Mediagazer: The Strange, True Story of Gothamist and Jimmy Dolan (Choire/The Awl)

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

YouTube's Secret “News Experiment” Explained! (Warning: Not Really That Secret) — Is YouTube getting into the local news business? No, not really. — But! SF Weekly has a weird, confusing tale about YouTube's sort of secretive effort to launch a “local news experiment” in San Francisco.

Discussion: Lost Remote and NewTeeVee, more at Techmeme »

Alexia Tsotsis / The Snitch:

YouTube Explains Top Secret ‘News Experiment’ to Local Media, But Doesn't Really — Sometimes this new media transition thing can be so, how you say, awkward. — According to SFAppeal blogger Eve Batey, Google-owned video aggregator YouTube is up to some hush hush citizen journalism project here in our very own San Francisco.

Discussion: HyperlocalBlogger and NetNewsCheck Latest, more at Techmeme »

Tony Ortega / Runnin' Scared:

Deal Between Gothamist and Rainbow Media is Officially Dead — We don't know whether Knicks and Cablevision owner James Dolan will be writing a new blues song about this, but we've learned here at the Voice that what was earlier just a rumor is now definitely true …

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, NYConvergence, DealBook and New York Observer

Choire / The Awl:

The Strange, True Story of Gothamist and Jimmy Dolan — Gothamist, a metro website company, founded in 2003, now has 13 city-specific websites, which reach 2.7 million unique readers a month, according to Quantcast. For a long time, in my opinion, Gothamist was stubborn about growing as a business.

Discussion: Mediaite, New York Times and Gawker

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Diller says paywalls at NYT, other media will eventually work — Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp, spoke with Bloomberg Television's Betty Liu about the outlook for readers paying for online content. Diller said that, like the music business, paid content online will eventually succeed.

Diller Says Valuations Kept IAC From Buying Companies — Barry Diller, chairman and chief executive officer of IAC/InterActiveCorp, said recent acquisitions his company considered fell apart over valuations. — IAC, which operates the Ask.com search site and the Match.com dating site …

Discussion: Company Town

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

A Google Paid Content System For Publishers May Be Coming By Year-End — Updated: Google (NSDQ: GOOG), which had hinted for nearly a year now that it was working on building some sort of paid content system for publishers, is reportedly set to launch such a system by year-end.

Discussion: Gannett Blog, Kirk LaPointe's …, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, NetNewsCheck Latest, Journalism.co.uk, The Next Web and Search Engine Land

Should publishers trust Google's new paywall initiative? — Google is currently recruiting publishers for a new paid content system that will launch by the end of the year, according to a report in the Italian newspaper La Repubblica. While Google has positioned this move as a means of helping newspapers …

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Cooper Becomes Loud Voice for Gulf Residents — “There aren't any small people here,” the CNN anchor Anderson Cooper said from Louisiana on his prime-time program Wednesday night, emphatically rejecting the remarks by BP's chairman that the oil company cares “about the small people.”

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Inside Cable News and Romenesko

Guardian:

Sky Sports News to go behind paywall in battle with Freeview — Subscription model seen as best bet over long term, while analysts say Sky may load rival with poor content — News Corporation is to put another of its services behind a paywall as it emerged yesterday that Sky Sports News is to be pulled from Freeview.

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Ustream's Live Mobilizer Gives Bands And Brands Live Streaming iPhone Apps — Popular live video platform Ustream is adding a new product to its repertoire today: an iPhone application platform called Ustream Live Mobilizer that offers brands, celebrities, and bands a customizable iPhone application …

Discussion: Beet.TV

Mike Reynolds / Multichannel News:

Multiplatform Usage Soars Around World Cup: ESPN XP Research — Those Watching TV, Using Three Other Platforms, Spent Over 5 Hours Daily WIth FIFA Tourney — Futbol fans are cottoning to ESPN's myriad platforms presenting 2010 World Cup matches and fare.

