Mediagazer: Le Monde gets a new owner (Economist)

8:20 AM ET, June 30, 2010

Top News:

CNN:

Statement from Larry King — Before I start the show tonight, I want to share some personal news with you. 25 years ago, I sat across this table from New York Governor Mario Cuomo for the first broadcast of Larry King Live. Now, decades later, I talked to the guys here at CNN and I told …

Discussion: GalleyCat, The Wrap, Mashable!, Mediaite, Speakeasy, Bloomberg, Variety, The Live Feed | THR, Gawker, Multichannel, MediaPost, The Informer, The Huffington Post, Politics Daily, New York Magazine, Collective Talent, Movieline and Media Decoder

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Larry King to End Show After 25 Years — In the face of falling ratings, the CNN host Larry King announced Tuesday evening that he would end his long-running talk show, “Larry King Live,” this fall. — Jonathan Klein, president of CNN's domestic channel, said that Mr. King, 76 …

Discussion: Tuned In and Inside Cable News

Frankie Stone / The Wrap: Why Was the Larry King Announcement Handled So Badly?

Nick Bilton / Bits:

Digital Magazines Don't Encourage Socializing — You've got to hand it to the magazine publishers. They continue to throw spaghetti against the iPad and other e-readers trying to see what will stick and what falls to the floor. — Most publishers are aggressively experimenting …

Discussion: BRANDING UNBOUND

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Wired's iPad App Boasts a New Feature: A Price Cut — The second edition of Conde 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 has sold some 95,000 digital copies of its June issue at $4.99 …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

John Koblin / New York Observer:

Conde Nast Dos or Don'ts: Special Editions and Movie Trivia Apps! — Two announcements out of 4 Times Square today, both of which the company hopes help move it ever so slowly into the future, even if these are concessions that would have been unimaginable to Si Newhouse and many editors within the company just two years ago.

Discussion: Publishing Executive …, Crain's New York Business, Romenesko, The Wire, Eater National, Gawker and MinOnline

Andrew Breitbart / Big Journalism:

Reward: $100,000 for Full ‘JournoList’ Archive; Source Fully Protected — I've had $100,000 burning in my pocket for the last three months and I'd really like to spend it on a worthy cause. So how about this: in the interests of journalistic transparency, and to offer the American public …

Discussion: Ben Smith's Blog, Salon, The Atlantic Wire, Media Decoder, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Weekly Standard, Media Matters for America, The Awl, FishbowlDC and New York Observer

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Hulu Unveils Subscription Service For $9.99 a Month — Updated: 2:50 p.m.: Confirming what the entertainment world has been expecting for months, the online television Web site Hulu unveiled a subscription service on Tuesday, promising access to more episodes of TV shows to customers who pay $9.99 a month.

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Interview: Hulu's Kilar: Hulu Plus Preview Progamming Is ‘Just Step One’

Discussion: AdAge, NewTeeVee and Media Maverick

Doug Aamoth / Techland:
Hulu Plus: Every Episode from Every Season for $10 Per Month

Discussion: VideoNuze and Tubefilter News

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

NewsLabs folds just months after launch, regrets big promises to journalists — E-mails regarding the demise of NewsLabs — From: [Chief technology officer] Nathan Chong — As I'm sure you've noticed not much has been happening with the site recently. I'm very sorry to report that this is because NewsLabs is ending.

Discussion: The Awl and eMedia Vitals

Matt Mireles / The Metamorphosis: Duty & Failure — I ran across this “shutting down” …

Michael Miner / Chicago Reader:

Alison Draper on Alison True — Alison Draper, publisher of the Reader, has talked a little with me about the decision she and Creative Loafing CEO Marty Petty came to to fire this paper's editor, Alison True. “It was made with tremendous thought, and regardless of my personal feelings …

Discussion: Romenesko and Association …

Julia Angwin / Digits:

YouTube to Introduce ‘Skippable’ Ads — Google Inc.'s YouTube plans to introduce “skippable” ads later this year, senior product manager Baljeet Singh said Tuesday at a Google press conference. — Mr. Singh said that the new format will let users skip the pre-roll ads that are embedded in videos …

Discussion: Telegraph, NewTeeVee, paidContent and The Next Web

Economist:

Le Monde gets a new owner — LE MONDE, the iconic French newspaper founded by Charles de Gaulle after Paris was freed from Nazi occupation, has been saved from insolvency. On June 28th, its supervisory board voted 20 to 11 to accept a takeover bid by three French businessmen, Pierre Bergé …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, /Message and The Irish Times

The FADER:

Sam Sifton's Golden Ears and Million Dollar Taste Buds — Eater.com is obsessed with Sam Sifton. The still semi-new New York Times food critic has been gleefully stalked by the website as though he were a rare bird. Sifton's writing has an occasionally dramatic flair that has both riled …

Robertson Barrett / eMedia Vitals:

Why Google is good for journalism — It's time for news publishers to get over their anxiety about Google and embrace the search economy. Magazines and newspapers that are not actively competing for audience share (and revenue) on search engines are doing their brand, journalists and readers a disservice.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Andrew Wallenstein / Hollywood Rewired:

Yahoo names new original programming chief (exclusive) — Yahoo has tapped a top programming executive for the video side of its drive to ramp up original content at the portal. — Erin McPherson has been named VP and head of originals and video programming, reporting to Yahoo Media chief Jimmy Pitaro.

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

Branded Entertainment Set to Surge — Increased spending in the sector is expected to continue unabated — Branded entertainment marketing dipped for the first time in 2009, but it's forecast to roar back this year, according to PQ Media's new report on the industry released today.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Media Buyer Planner and MediaPost

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

The #WorldCup Drives 1 Million Downloads Of MobiTV iPhone App — Over 1 million of users have purchased and downloaded the MobiTV iPhone app, propelling it to number two on Apple's Top Grossing apps list. — The application (iTunes link), which was released in April 2010 and is only available …

Discussion: PR Newswire

comScore, Inc.:

Flash and Rich Media Ads Represent 40 Percent of U.S. Online Display Ad Impressions — JPEG Still Leads as Top Ad Format at 42 Percent — comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today announced the introduction of the Ad Metrix Creative Summary report …

Discussion: Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, MediaPost, the Econsultancy blog and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

splicetoday.com:

New Media, Old Media, David Weigel's Firing, and Why Everyone is S**tting on Drudge — It's all pretty FUBAR. — Last week, the blogosphere lit up over the firing of blogger-reporter David Weigel at the Washington Post. Covering the conservative movement, Weigel was and is respected by partisans of all stripes.

Discussion: New York Magazine