Mediagazer: Part 2 - Community drives mission (Michele McLellan/rjionline.org)

Google News experiments with human control, promotes a new serendipity with Editors' Picks — Late this afternoon, Google News rolled out a new experiment: Editors' Picks. Starting today, a small percentage of Google News users will find a new box of content with that label …

Discussion: Search Engine Land and The Next Web

Brian Steinberg / AdAge:

Broadcast Upfront Finishes Between $8.1B and $8.7B — TV Ekes Out Gain Over Last Year As NBC Universal Wraps Talks Including Cable — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Advertisers have committed between $8.1 billion and $8.7 billion to the five broadcast networks' coming program schedules …

Advertising rebound helps networks forget audience woes — The so-called upfront market, when the majority of commercials for the fall television season are sold, is wrapping up, and all the networks are smiling. Ratings may be down, but optimism about the economy and continued audience …

Poynter Online:

TheWrap.com's Davis named CEO of Investigative News Network — Digital Publisher New CEO of Investigative News Network — The recently formed Investigative News Network (INN), a collaboration of 32 non-profit news organizations producing public service journalism, today announced digital …

Michele McLellan / rjionline.org:

Part 2 - Community drives mission — Online community news publishers say enabling comments on stories and blogs is the best way to engage community around their content. — “Those conversations drive what is important to us,” said Polly Kreisman, an Emmy-winning broadcast journalist …

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

The New York Post's Exile Insanity (Updated) — Reports today surfaced from Gawker that the New York Post is having some staffing issues. And by “staffing issues” we mean “are losing high-profile reporters due to the crumbling civility of the volatile Post management and competing offers.”

Discussion: New York Magazine

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Romenesko, New York Observer and New York Magazine

Jaeyeon Woo / Digits:

A Record Deal via YouTube and iPhones — Kim Yeo-hee, the 22-year-old South Korean known on YouTube as “applegirl002,” is making the leap from viral video sensation to recording star. — Ms. Kim three months ago joined legions of wannabe singers by putting up a homemade video on YouTube.

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Newsonomics of tablet ad readiness — [Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.] — Are you ready to receive? That's the question news company …

Discussion: Newsonomics and eMedia Vitals

Choire / The Awl:

‘New York Times’ Bans the Word ‘Tweet’ — Phil Corbett, the latest standards editor at the Times (maybe the greatest job in the world?), has issued a proclamation! Yesterday, the following memo went out, asking writers to abstain from the invented past-tense and other weird iterations of the magical noun-verb “Twitter.”

Discussion: Yahoo! News, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Runnin' Scared, SPJ Works, Silicon Alley Insider, Epicenter, New York Times, New York Magazine, Edward Champion's …, Romenesko, DailyFinance and New York Observer

Kevinweil / Twitter Blog:

More Than Dabbling — Every day millions of people use Twitter to create, share and discover information, and as we grow, analytics becomes an increasingly crucial part of improving our service. — Up until about a year ago, we used an online database called Dabble DB to track and share information about our projects internally.

Discussion: Mashable!, ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, The Social, MediaPost, Computerworld, GigaOM, paidContent, Silicon Alley Insider, TechCrunch, Bits and VentureBeat

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

The Evolution of Time Magazine's iPad App: Here's What's Next — Time Magazine's first iPad app was a rush job. Time Warner's (TWX) magazine unit called the development process “Project Noah,” because the staff got it up and running in 40 days. So it's going to keep adding bells and whistles over time.

Discussion: CrunchGear and Gizmodo

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Marketing Venture From Bateman and Arnett Takes Off With Orbit — The comedians Will Arnett and Jason Bateman are introducing their first videos created in concert with brands, five months after announcing DumbDumb, something they call a “sponsor-driven advertising and production company.”

Discussion: make the logo bigger

Chris Woodyard / USA Today:

Chevrolet exec who wrote memo smiling about ‘Chevy’ debate — Few things thrill marketing executives more than having their brand be the day's hot topic of conversation that day, and not in a bad way. — There also are few things that would make one less thrilled than having a memo …

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

E-Reader Maker IRex Files For Bankruptcy — Is the e-reader market about to get less crowded? E-Reader maker IRex Technologies has filed for bankruptcy, citing disappointing sales of its consumer device in the U.S. CEO Hans Brons tells a Dutch financial publication that sales of the company's iRex DR800SG …

Discussion: Publishers Weekly

Luisa Beltran / PE Hub Blog:

Newsweek Auction Hits Second Round, PE Stays Home — Not many M&A deals make me sad, but the Newsweek sale brings tears. — I grew up on Newsweek and its jealous sister Time magazine (yes, my family got both, plus U.S. News & World Report). I remember Newsweek's coverage of Princess Diana's death …

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Mark Cuban passes Lions Gate stock to Carl Icahn — Media entrepreneur and Dallas Mavericks owner Mark Cuban said on CNBC Thursday morning that he will likely tender his shares of Lions Gate Entertainment to Carl Icahn, pushing the activist investor closer to taking control of the Santa Monica movie and TV studio.

Discussion: The Wrap and Variety

Jonathan Stray / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Linking by the numbers: How news organizations are using links (or not) — In my last post, I reported on the stated linking policies of a number of large news organizations. But nothing speaks like numbers, so I also trawled through the stories on the front pages of a dozen online news outlets …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Transpera:

Transpera Announces Greg Ballard as Chief Executive Officer and Alex Galvagni as Chief Operating Officer — Founder Frank Barbieri Assumes Role of Chief Product Officer — Transpera, The Attention Network, fostering pure, undivided attention between consumers and brands through mobile video advertising …

Discussion: iMedia Connection and MediaPost

David Goetzl / MediaPost:

Miller Sponsors Turner TV, Pushes Branded Story Lines — Turner said a multifaceted deal with MillerCoors will include not just the host — but a guest on TBS late-night show “Lopez Tonight” plugging one of its brands. — In what amounts to a live commercial, Belita Moreno …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

David McKay Wilson / Michigan Today:

The dean of network news — When David Westin ('74, JD '77) was named ABC News president in 1997, media critics questioned whether the corporate lawyer, with scant experience in television journalism, was ready for prime time. — Thirteen years later, Westin stands as the dean …

Discussion: Romenesko

The Atlantic Wire:

GOOD QUESTION!: How Much Does Steve Jobs Hate Gawker Now? — If given the option to banish one media company from the Earth, there's little doubt which one Steve Jobs would choose: Gawker Media, Inc. This year, the rogue news blog founded by Nick Denton has been a giant thorn in Apple's side.

Discussion: NY Daily News

Jeremy Porter / Journalistics:

Help A Reporter Out (HARO) Joins Vocus Family — Vocus kicked off its 2010 User's Conference with a huge announcement of interest to PR professionals and journalists alike: Vocus has acquired Help A Reporter Out (HARO). HARO has built an impressive base of users over the past two years, becoming one of the most popular PR services.

Discussion: Mashable! and Gawker

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

What Nonprofit News Sites Can Learn from Grist's ‘Save Our Journalists!’ Campaign — In Grist.org's latest campaign video, contributor Jennifer Prediger wears a fox mask and asks readers to raise money for “endangered species” — aka environmental journalists. — Grist staffer in the site's latest video campaign.

Discussion: Writing / Editing