Discussion: SocialTimes.com, paidContent:UK, NewTeeVee and MediaMemo

Ben Dowell / Guardian:

Peter Riddell to quit Times after 19 years — Veteran Times journalist to leave as part of latest round of voluntary redundancies at the paper — Veteran Times political commentator Peter Riddell is leaving the paper after 19 years as part of the latest round of voluntary redundancies …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

Jim Frederick Named Online Managing Editor of Time — John Huey and Rick Stengel named Jim Frederick online managing editor of Time.com and the executive editor of Time magazine in an announcment to Time Inc. staff this morning. — “In addition to running TIME.com, Jim will continue …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and New York Magazine

Stuart Elliott / New York Times:

Advertising: Known Faces Displace Amateurs in Online Videos — Just as the unknowns who showed up on screen in the early days of television gave way to radio and movie stars like Jack Benny and Bob Hope, more famous faces are supplanting everyday people in Web series, particularly when the video clips are sponsored by advertisers.

Discussion: iMediaConnection Blog

Nielsen Wire:

Web Users Alter Surfing Habits Very Little While Watching TV — While new devices like the iPad continue to drive simultaneous usage (people watching TV while they are also online) there appears to be very little difference between people's online usage habits when they're watching TV and when they are not.

Discussion: TVbytheNumbers

Aaron Chimbel / Online Journalism Review:

News convergence isn't easy for student journalists, either — By Aaron Chimbel: The Millennials in our journalism classrooms are supposed to be wizards of the Web. After all, almost their entire lives have been spent consuming media in a converged landscape, reading newspaper stories …

Rick Klau / tins:

Techdirt saves journalism - Harper's Magazine — Last night I was lucky to be invited to join a group of super smart people at an event hosted by Techdirt (and sponsored by Google). The event was provocatively (and with tongue planted firmly in cheek) titled “Techdirt Saves* Journalism” …

EditorandPublisher.com:

E&P's Interactive Media Conference Kicks off with a Wake-up Call — NEW YORK — Editor & Publisher's Interactive Media Conference opened with a roar Wednesday with an opening keynote by Journal Register Co. CEO John Paton — who urged those in attendance at the Hard Rock Hotel & Casino …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BBC Worldwide makes move into pay-to-play gaming — BBC Worldwide bids to open up new revenue stream as it faces loss of income from having to hive off part of its magazines — BBC Worldwide is to make its first foray into pay-to-play gaming linked to TV programming with an online version of The Weakest Link.

Discussion: Gamasutra and Digital Spy

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

5 Strategies for Successful News Organization-University Partnerships — The New York Times, The Bay Citizen and Next Door Media have recently partnered with universities in hopes that students can help them expand their hyperlocal coverage, engage new audiences and experiment with different business models.

Discussion: Editors Weblog and Center for Sustainable …

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

EXCLUSIVE: Battle Raging Over Age Listings on IMDb — By listing birth dates, industry workers say the popular movie database leads to age discrimination — One of the biggest movie sites in the world, IMDb.com, is facing a hornet's nest of controversy over its policy of publishing the ages …

Discussion: Tuned In, newsfeed.time.com, /Film and Company Town

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Sorry: Conde Nast Won't Replace Exiting Vogue Group Publisher — Tom Florio's Plum Job Atop Vogue, Other Titles Won't Be Filled — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — For a moment after Conde Nast told staff that Vogue group publisher Tom Florio was leaving at the end of the month …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, paidContent, The Wrap and Crain's New York Business

Discussion: FishbowlNY, MediaWire Daily, Folio, WWD, MinOnline, Romenesko, Styleite, New York Observer, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Joe Mandese / MediaPost:

MediaDailyNews: WPP Digital Acquires Stake In Real-Time TV Analytics Firm — WPP Digital Acquires Stake In Real-Time TV Analytics Firm — Madison Avenue giant WPP Group has made another strategic investment in an advanced TV industry developer, acquiring a stake in Ace Metrix …