Mediagazer: Google AdWords lacks transparency: French regulator (Reuters)

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

2 Suitors for Newsweek Are Said to Be Ruled Out — WITH a 5 p.m. Thursday deadline approaching for the final round of bids, at least two people were preparing to make offers for Newsweek while two others were told by the magazine's owners that their bids would not be considered.

Discussion: New York Post, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, Tech Trader Daily and Romenesko

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

Newsmax Media, Two Others Are Out Of The Running For Newsweek — A spokesman for Newsmax Media just sent us the following statement about the company's failed bid to buy Newsweek: — Newsmax Media made a serious bid to acquire Newsweek, which we believe is an extraordinary publishing property …

Discussion: Media Life Magazine

Kevin Stolt / The Official Google Blog:

Extra! Extra! Google News redesigned to be more customizable and shareable — There's an old saying that all news is local. But all news is personal too—we connect with it in different ways depending on our interests, where we live, what we do and a lot of other factors.

Discussion: Bits, ReadWriteWeb, MediaMemo, Nieman Journalism Lab, Mashable!, TechCrunch, Fast Company, Editors Weblog, paidContent, WebNewser, The Next Web, Techie Buzz and MediaFile, more at Techmeme »

Discussion: Search Engine Roundtable, Fortune and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

UK Times Goes Tentatively Paid From Friday At £1-A-Month — We've covered every step in Times Newspapers' conversion to paid websites - the initial plan, the confirmation, the blocking of stories from search engines and the launch in May of the two new websites behind a registration wall on a free preview basis.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Media Week Customer Publishing, Guardian, Jon Slattery, WebNewser and Press Gazette

Anton Troianovski / Wall Street Journal:

China Agency Nears Times Square — China's state news agency could soon be the newest Times Square neighbor of media giants Thomson Reuters and Conde Nast. — Xinhua, one of the Chinese government's main news outlets and propaganda arms, is finalizing a deal to move to the top floor …

Discussion: The Wire

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:

The Legacy Media And Torture — This blog, along with others, compiled some anecdotes and research to show how the New York Times had always called “waterboarding” torture - until the Bush-Cheney administration came along. Instead of challenging this government lie, the NYT simply echoed it …

Discussion: Philly.com, Gawker and Mother Jones

Discussion: Mediaite, Romenesko, The Huffington Post and American Prospect

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Tribune's Zell: Newspaper Home Delivery Likely To Be Replaced By ‘PDFs’ — Tribune Chairman Sam Zell—whose company is still in bankruptcy proceedings—went on CNBC today and explained why the bankruptcy process has been so difficult. His reasoning: “Big transaction,” “Lot of different players …

Discussion: The Wrap, Editors Weblog, Guardian, Tower Ticker and Romenesko

Discussion: New York Observer and Fitz & Jen

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

A New Magazine for Terrorists — Blogs and Stories — The man who inspired the Fort Hood shooter, the Christmas Day attacker, and the Times Square bomber is launching an online magazine in English aimed at aspiring jihadists. Lloyd Grove on why it has American officials worried.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Atlantic Online, The Wire, Associated Press and Gawker

Andrew Hampp / AdAge:

Warner's Latest Strategy Gives MTV New Clout in Online Video — MTV Gets Ad Sales Rights for Warner Music Videos All Over the Web — LOS ANGELES (AdAge.com) — MTV Networks may have given up on music videos as prime-time TV content years ago, but music video on the web is another story.

