Mediagazer: RUPERT MURDOCH, NEEL SHAH, AND THE SHORT PANTS (Ricky Van Veen's GET EXCITED)

Journalism Needs Government Help — Media budgets have been decimated as the Internet facilitates a communications revolution. More public funding for news-gathering is the answer. — We have entered a momentous period in the history of the American press.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Mediaite, Hot Air, Romenesko, National Review, State of the Fourth Estate and Free Press

Discussion: Hit & Run and The Progress & …

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

BBC Unveils Original U.S. News Site — U.K. Broadcaster Plans to Grab More Media Dollars, Not Pounds — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — At a time when many newsrooms are contracting or consolidating, the BBC is growing its editorial operations with an original news site aimed at the American audience.

Discussion: themediablog.typepad.com, Beehive City, The Next Web, Here's the Kicker, Guardian, the Econsultancy blog, currybetdotnet, BBC, Media Network and ResourceShelf

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“Smart editorial, smart readers, and smart ad solutions”: Slate makes a case for long-form on the web — Via blogs, or, more likely, Twitter, you might have come across the breezy term “tl;dr.” Which is short — appropriately — for “too long; didn't read.” — Yes.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Slate and eMedia Vitals

Ricky Van Veen's GET EXCITED:

RUPERT MURDOCH, NEEL SHAH, AND THE SHORT PANTS — Last month, my friend Neel Shah left his job at the New York Post's “Page Six” and moved to LA to write for a network sitcom. Neel's new gig marked not only the end of his time in New York, but the end of a year-long fascination …

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, New York Magazine, Poynter Online and Gawker

Rosie Gray / Runnin' Scared:

A Brief Defense of Writing Different Things — Yesterday, we ran a little item by this blogger defending American Apparel. Today, Gawker's Hamilton Nolan [and Voice boxing correspondent] responded with a retort entitled “A Brief Defense of Writing Things.” Ah, but Hamilton!

Discussion: Gawker

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and Soup

John Koblin / New York Observer:

Kaplan Talks Fairchild: ‘They Want Apps!’ … “I'm a media guy, not a fashion guy,” said Peter Kaplan, the new editorial director of Fairchild Fashion Group. “What I want to be thinking about is how to take these brands and get ahead of the culture in media terms.”

Discussion: Romenesko and The Wrap

Discussion: Media Decoder, WWD and The Wire

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

'Darth D'Vorkin' Arrives at Forbes — Highlander V was the last and largest of Malcolm Forbes' yachts. In the '80s, Mr. Forbes would throw parties on the boat for potential advertisers, his friends, captains of industry and politicians. Much like the galleries on the first floor …

Discussion: Gawker, Romenesko, Silicon Alley Insider and Talking Biz News

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Washington Post launches co-branded online business section with Bloomberg — The Post's business section partnership with Bloomberg comes after the January 2010 launch of a global news service, The Washington Post Service with Bloomberg News, which provides daily stories to newspapers, websites and other subscribers.

Discussion: Business Wire, Talking Biz News and New York Observer

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Steinbrenner's Death Gives Sports Illustrated a Chance to Flex an iPad Muscle — So far, most magazine publishers have tried hard to make their iPad editions a faithful translation of their paper-and-ink copies: What you pay for at the newsstand is the same thing you get from Apple's …

Discussion: Poynter Online, Mashable! and FishbowlNY, more at Techmeme »

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Malone: 'Murdoch's not afraid of the Hail Mary pass' — Bloomberg Television release on its interview with Liberty Media chairman John Malone — Video available for viewing and embedding. — MANDATORY CREDIT: BLOOMBERG TELEVISION — **HIGHLIGHTS BELOW** — On odds of Comcast/NBCU deal being approved:

Lionel Beehner / New York Times:

Up Close: A New-Media Mogul and Social Butterfly — IT was a rainy Tuesday night and Rex Sorgatz, a rail-thin man with spiky red hair and Sol Moscot glasses, walked into a birthday party held at Tom & Jerry's, a bar in NoHo that has become a go-to place for New York's Twitter class.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and New York Observer

Joe Pompeo / Silicon Alley Insider:

New Fox News App Shows Big Media Investing In Google's Android — Back in April, when Fox News Channel showed up to the iPhone party a bit later than most major news organizations, Jeremy Steinberg, FNC's VP for digital sales & business development, told paidContent's David Kaplan …

Discussion: WebNewser

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

‘Media Evangelist’ Explains How Tumblr Fits into News Organizations' Publishing Options — Mark Coatney, also known as “Newsweek Tumblr guy,” announced Monday that he had accepted a job as Tumblr's “media evangelist.” The position, he said, will allow him to teach other journalists …

Michael Wolff / Newser:

What's Really Going on Behind Murdoch's Paywall? — Follow him on Twitter @MichaelWolffNYC — Rupert Murdoch is trying to make news at the Times and Sunday Times in London—but he's not reporting on it. Will his paywall work is the biggest story in the media business …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Felix Salmon:

How to build a paywall — If you're going to put a paywall on your website, this is a very sensible way to do it: … David Brauer seems to be of the opinion that any new paywall should be “robust” and shouldn't be able to be defeated by means of a plugin (or by using multiple browsers …

Discussion: Romenesko and New York Magazine

Nicole Sperling / Hollywood Insider:

‘Tron: Legacy’ exclusive: Disney looks to Pixar for help; hires screenwriters Michael Arndt and Brad Bird to beef up script — Joe Kosinski's Tron: Legacy is getting a little help from above. EW.com has learned that the CG-extravaganza due out at the end of the year received some key input …

Discussion: /Film, Ain't It Cool News, The Wrap, MTV Movies Blog and io9

Joe Ciarallo / PRNewser:

Wall Street Journal Managing Editor Robert Thomson's Secret Twitter Feed — Is The Wall Street Journal's managing editor Robert Thomson on Twitter? That's what we asked Thomson at Dow Jones' summer social event last night in New York, hosted by the company's PR team.

Discussion: GalleyCat and FishbowlNY

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Oprah Magazine's iPad Edition Will Sell and Display E-Books — Hearst Magazines Readies App Editions from Esquire to Cosmo, Plus Fun and Utility Apps Not Tied to Issues — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Hearst Magazines sold more than 12,000 downloads of its Popular Mechanics iPad edition since …

Discussion: New York Observer

Steve Buttry / Pursuing the Complete Community …:

A possible new business model for obituaries — Monday night I criticized a Pennsylvania newspaper's plan to charge loyal online readers to read the obituaries. Today I want to suggest a more innovative, future-focused approach to obituaries. — I was interested that Ernie Schreiber …

Discussion: jeffsonderman

Josh Dickey / The Wrap:

Starting a Celeb Site? Get Your Own F$#(%!=g Mel Gibson Racist Rant — Want to make millions online? Get your hands on a celebrity's racist rant and start a website. Doesn't have to be in that order. — Bonus points if it's Mel Gibson. — It's hard to believe that less than five years …

David Kaplan / paidContent:

NPD: iTunes Users Have A ‘Strong Interest’ In Paid Subscription Services — But how much are they willing to pay to access music from iTunes via the cloud? A survey by marketing researcher NPD Group estimates that a base subscription rate of $10 a month would attract 13- to 15 million customers out of roughly 50 million iTunes users.

Discussion: NPD Group, more at Techmeme »

Jim O'Neill / Online Video News:

OVP Sorenson lands Shutterfly Video amid tough competition — Score a big win for Sorenson Media, which today announced it had landed Shutterfly as a customer for its Sorenson 360 platform. — Sorenson will power video services such as upload, transcoding, standard and high-definition playback …

Discussion: FierceTelecom

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Brazil newspaper gives up print to go online only — The Rio de Janeiro-based Jornal do Brasil is to stop circulating its 119-year-old print edition and appear only online. — Its owner, Nelson Tanure, took the decision after failing to sell the once-influential daily newspaper …

Discussion: Shaping the Future … and Journalism in the …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

It's Summer Rerun Time! As Time Warner Cable and Disney Face Off, a Refresher Course On Cord Cutting — The newest battle between a cable company and a TV network is so boring, and so repetitive, that it doesn't even merit a new lede. So I'm going to just reuse the one I wrote in March.

Discussion: NewTeeVee and Wall Street Journal

Rachel Dodes / Wall Street Journal:

The 80-Year Hunt For ‘It’ Fashions — Stores from Penney's to Bloomingdale's Read It. How the Original Trend Spotter Got Trendy Again — Catherine Moellering, at the Tobe Report's headquarters in New York's garment district. — On a recent Friday, Catherine Moellering had a fashion flash.

Discussion: Gawker