a much blogged-about photo caption blooper was a “hoax.” But the guy who sent the screencap to us stands by it: “I don't even have Photoshop on my computer! Also two co-workers saw my screen.”

Andy Alexander / Ombudsman Blog:
Hoax suspected in Obama-Malcolm X photo mix-up

Discussion: Romenesko and New York Magazine

Todd Spangler / Multichannel:

Harmonic To Acquire Omneon For $274 Million — Deal Would Combine Harmonic's Video Encoding With Omneon's Video Production Systems — Video-encoding vendor Harmonic announced a definitive agreement to acquire privately held Omneon, a provider of video-production and playout gear …

Discussion: NewTeeVee, Broadcasting & Cable and TechCrunch

Judith Rosen / Publishers Weekly:

Spiegel & Grau Look to Indies to Boost Martel — When The New York Times and The Washington Post slammed Canadian author Yann Martel's new novel, Beatrice and Virgil, publisher Spiegel & Grau called on independents for help. Not that the book has been doing bad, USA Today called it …

Discussion: GalleyCat and Bookninja

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:

Is Brightcove the Next Flash? — It was just a few years ago that Adobe's Flash revolutionized video publishing by enabling media companies to reach a vast number of consumers with a plugin that ensured a consistent rich media experience across multiple operating systems and browsers.

Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson / Financial Times:

ProPublica chief aims to make a splash — When ProPublica, a non-profit investigative journalism start-up, was named among the Pulitzer prize winners last month, its acceptance by the editorial elite symbolised just how much online news operations are shaking up the US news establishment.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Joseph Plambeck / Media Decoder:

Losses Slow and Digital Sales Rise at Warner Music — Warner Music Group reported mixed results in the latest quarter, as it continued to lose money but had a 15 percent uptick in digital revenue. Over all, revenue at the company declined 1.3 percent, to $662 million …

Discussion: Variety

Today's Zaman Mobile Edition:

Al-Jazeera considering Turkish broadcast — Given the importance of Turkey for the Arab world, Al-Jazeera is giving serious thought to beginning Turkish-language broadcasts, Qatari Minister of Culture, Arts and Heritage Hamad Bin Abdulaziz al-Kawari has said.

Michael Miner / Chicago Reader:

The Sun-Times Preserves its Photo Archive by Selling It — Is the Sun-Times selling off its heritage at garage sale prices? The other day eBay put up for auction an item from the paper's archives described as “Original Photo 1913 Thomas Edison Family NICE!!!” Bidding started at $10 and ended four days later at $27.

Discussion: Romenesko and Fitz & Jen