Mediagazer: Playboy put in play (Kaja Whitehouse/New York Post)

John Timmer / Ars Technica:

Citizen journalism not making up for loss of local newspapers — In the US, traditional newspapers have undergone a period of contraction, with many papers shutting down entirely. This has been especially hard on local news, because even those newspapers that survive are likely to be consolidated …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Kaja Whitehouse / New York Post:

Playboy put in play — Hugh Hefner, the 84-year old founder of legendary girlie mag Playboy, sparked a battle over his graying empire yesterday when he offered to take his adult entertainment company private in a deal that values the franchise at just $185 million.

Discussion: Company Town

Brett Pulley / Bloomberg:
Penthouse Owner to Compete With Hefner for Playboy Control

Discussion: New York Times, Financial Times and New York Magazine

PR Newswire:
Playboy Enterprises, Inc. Announces Receipt of 'Going Private …

Discussion: Folio, paidContent, Wall Street Journal, DealBook, Associated Press, Globe and Mail, Multichannel, New York Observer, MinOnline, rbr.com and The Wire

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Renowned Journalist Johnnie Roberts Joins TheWrap — I'm delighted to bring you the news this morning that Johnnie L. Roberts, an award-winning journalist well-known in Hollywood and media circles and a veteran of Newsweek and The Wall Street Journal, has joined TheWrap as an editor-at-large.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Romenesko and FishbowlNY

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Mediaite, Tumblr Staff, FishbowlNY and Vaccinium & Co.

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:
Newsweek's Excellent Tumblr Editor Is Leaving For ... Tumblr!

Discussion: Romenesko, more at Techmeme »

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Time Warner inks $300M ad deal — Time Warner has struck a multiyear advertising pact worth as much as $300 million with consumer products giant Unilever, The Post has learned. — The three-year deal spans Time Warner's magazine, television and Internet properties and includes a digital tie-in with Time magazine's iPad app.

John / Tunerfish:

“Dateline” announces partnership with social discovery engine Tunerfish — NEW YORK - July 12, 2010 - In a unique partnership, NBC News highly-rated primetime newsmagazine, “Dateline,” and the social discovery engine, Tunerfish, will be working together to help reward viewers this summer.

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Netflix Edges Past Hulu In Total U.S. Traffic (comScore) — As the great race to become America's favorite source of full-length TV and movie streams gets underway, two of the favorites in that race are Hulu and Netflix. Hulu has a fairly large headstart.

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Rick Sanchez: Rick's List Moving to 8 PM — CNN's Rick Sanchez is coming to primetime, at least temporarily. On “Rick's List” today, Sanchez casually dropped this line: — “Pretty soon we're going to have two things going on. A: We're going to be doing this newscast at 8:00 at night.

Discussion: New York Post, The Wrap, Mediaite, Chickaboomer and The Wire

Peter Lauria / The Daily Beast:

Moguls Revolt Against Obama — At last week's Sun Valley summit of media titans, the mood was dour, the forecast anxious. Peter Lauria on how America's moguls are growing increasingly skeptical about the president. — The White House's charm offensive toward the business community …

Discussion: The Wire

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Report: Search Ad Spending Up 24 Percent During Quarter — Search engine marketing firm Efficient Frontier says in a report to be released later today that search ad spending jumped 24 percent year-over-year during the quarter. That marks the second consecutive quarter of double-digit growth …

Discussion: MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

James Hibberd / Reuters:

New Comedy Central star outdraws Stewart, Colbert — LOS ANGELES (Hollywood Reporter) - Who's the most popular host on Comedy Central? — It's not Jon Stewart. And, no, it's not Stephen Colbert. — Daniel Tosh has surpassed both in the ratings to have the most-watched and top-rated studio-based show on the cable network.

Discussion: rbr.com, MediaPost and Silicon Alley Insider

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

HP's Snapfish Buys Video Sharing Site Motionbox — HP's Snapfish—which currently is primarily an online photo storage service—is expanding into video with the purchase of video sharing site Motionbox. HP (NYSE: HPQ) says it will integrate Motionbox's platform, which lets users upload …

Discussion: CNET News, The Business Of Online Video, NewTeeVee and CrunchGear, more at Techmeme »

Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:

Domino's UK Social Media Initiatives Help Increase Profits by 29% — According to Domino's UK financial earnings report, the company has increased its pre-tax profit by nearly 29%, which equates to roughly $26 million. The UK pizza retailer attributes social media initiatives and its Foursquare promotion for the gains.

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Turner, Time Inc. Execs Got The SI.com Deal Done; Now About Making It Work — We all have personal soundtracks. Mine started playing Maybe This Time soon after I got off the phone with the top executives responsible for crafting the Turner/SI.com deal between Time Warner (NYSE: TWX) …

Discussion: MinOnline, Publishing Executive …, The Wire, Digital Daily and Wall Street Journal

Tim Carmody / Snarkmarket:

What's next for TV? — In a post yesterday, I offhandedly referred to “giving up TV.” But like giving up Facebook, very few of us have actually given up TV. What's happened instead is that (like with Facebook), TV has become a problem. — Sure — historically, TV has probably lost whatever monopoly …

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

Malone Is Fired Up by Cable and Ready to Buy — Liberty Media Chairman John Malone is fired up about cable again, believing its high speeds will give it an edge over satellite as consumers devour more entertainment digitally. — The compulsive deal maker says he is looking for new investments …

Discussion: Company Town

Lucia Moses / Mediaweek:

USA Today Puts Itself Under Wraps With Ad — USA Today buyers who are looking for the news in Monday's issue will have trouble finding it. — Amid a still-tough ad environment, the Gannett flagship will for the first time wrap its news section with an ad—one that will completely obscure …

Discussion: Romenesko and Gannett Blog

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Should Magazines Tag Advertorial Content for the Google Bots? — There's been quite a row in the science blogging world in the last week over Pepsi's purchase of a corporate blog on SEED Magazine's ScienceBlogs. Many of the network's bloggers responded with outrage over the intrusion of advertorial content into their midst.

Discussion: John Pavlus

Mike Shields / Adweek:

Will YouTube Swim in Publicis' ‘Pool’? — Starcom and its partners would like YouTube to join them in implementing The Ad Selector — Several of the Web's biggest publishers will meet this Thursday at Starcom MediaVest Group's offices in Chicago, with the top item on the agenda …

Discussion: NewTeeVee

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

WSJ national security reporter Dreazen joins National Journal — Yochi Dreazen Joins National Journal Group — Washington, D.C. (July 12, 2010) The National Journal Group announced today that veteran national security reporter Yochi Dreazen will be joining National Journal …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Edward Kosner / Wall Street Journal:

Too Good To Check — How journalists create myths and legends, not least about themselves. — Hello, city desk, get me rewrite. Here's the lead: Many of the landmark moments in American journalism are carefully nurtured myths—or, worse, outright fabrications.