Mediagazer: How The Truth About Motorcycle Helmets Got A Journalist Fired (Jalopnik)

Andrew Goldman / Business Week:

Henry Blodget's Risky Bet on the Future of News — The former Net analyst, who left the industry in disgrace, is betting that it looks like his site, The Business Insider: Blaring, slide show-heavy, and bombastic — Henry Blodget is a man who will be neither easily riled nor insulted.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

We Need More Opinion In News, Not Less — I'm dismayed to see journalists continue to be punished, even fired, for expressing their opinions on the things they cover. Yesterday CNN terminated Octavia Nasr over a tweet praising a late Hezbollah leader. Last month Helen Thomas was forced to resign over statements about Israel.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and the nytpicker, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Is It Time to Stop Blogging and Start an Email Newsletter? — When entrepreneur Jason Calacanis shut down his blog in 2008 and replaced it with a subscription-only email newsletter, his move seemed to be more of a personal response to abusive reader comments rather than a leading indicator of a trend …

Discussion: MediaPost and Inc.com

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Jim Goldman Leaving CNBC for PR, Net Hires New Silicon Valley Reporter — Jim Goldman, CNBC's Silicon Valley bureau chief since 2003, is leaving the network, TVNewser has learned. And the business news channel has already found a new correspondent to cover the technology beat.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Time Takes a Step Away From Free Web Content — Time has decided to dive head first into an issue that has bedeviled many a news organization before it: how to wean online readers off their addictions to free content. — Time began taking content from its current issue off its Web site this week …

Discussion: Shaping the Future …, Mediaite, Newsweek, Nieman Journalism Lab, Crikey, Guardian and MediaMemo

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

National Public Radio is changing its name to NPR — No need for formalities here: National Public Radio now says it wants to be known simply as NPR. — So the Washington-based organization has quietly changed its name to its familiar initials. Much like the corporate names KFC or AT&T, the initials now stand for the initials.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Corner on National …, Romenesko and Current

Jay Rosen / PressThink:

Objectivity as a Form of Persuasion: A Few Notes for Marcus Brauchli — “Reporting can be trusted if it is cured of opinion. Reporting can be trusted if it is dusted with opinion. Or even completely interwoven with opinion. It can lead to conclusions. Or the conclusions can be left to others.”

Discussion: Mediaite and Writing / Editing

Jolie O'Dell / Mashable!:

Pete Cashmore on How He Grew Mashable [VIDEO] — Our CEO and founder Pete Cashmore recently sat down for an interview with Bloomberg Venture to talk about how Mashable has grown as a startup and a small business. — We're a humble outfit, but — in Bloomberg's words — we're also one of the world's most profitable blogs.

Peter Berger / AdAge:

Content Farms Compete With Book Publishers, Not News Sites — Suite101 CEO on the Online Journalism Debate and News Organizations' Red Herring — The debate about online content has spiked in recent weeks, particularly around journalism, with Demand Media providing content to news sites such as USA Today …

Lisa de Moraes / Moraes on TV:

‘Glee,’ ‘Pacific’ lead Emmy noms; Conan triumphs over Jay — Broadcast TV got a major shot in the arm Thursday when Fox's perky high-school musical comedy “Glee” nabbed the most Emmy nominations for any series, 19, and ABC's mockumentary comedy “Modern Family” received 14.

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Wrap, Mediaite, National Media, The Daily Beast and rbr.com

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:

What Can Our Times Learn From the Launch of the London Times' Pay Wall? — On July 2, the London Times went behind a pay wall, enforcing a £2 a week surcharge to read any and all of its content. It was Rupert Murdoch's decision to make the move, as part of his larger plan to move …

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Melena Ryzik / New York Times:

For Web-Financed Film Projects, a Curtain Rises — Kickstarter is a concept: a Web site that puts together creative types seeking money with backers willing to chip in micro- and macro-payments, a way to crowd-source the financing of ideas. Started last year, the company has become …

Discussion: PAPERMAG, NYConvergence and Soup

Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb:

Facebook Dominates Third-Party Logins For All But News — More and more, we're logging into websites using our credentials from sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google or Yahoo. But which one is leading in the battle of the third-party login? What login do we chose when it comes to entertainment sites like MTV?

Discussion: Search Engine Watch, All Facebook, MediaPost and Inside Facebook, more at Techmeme »

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Comcast promises $20 million for venture capital fund for minority entrepreneurs — Comcast Corp. said it will contribute at least $20 million to a venture capital fund that the cable giant is creating to back minority entrepreneurs in developing new media content and technology.

Discussion: MediaPost, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable and paidContent

Jalopnik:

How The Truth About Motorcycle Helmets Got A Journalist Fired — Dexter Ford was a three-decades-long veteran of Motorcyclist, a motorcycle enthusiast magazine, until he was fired in September. Now, recently-revealed email exchanges indicate he was canned after a motorcycle helmet story …

Discussion: Deadspin

Russ Smith / splicetoday.com:

Pass the Gravy, Mom — The Wall Street Journal's signature “a-hed” front-story is thriving, despite predictions that Rupert Murdoch would ditch it. — Two years ago, in a long feature story for The Atlantic about Rupert Murdoch and his takeover of The Wall Street Journal …

Discussion: Romenesko

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

Media, Tech Chiefs Fret Over Economy — SUN VALLEY, Idaho —Media and technology executives and investors are sounding new alarms bells about the economy, worried it could wipe out recent growth. — In an interview Thursday morning at the Allen & Co. conference in Sun Valley …

Discussion: The Wire and MediaFile

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Rob Lowe may join bid for Miramax — The Miramax story took another strange turn yesterday when actor Rob Lowe emerged as a potential player in a bid to acquire the film studio from Walt Disney Co. — Lowe has ties to Tom Barrack's Colony Capital, which five days ago threw its hat …

Discussion: New York Times and DailyFinance

Dawn Chmielewski / Company Town:

Ari Emanuel stuffs CAA with role in ESPN's LeBron James deal — Usually, when agents score a big deal they like to boast about it. — But Creative Artists Agency has been curiously mum about a bona finde coup involving NBA superstar client LeBron James, who will announce …

Discussion: rbr.com, Speakeasy, blogs.tampabay.com, TVNewser, The Wire and Media Decoder

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

An introduction to data scraping with Scraperwiki — Last week I spent a day playing with the screen scraping website Scraperwiki with a class of MA Online Journalism students and a local blogger or two, led by Scraperwiki's own Anna Powell-Smith. I thought I might take the opportunity …