Mediagazer: Sky News ditches weather presenters (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

7:20 PM ET, May 21, 2010

Top News:

FTC Closes its Investigation of Google AdMob Deal — After Thorough Review, Agency Finds Transaction Not Likely to Harm Competition — The Federal Trade Commission has closed its investigation of Google's proposed acquisition of mobile advertising network company AdMob after thoroughly reviewing …

Omar / The Life and Times of AdMob:
Working with Google to move mobile advertising forward

Discussion: paidContent and Silicon Alley Insider

Thomas Catan / Wall Street Journal:
Bloggers Aim Posts at Regulators

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Exclusive: PaidContent Founder Ali to Depart Pioneering Digital News Site — PaidContent's Rafat Ali, who turned a one-man Web site into a must-read hub for digital media news, is leaving the company he founded eight years ago. — Sources said Ali has told co-workers he will leave the company …

Discussion: paidContent, Silicon Alley Insider, FishbowlNY, Romenesko, Gawker, Guardian and LA Observed

Rafat Ali / paidContent:

On To Life 2.0 — In the end, all things do come to an end. The good and bad part is, it is never a definite marker, but all part of a process. And so it has been for me. After pouring exactly eight years of my life and a lifetime into this, I am leaving ContentNext and paidContent in early July.

Discussion: Folio

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Weinsteins' deal to reclaim Miramax falls apart [updated] — Bob and Harvey Weinstein's long-in-the-works deal to reclaim independent movie label Miramax Films from the Walt Disney Co. has fallen apart after several weeks of intense negotiations, according to three people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, /Film, Media Decoder, The Wire, Variety, Gawker, Thompson on Hollywood, DealBook, New York Magazine and Movieline

Rafat Ali / paidContent:

Newsweek Sale Book: First Bids Due By June 2; Complete Financials — When the Washington Post Co. (NYSE: WPO) announced that Newsweek was for sale, the top-line numbers we pulled out of SEC documents weren't new but they were stark. The first-quarter earnings released a couple of days later highlighted the rationale.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, New York Observer and eMedia Vitals

New York Observer:

Meet Vinnie Rotondaro, The J-School Grad Who Scored a Prokhorov Exclusive — Russian billionaire and new Nets owner Mikhail Prokhorov was in extremely high demand among reporters on his tour through New York this week. At a press conference on Wednesday, which lasted almost an hour …

Discussion: The Brooklyn Ink, ProBasketballTalk, FishbowlNY, City Room, Runnin' Scared and Curbed NY

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The programmer majored in English: A fascinating study of the NYT's Interactive News unit — At the University of Texas's International Symposium on Online Journalism conference last month, a series of academics presented papers on the future of news. There's great stuff, including …

Jeffrey A. Trachtenberg / Wall Street Journal:

E-Books Rewrite Bookselling — NEW YORK—In the massive new Barnes & Noble superstore on Manhattan's Upper East Side, generous display space is devoted to baby blankets, Art Deco flight clocks, stationery and adult games like Risk and Stratego. — The eclectic merchandise …

Joe Pompeo / Silicon Alley Insider:

Meet Andrew Golis, The 26-Year-Old Behind Yahoo's Newsiest 57 Million Page Views (YHOO) — Ever since Yahoo! News started putting together an all-star team of journalists earlier this year, we've been curious about its plans. — For the first time, Yahoo! News actually has full-time beat writers …

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Happy Hour Is Over: Fox Business Network Cancels Dayside Business Program (UPDATE) — Earlier today Mediate first reported that Fox Business had canceled Fox Business Happy Hour, the 5:00 pm show on the relatively nascent financial news channel. Mediaite has confirmed with Fox Business …

Discussion: TVNewser, Inside Cable News, Dealbreaker, News On News and New York Magazine

Shira Ovide / Digits:

With 3-D in Newspapers, Is This Tech Trend Overdone? — Is 3-D at risk of jumping the shark? — Already flooded with 3-D movies, 3-D televised sporting events and 3-D scantily clad women, the world now will have a 3-D newspaper section. — The Philadelphia Inquirer said today …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Sky News ditches weather presenters — Long-serving forecaster Francis Wilson among those to go, with news presenters asked to deliver ‘headline forecasts’ — Francis Wilson, the long-serving weather presenter who has spent the past 17 years at Sky News, is understood to be leaving …

David Kravets / Threat Level:

Pennsylvania AG Dropping Twitter Subpoena — Pennsylvania prosecutors are dropping their grand jury subpoena to Twitter demanding the identity of two account holders who used the microblogging service to criticize Attorney General Tom Corbett, a spokesman said Friday.

Discussion: New York Times, CasablancaPA and TPMMuckraker

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

Yahoo Aims to Double Original Content in Ambitious Publishing Strategy — Plan Includes Snapping up Journalists, Buying Associated Content — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Despite Yahoo's well-publicized strategy to corner a broad array of online businesses from advertising to search to content …

Henry Jenkins / Confessions of an Aca/Fan:

He-Man and the Masters of Transmedia — The other day I flew back to Cambridge at the request of Scot Osterweill, the research director for The Education Arcade, in order to participate in the Sandbox Summit, a fascinating gathering of game designers, toy makers, television producers …

Discussion: Snarkmarket

Hank Stern / News and Culture:

Oregonian Reporter Fired After Diane Downs Story Appears in Glamour (UPDATED with Bhatia comment) — Veteran Oregonian reporter Lisa Grace Lednicer got fired today after more than 12 years at the daily. — Lednicer recently co-wrote a story that was published in Glamour magazine …

Discussion: Romenesko and Inside Out

Oliver Luft / Press Gazette:

T/M digital head: Chasing audience is editorial prostitution — Trinity Mirror digital content director, Matt Kelly, said yesterday newspapers wouldn't be able to successfully charge online for general news and instead needed to look at more creative solutions to recoup lost revenues.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Sarah Hartley / Guardian:

Simon Waldman: ‘A time of change and opportunity for journalists’ — The JEEcamp unconference event in Birmingham hears some lessons journalists can learn from big business — Journalists taking an entrepreneurial approach are living through a time of great change but also new opportunities …

Discussion: Online Journalism Blog