Mediagazer: Thailand - Journalists under attack, reporting brought to a halt (Reporters Without Borders)

Stephanie Clifford / Media Decoder:

Jill Abramson Temporarily Steps Aside as Managing Editor to Focus on Digital Side — In an unusual and temporary management shuffle, Jill Abramson, the managing editor for news at The New York Times, will step aside for six months to focus on digital operations and strategy.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Romenesko, New York Observer, paidContent, Strupp, Gawker, LA Observed and New York Magazine

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Jim Romenesko / Poynter Online:
NYT memo re Jill Abramson

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Guardian announces commercial launch of Open Platform — The Guardian today introduced the second phase of its Open Platform initiative, expanding the content-sharing service to commercial partners. — A comprehensive set of developer tools and resources, the commercial launch …

Discussion: Media News

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Guardian Looking For Money In API, New Readers Club — It may be sceptical that readers would pay to read its news site - but Guardian News & Media is today taking the wraps off two alternative new commercial models... Readers Club — We've known for nine months that an equivalent …

Discussion: Guardian, Beet.TV and eMedia Vitals

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Freelance Journalism Site True/Slant In M&A Talks — More M&A may be on the way in the freelance content space, although on a much more modest scale than yesterday's Yahoo-Associated Content deal. True/Slant, a freelance news startup that encourages “entrepreneurial journalism,” …

Discussion: Romenesko, Screenwerk and Silicon Valley Watcher

Christosap / The WebM project blog:

Introducing WebM, an open web media project — A key factor in the web's success is that its core technologies such as HTML, HTTP, TCP/IP, etc. are open and freely implementable. Though video is also now core to the web experience, there is unfortunately no open and free video format …

Discussion: The Official Google Blog, Washington Post, Fast Company, louisgray.com, Faster Forward, blogs.ft.com, PC Magazine, VentureBeat, All Things Digital, TechFlash, ReadWriteWeb and Chromium Blog

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Video: Sports Illustrated Shows Off a Google-Ready Digital Magazine — Sports Illustrated hasn't come to Apple's iPad yet, but the magazine is already showing off a new version of its future: A digital version designed with Google in mind. — This one, which Editor Terry McDonell showed off …

Discussion: paidContent, AdAge, All Things Digital and TechCrunch

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Bloomberg EIC Winkler clamps down on Twitter posts — TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE — Bloomberg News editor in chief Matt Winkler is not happy with how some of the organization's journalists are phrasing their breaking news posts on Twitter. — In his weekly notes to the staff, Winkler recently slammed some specific Twitter posts.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Gawker, FishbowlNY and Romenesko

Jon Slattery:

Orwell Prize: Winners are Peter Hitchens of the MoS and social worker blogger Winston Smith — The Mail on Sunday's Peter Hitchens has won this year's Orwell Prize for journalism. — Given the contrast between his right-wing views and those of George Orwell, there was an audible collective intake …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:

MSNBC.com, BermanBraun in Talks for New Political Site — MSNBC.com and BermanBraun are in serious talks about the launch of a new content site—possibly this August—focused on politics that according to sources will borrow heavily from BermanBraun's current project with MSN, the celebrity photo-filled Wonderwall.

Discussion: paidContent

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Who woulda thunk it: Fact-checking is popular! — Has anyone else noticed that the Associated Press has been doing some strong fact-checking work lately, aggressively debunking all kinds of nonsense, in an authoritative way, without any of the usual he-said-she-said crap that often mars political reporting?

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Ben Smith's Blog and Washington Monthly

New York Observer:

The Deck Was Stacked Against Her: A Defense of Mimi Gurbst — To the editors of The New York Observer, — I am writing in defense of Mimi Gurbst because I can no longer countenance the abuse of anonymity that has allowed others to cowardly malign her in perpetuity on the Internet.

Discussion: Romenesko and WebNewser

Reporters Without Borders:

Thailand - Journalists under attack, reporting brought to a halt — Reporters Without Borders condemns the violence against journalists by Red Shirt demonstrators and the government's continual violation of the right to information. Thailand has rarely experienced the level of violence …

Discussion: Guardian

Laura Martinez / Multichannel:

Making Headlines In South Africa — Q&A With Univision President of News Alina Falcón — A television veteran — and 2009 Multichannel News Wonder Woman — Alina Falcon this year was named to the new post of president of news at Univision Communications.

Discussion: For the Record

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Upfronts: CBS Move Takes Warner Brothers By Surprise — The fall CBS schedule, announced Wednesday, took many people by surprise — including Peter Roth, the president of Warner Brothers, which is the second biggest supplier of programs to CBS and other networks.

Discussion: Media Analysis RSS, Broadcasting & Cable, PopEater and MediaPost

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Upfronts: Conan O'Brien Mixes Jokes and Sentiment at TBS Event — Conan O'Brien was on stage in New York promoting his much-anticipated new late-night talk show. He did the exact same thing Wednesday morning, but this time for TBS, not NBC. — On stage at an upfront presentation for TBS …

Discussion: Media News International, Variety, Tuned In, TheWrap.com, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, Speakeasy and Moraes on TV

Paige Albiniak / Broadcasting & Cable:

Fox to Test Kilborn in Seven Markets This Summer — Show to premiere June 28 and run for six weeks — Fox-owned television stations in seven markets will test Craig Kilborn's new half-hour syndicated show, Twentieth's The Kilborn File, for six weeks this summer, both Fox and Twentieth said Wednesday (May 19).

Discussion: Variety, The Wrap and MediaPost

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Blinkx's Growing Income Tethered By Ongoing Expenses — Video search-and-ads firm Blinkx nearly doubled its income last year - but ongoing product costs left it with another significant loss. — Suranga Chandratillake's Blinkx is well-positioned in the fast-growing space …

Discussion: PR Newswire and ResourceShelf

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

CNBC Launching Movie Night — , Wall Street, The Player and The Last Days of Lehman Brothers. — The programming decision is similar to that made by The Weather Channel late last year, when it added a movie night on Friday evenings. At the time the addition of films to the schedule drew criticism …

Discussion: Inside Cable News and The Wire

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Tribune deal has TV reporters donning L.L. Bean jackets — Bankrupt Tribune has agreed to give L.L. Bean weekly credit on WGN-TV's newscast in exchange for jackets for the news crew. News director Greg Caputo says reporters are free to cover the retailer's logo, or just not wear the jacket.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune