Mediagazer: Spot.Us Lessons: Journalists Work in, and For, the Public (MediaShift)

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, TechCrunch, Mashable!, paidContent, Fast Company, Editors Weblog, WebNewser, The Next Web, Techie Buzz and MediaFile, 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: Search Engine Roundtable, Computerworld, Fortune and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

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, Gawker, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine and Romenesko

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 »

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: Kindle Review, TeleRead, Poynter Online and Business Wire

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: Romenesko, The Huffington Post and Soup

Discussion: Philly.com, Gawker and Mother Jones

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

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: New York Observer and Fitz & Jen

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 …

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

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

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 …

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.

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.

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 »

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: paidContent

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 …

Discussion: Beyond Search and MediaPost

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: The Investigative Fund and blogs.vocalo.org

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 …

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.

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, FishbowlNY and MediaPost

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.

Jason Fell / Folio:

Publishers Say New Products Go Beyond Digital Magazines — Bonnier, Interweave launch ‘interactive’ products for viewing on computers. — At a time when magazine publishers are racing to market with applications for tablets and smartphones, Bonnier Corp. and Interweave have launched …