Mediagazer: “Who Is This Clown?” … (the nytpicker)

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: Guardian, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg

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.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, eMedia Vitals and DealBook

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 …

Discussion: Free Press and Romenesko

David Carr / Media Decoder:

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: Pursuing the Complete …, New York Observer, The Money Shot, NetNewsCheck Latest, Search Engine Watch, Press Gazette and Guardian

Discussion: MediaPost and TechCrunch

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

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: The Wire, Mediaite, Romenesko, The Huffington Post, CJR, Company Town, Beehive City, Inside Cable News and New York Magazine

the nytpicker:

“Who Is This Clown?” NYU Prof. Tony Judt Asks, Denying Michael Wolff Allegation That He “Made Up” Son's Contribution To NYT Op-Ed Piece. — This morning, media critic Michael Wolff posted a piece on his newser.com blog claiming that NYU professor Tony Judt “made up” his son's portion …

Discussion: splicetoday.com, Gawker, Romenesko and New York Times

Tony Judt: Did He Make It Up? — Tony Judt has become perhaps Israel's leading Jewish critic. He is, to me, among its most eloquent and logical. I'd argue he's one of the few original left-wing writers—the last of the intellectual rather than the programmatic left.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

David Teather / Guardian:

Losses on social networks hit £1bn — Facebook is still a winner but Bebo, MySpace and Friends Reunited show the high price of investing in fickle trends — The media industry has now lost $1.5bn (£1bn) on investments in the social networking craze after AOL sold Bebo last week …

Discussion: Noted

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Local Broadcasters Are Fearful of an NBC-Comcast Deal — Comcast, the nation's biggest cable provider, has long played hardball with competitors and content providers. Now that it is seeking control of NBC Universal in a $30 billion transaction, those competitors are piping up …

Dylan Stableford / TheWrap.com:

Portal Predicament: No One Hangs Around Anymore — Before the Internet could finish off newspapers, the pillars of the digital age are already suffering their own slide. Portals Yahoo!, MSN and AOL — for years the largest source of traffic on the web — are seeing recent dropoffs in visitors …

Discussion: Romenesko, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

On Web Video, Captions Are Coming Slowly — The actress Marlee Matlin shimmied her way onto “Dancing With the Stars” two years ago, memorably using sign language to tell viewers to “read my hips.” But when Ms. Matlin, who is deaf, went to ABC.com to watch a replay of the show …

Discussion: Beet.TV

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:

What's Murdoch's Aim With Latest Deal? — PARIS — What is Rupert Murdoch up to? That question comes up anytime the chief executive of News Corp. makes an acquisition, no matter how small. So last week, as the company proposed its biggest deal yet, the possibilities, for Murdoch-watchers, were particularly intriguing.