Mediagazer: 6 Takeaways from ‘TechDirt Saves Journalism’ Event at Google (JD Lasica/MediaShift)

7:25 AM ET, June 21, 2010

Top News:

Google's Newspass: Is the King of Free About to Help News Providers Get Paid? — On Thursday, word seemed to quietly leak out, in Italian no less, that Google would soon unveil a one-click payment system for content called “Newspass.” — According to the newspaper La Repubblica, Google …

Discussion: MinOnline, Press Gazette, Guardian, Search Engine Watch, Silicon Alley Insider and MediaPost Raw

Adriano Farano:

Newspass, Is Google Murdoch's best friend? — Find the original French version of this article on OWNI, digital journalism magazine. — Murdoch dreamed of it? Google has just made it. In its June 17 edition, the website of the respected Italian newspaper La Repubblica said the giant …

Discussion: MediaPost

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Le Monde on The Brink — Within two weeks, the French newspaper Le Monde will run out of cash. By this Monday at noon, candidates to the takeover of the most prestigious French daily will have disclosed their offers. By June 28, the staff will vote and make the final decision for the fate of the 66 years-old paper.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg

Reuters:

France Telecom approves bid for Le Monde stake: source — (Reuters) - France Telecom's (FTE.PA) supervisory board has approved the firm's participation in a joint bid with two other investors for a stake in Le Monde, a source close to the matter said on Sunday.

Martin Fackler / New York Times:

Ink Gushes in Japan's Media Landscape — TOKYO — For years, the online newspaper JanJan News mounted a scrappy challenge to Japan's blandly conformist press, offering articles written by readers who took on taboo subjects like whaling and the media's collusion with the government.

Discussion: Guardian

Steven Johnson / New York Times:

Yes, People Still Read, but Now It's Social — “THE point of books is to combat loneliness,” David Foster Wallace observes near the beginning of “Although of Course You End Up Becoming Yourself,” David Lipsky's recently published, book-length interview with him.

Discussion: stevenberlinjohnson.com and Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

Nicholas Carr / San Francisco Chronicle: As technology advances, deep reading suffers

Evelyn Rusli / TechCrunch:

Scribd's Decision To Dump Flash Pays Off, User Engagement Triples — You could call it the perfect storm. — Over the last few months, user engagement on Scribd has surged, according to CEO Trip Adler, thanks to its transition to HTML5, the introduction of the iPad, and Scribd's Facebook integration.

Discussion: GigaOM

thepomoblog.com:

The Evolving User Paradigm — In 1961, a high school track coach moved into the house next to mine and introduced my younger brother and me to track and field events like the high jump and pole vaulting. We had a big open field behind our house, which served as a buffer for the C&O railroad tracks that ran through the neighborhood.

Discussion: TeleRead and smays.com

David Carr / New York Times:

Larry King's Endgame at CNN — At the beginning of June, CNN's Larry King celebrated 25 years in the same slot on the same network — a remarkable achievement in a come-and-go business — and was joined over a week by Bill Gates, LeBron James and the leader of the free world to mark the occasion.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Increasingly, nonprofits fill a need for investigative reporting — In a seventh-floor conference room festooned with framed articles and journalism awards, Managing Editor Gordon Witkin leads the morning discussion of stories his staff is pursuing. — Their latest scoop …

Jxpaton / Digital First:

Little Paper, Big News — From Flip Cams for all reporters to our ideaLab (http://bit.ly/ch0ew2) to our Ben Franklin Project ( http://bit.ly/apHRbA ), the employees of Journal Register Company are leading the way in exploring how a tired old newspaper company can become a fast acting and faster thinking news company.

Discussion: Guardian

JD Lasica / MediaShift:

6 Takeaways from ‘TechDirt Saves Journalism’ Event at Google — What will the journalism landscape look like five to 10 years from now? The megatrend of unbundled, specialty-focused niche sources of online information likely spells doom for many of today's lumbering media giants.

Discussion: TeleRead and Kirk LaPointe's …