Discussion: rbr.com, The Wrap and Multichannel

Discussion: PR Newswire, NewTeeVee, PlagiarismToday, paidContent and MediaPost

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

CNN Pres. On Olbermann's Claim That Larry King Wanted Him Hired: “It Didn't Work” — Larry King is moving on. — The CNN host announced last night he's ending his 25-year show in the fall. His boss, CNN/U.S. President Jon Klein told Mediaite “to be able to pull together and get out on air in a classy …

Discussion: Romenesko, Guardian, B&C, Inside Cable News and Big Journalism

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Amazon Introduces 70% Royalty Option For Kindle Digital Text Platform — Right off the heels of announcing an expansion of its Kindle Digital Text Platform to authors and publishers around the world, Amazon announced back in January that it would introduce a new 70 percent royalty option …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Kindle Review, TeleRead, Poynter Online and Business Wire

Abbey Klaassen / AdAge:

Huffington Post Pitches Itself as Social-Media Company — In Q&A, President Greg Coleman Says Advertisers Can Benefit From Site's Facebook, Twitter Distribution — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Five years ago Huffington Post launched as a left-leaning blog, featuring commentary from Hollywood heavyweights …

MediaShift:

Spot.Us Lessons: Journalists Work in, and For, the Public — In a previous post I introduced the most significant findings from my recent case study of Spot.Us, a crowdfunding platform for journalism. In this post I discuss what my findings mean for journalism, and for the role and the work of a journalist.

Jeff Bercovici / DailyFinance:

Lewis Dvorkin on the Future of Forbes: More ‘Entrepreneurial,’ ‘Scalable’ — In founding True/Slant, his expert blogging community, Lewis Dvorkin set out to do nothing less than invent a new business model for journalism. Now, Dvorkin is attempting to install that model at Forbes Media …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Brad Stone / Bits:

Amazon Introduces a New Kindle DX With Lower Price — Amazon.com is not giving up on its large-screen Kindle DX. — The company introduced a new version of the black and white e-reader on Thursday morning, dropping the price to $379, from $489. — The device encloses the 9.7 inch display in a striking dark graphite frame.

Discussion: Amazon.com, more at Techmeme »

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Reuters makes executive changes as part of digital push — Thomson Reuters announced two changes to its management team as part of the transformation of Reuters into providing more content digitally. — Alisa Bowen has been appointed global head of business operations …

Discussion: Crain's New York Business and paidContent

Taylor Buley / Velocity:

Quora: A Technology Writer's Best Friend, For Now — Quora opened to the public last week, and it couldn't be better news for news-starved technology writers. — The site, which allows users to subscribe to topics and see publicly-asked questions and answers tagged with related subjects …

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

The Rise of the iAuteur — The mania for Apple's newest gadgets isn't confined to frighteningly obsessive consumers; filmmakers are now touting movies about, shot through and even edited on iPads and new iPhones. This gimmick content isn't nearly as bad as you might think.

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

New Internet site gives some thought for food — J im Spanfeller, former CEO of Forbes.com, is unveiling a new Web foodie site that he hopes will digest at least $20 million in revenue within three years. — If he is successful with the new venture, which is launching …

Reuters:

Google AdWords lacks transparency: French regulator — (Reuters) - France's antitrust regulator accused Google Inc of a lack of transparency over its keyword advertising service and ordered it to clarify conditions for the product within four months. — The Autorite de la Concurrence …

Discussion: Techdirt

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Police Torture Reporting Brings Verdict, but Who Will Do the Work Next Time Around? — Over two decades ago, John Conroy began investigating a case involving reports that Lt. Jon Burge and men under his command in the Chicago police department — they were called “The Midnight Crew” …

Discussion: blogs.vocalo.org and The Investigative Fund

Brad Stone / New York Times:

Stores See Google as Ally in E-Book Market — SAN FRANCISCO — Independent bookstores were battered first by discount chains like Barnes & Noble, then by superefficient Web retailers like Amazon.com. — Now the electronic book age is dawning. With this latest challenge …

Discussion: Fast Company, Media Analysis RSS, Publishing Perspectives and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Dembot:

Techcrunch TV Launches — My expectation is that Techcrunch TV is going to work out well. I am somewhat surprised there is not more press around the launch, this being Techcrunch. There are a few blog posts on Techmeme only (and without commentary) and I dont see any main stream media mentions.

Telegraph:

Telegraph communities: the arrival of Disqus and BuddyPress — I have been very quiet on this blog for far too long - and in the last few weeks that has actually meant silent. Many apologies, in particular to all the photographers who have missed the competition. Normal service will resume as of now.