Mediagazer: Channel Five pulls out of Project Canvas (Emma Barnett/Telegraph)

5:30 PM ET, July 9, 2010

Top News:

Darren Rovell / CNBC:

Reporter Jim Gray Paid By LeBron Entity, Not ESPN — As Jim Gray has told it, it was his idea to make LeBron James' free agent plan an hour special. He took the idea to James' marketing agent Maverick Carter of LRMR, who then worked with William Morris Endeavor to put the package together in front of ESPN executives.

Discussion: Charles Apple, Deadline.com, The Wire, New York Observer, New York Magazine, NY Daily News, USA Today, Z on TV, SBNation.com and Soup

John D. Sutter / CNN:

Cavs owner's letter mocked for Comic Sans font — Editor's note: NBA.com and CNN.com share the same parent company, Turner Broadcasting Services Inc. — (CNN) — Dear computer users: If you're ever going to write a fuming letter, think twice before setting the font to the oh-so-mockable Comic Sans.

Discussion: The Awl, Best Week Ever, The Daily Fix, TechCrunch, Geekosystem, PopWatch and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Sports Illustrated:

ESPN's LeBron circus good for TV ratings, bad for sports media … Author and LeBronologist Buzz Bissinger described it as TV's equivalent of waterboarding. New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro called it an “awful night for Cleveland, worse night for sports, worst night for ESPN.”

Discussion: Vanity Fair, Los Angeles Times, Wall Street Journal and Romenesko

Mike Reynolds / Multichannel:
Sun Sports Should Rise With LeBron Addition

Discussion: The Big Picture, Tower Ticker, MediaPost, Media Decoder, TVbytheNumbers, Speakeasy, MediaMemo, CJR, Moraes on TV, Gothamist, Relevant Results and ChicagoNow

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

YouTube Starts $5 Million Fund to Finance Original Videos — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In a cautious move into the original content business, search titan Google announced that its YouTube property has created a $5 million fund to help finance more original videos.

Discussion: YouTube Blog, paidContent, Bits, NewTeeVee, TechCrunch, Erictric, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Hollywood Rewired, ReadWriteWeb, All Things Digital and MarketingVOX, more at Techmeme »

The Huffington Post:

Warren Buffett Interview In Sun Valley: Buffett Reveals His Surprising Web Habits (VIDEO) — WHAT'S YOUR REACTION? — The Oracle of Omaha may not have an iPod, iPad, or Facebook account, but, excluding email, he spends more time on the computer than Bill Gates and says YouTube has won him over.

Discussion: SocialTimes.com, MediaMemo, YouTube Blog and New York Magazine

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Rewired:

Google woos studios, guilds in Sun Valley — Attention movie studios: Google's YouTube is open for business with you and other content partners. — That was a key message from the Google top management team here Thursday as chairman and CEO Eric Schmidt (pictured) and co-founders Larry Page …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Steve Myers / Poynter Online:

Chat Replay: The Future of ‘Objective’ Journalism after David Weigel's Departure from the Post — David Weigel's departure from The Washington Post has sparked a lot of conversation — not only about his e-mails to JournoList that led to his resignation, but about whether and how journalists …

Discussion: Esquire

David Folkenflik / NPR:

As ‘Truth-O-Meter’ Spreads, Politicians Wince — Texas Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst woke up the other day to find the newspaper had declared on the front page that he was dead wrong. — To be precise, the Austin American-Statesman said Dewhurst had made statements about kidnapping in Phoenix that were FALSE.

Discussion: Editors Weblog and The Texas Tribune

Business Wire:

Salon.com Boosts Readership and Revenue in Second Quarter 2010 — Readership Climbs 20% and Revenue Jumps 40% as New Projects Attract Readers and Advertisers — Companies: — Related Quotes — SymbolPriceChange — 0.15 — SAN FRANCISCO—(BUSINESS WIRE)—New partnerships …

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.

Discussion: Inc.com

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

One Week Of Hulu Plus: Glee-Full But Not Giddy — Is Hulu Plus worth $10 a month? It all depends on the programming you like to watch, how much of it you want to access and how often. I've been using the long-anticipated subscription service from the joint venture of Disney (NYSE: DIS) …

Discussion: NewTeeVee

Om Malik / GigaOM:
Conversation: Hulu CEO on Netflix, Hulu Plus and Broadband

Discussion: paidContent, Fast Company and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

Condé Nast Traveller Blends Location and Augmented Reality in New iPhone Apps — Condé Nast Digital Britain recently unveiled a series of apps for the iPhone and iPod touch, dubbed Condé Nast Traveller City Guides. There are four separate apps for Barcelona, New York, Paris and Rome priced at $9.99 each.

Discussion: MEDIA BEESWAX

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Twitter Forces Media to Confront the Myth of Objectivity — Twitter has claimed another journalist — this time a senior editor at CNN, and a 20-year veteran of the news network. Octavia Nasr agreed to leave the company after she posted a message on Twitter expressing sadness over the death …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Politics Daily, Fast Company, Editors Weblog, Mediaite and Wonk Room

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Yahoo! Connected TV Is An Open Platform — SUNNYVALE, CA — Yahoo's connected TV initiative, which brings Web video to Internet enabled television sets, has over 1000 content sources and has opened up its platform for publishers with available API's and certain media RSS feeds.

Emma Barnett / Telegraph:

Channel Five has pulled out of Project Canvas, the BBC-backed internet TV box.

Guardian:

Titus goes in DMGT digital shakeup — Richard Titus, chief executive of Associated Northcliffe Digital, is leaving as businesses absorbed into consumer division — Daily Mail & General Trust is to dissolve its standalone consumer digital arm, Associated Northcliffe Digital …

Frank Bajak / Associated Press:

US denies visa to Colombian journalist — BOGOTA, Colombia — The U.S. government has denied a visa to a prominent Colombian journalist who specializes in conflict and human rights reporting to attend a prestigious fellowship at Harvard University. — Hollman Morris, who produces …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, mediabistro.com and Romenesko

Suzanne / Online Journalism Blog:

Magazines and digital: a report from the PTC Academies and Industry Forum — Suzanne Kavanagh reports on key insights and highlights from the Periodicals Training Council (PTC) Academies and Industry Forum, at Bauer Media's central London office. — Editorial is at the heart of management at Bauer …

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:

New Apple TV Will Push 99 Cent Streaming TV Rentals — Apple is about to get a lot more serious about its “hobby” with the next release of its Apple TV set-top box, as sources say that the software company will look to push a new streaming rental service that will offer up individual TV episodes for 99 cents.

Discussion: PC World, Mashable!, Go Rumors, Fast Company, CrunchGear and Gizmodo