Mediagazer: The Legacy Media And Torture (Andrew Sullivan/The Daily Dish)

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

Google News Has Major Redesign: Personalization, Sharing & “News Stream” Offered — Today, Google News is undergoing its first major redesign since being launched in 2002. Gone is the default “section” view, replaced instead by a “news stream” view of stories.

Discussion: Fortune and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

New study documents media's servitude to government — A newly released study from students at Harvard's John F. Kennedy School of Government provides the latest evidence of how thoroughly devoted the American establishment media is to amplifying and serving (rather than checking) government officials.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Discussion: Gawker, Philly.com and Mother Jones

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: Tower Ticker and Romenesko

Discussion: Fitz & Jen and New York Observer

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Hulu CEO Jason Kilar: We're No Cable Killer! We Swear! — If you're planning on swapping out your expensive cable TV service for Hulu's $10 a month subscription offering, Jason Kilar has advice for you: Don't do it! — The Hulu CEO insists that his “Hulu Plus” service …

Discussion: NewTeeVee, Crikey, ReadWriteWeb, The Money Game, Silicon Alley Insider, the Econsultancy blog and The Wire, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

MSNBC Hires Mark Halperin — Adding to its roster of political boldface names ahead of the midterm elections, MSNBC said Wednesday that it had signed Mark Halperin as a senior political analyst. — Mr. Halperin holds the same position at Time magazine, where he is also an editor at large

Discussion: TVNewser, The Wire, Salon and WebNewser

Lucia Moses / Mediaweek:

Seventeen.com Relaunches With a Social Networking Push — Following the recent boom and bust of teen magazines like Teen People and Elle Girl, the remainder has less competition on newsstands. But they also face new rivals for readers who have come of age amid social networks and other digital diversions.

Discussion: Publishing Executive News and FishbowlNY

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 …

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Warner Music Group Taps MTV For Content Partnership And Video Advertising Sales — Warner Music Group (WMG) has partnered with MTV's Music Group to give MTV exclusive rights to sell ad inventory around WMG's music video content in the U.S. across MTV Music Group digital properties and mobile services …

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

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Viacom Fights YouTube in Court, but That Won't Stop It From Selling YouTube Ads — Google and Viacom are still fighting in court. But in the real world, they're about to be partners, in a way: The cable network's MTV unit is going to start selling ads on Google's YouTube …

Kuan Yong / YouTube API Blog:

Flash and the HTML5 tag — There's been a lot of discussion lately about whether or not the HTML5 <video> tag is going to replace Flash Player for video distribution on the web. We've been excited about the HTML5 effort and <video> tag for quite a while now, and most YouTube videos can now be played via our HTML5 player.

Discussion: PC World, TechCrunch, Relevant Results, NewTeeVee, MarketingVOX, ReadWriteWeb, Engadget, CNET News, THINQ.co.uk and Gizmodo

Julia Boorstin / CNBC:

Movie Piracy Crackdown Begins, Internet Sites Seized — The U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) just announced a major takedown of nine movie piracy sites that illegally offered first-run movies, some within just hours of their theatrical release.

Discussion: The Wrap, Variety, Post Tech, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Techdirt and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

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.

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

The New York Times' Hyperlocal Jersey Experiment Is Dunzo — The New York Times has scrapped its hyperlocal blog covering the New Jersey towns Millburn, Maplewood and South Orange, and worked out an arrangement with the popular hyperlocal website Baristanet to take over its coverage of those areas.

Discussion: Baristanet, The Local, BuzzMachine and FishbowlNY

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 …

more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Wired's iPad App Boasts a New Feature: A Price Cut — The second edition of Condé Nast's much-praised Wired magazine iPad app is out, and it boasts some new features. The biggest one: A 20 percent price cut. — The magazine publisher sold some 95,000 digital copies of its June issue at $4.99 …

Discussion: paidContent, FishbowlNY, Folio, WebNewser, Electronista and eMedia Vitals, more at Techmeme »

Steve Spillman / The Big Money:

Introducing Re:Tweet — Why TBM needs a new blog on Twitter. — I'm not sure if you've realized, but there's no major blog dedicated to Twitter. Crazy, right? Someone called Ryan Star has a blog about him, and I don't even know who that is. There's also one for singer Susan Boyle, and she's not even a major social network.

Discussion: The Awl, Romenesko, City Room and TechCrunch

Ned Resnikoff / Salon:

“Neutral” journalism can't die fast enough — We'd all be better off if reporters simply acknowledged their biases and disclosed them to their audiences — You're probably already sick of Weigelgate (and if you don't know what that is, here's a primer from Weigel himself …

Discussion: Big Journalism

Michael Mechanic / Mother Jones:

Secrets of a Two-Time Pulitzer Winner — The Washington Post's Gene Weingarten talks about every parent's worst nightmare and how journalism saved him from smack. — Post Comment — What would a hit man charge to take out Gene Weingarten? — That's likely the first question …

Discussion: Romenesko

The Irish Times:

Banker, maverick and couturier - unlikely trio betting on journalism — Why have three of France's canniest businessmen bought debt-ridden ‘Le Monde’ at such a difficult time in the industry, asks RUADHÁN MAC CORMAIC in Paris — ONE IS a punk rock-loving banker who attended one of France's elite finishing schools.

Discussion: /Message