Mediagazer: Squarespace Gets $38M to Compete With WordPress and Six Apart (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

Michelle Kung / Speakeasy:

Want a Shout-Out From the Old Spice Guy? … In a marketing campaign that practically screams, “make me go viral,” actor Isaiah Mustafa — better known as the Old Spice Guy — is tweeting out links to YouTube videos where he's thanking fans, journalists and celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Alyssa Milano.

Discussion: iMediaConnection Blog, Technically Incorrect, mUmBRELLA, Geekosystem, PSFK, Ministry of Gossip, Adverblog, Daily Beauty Reporter, Urlesque, The Next Web, On The Air, Jackalope Ranch and Gizmodo

Viral Old Spice Man Ads Could Be Model for Internet Video — Look at your marketing campaign, now back at Old Spice's. Sadly, your campaign isn't Old Spice's. — The company took its well-produced marketing campaign, and its baritone-voiced star Isaiah Mustafa, online …

Discussion: digg.com, The Huffington Post, PopWatch and TechCrunch

Robin Sloan / Snarkmarket:
Video that scales (on a horse, backwards)

Discussion: CyberJournalist.net, Mashable! and Social Fresh

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Appeals Court Strikes Down Indecency Rule — A United States appeals court tossed out the indecency policy of the Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday, calling it a violation of the First Amendment. — An appeals panel said the F.C.C. policy was “unconstitutionally vague …

Discussion: New York Times, Los Angeles Times, BuzzMachine, Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost, Media Access Project, Company Town, New York Magazine, Techdirt, Technology Liberation Front, rbr.com, New York Times, The Wire, Slashdot and Washington Monthly

Media Decoder:

Piers Morgan a Step Closer to ‘Larry King’ Chair — Piers Morgan, the mean judge on NBC's “America's Got Talent,” is poised to take over Larry King's coveted time slot on CNN, thanks to an imminent deal between the two media giants that own the channels. — NBC, which attracts 20 million viewers to …

Discussion: The Wrap, B&C, Inside Cable News, New York Observer, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Lee C. Bollinger / Wall Street Journal:

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.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Squarespace Gets $38M to Compete With WordPress and Six Apart — Squarespace, a hosted content service that competes with companies such as WordPress (see disclosure below) has closed a $38-million financing round from two leading technology VCs — Accel Partners and Index Ventures …

Discussion: paidContent, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb

Nathan Heller / Slate:

The genius of the Wise and Cranky Kaplan Twitter feeds. Plus: Their authors, revealed. — Beyond the known forces conspiring to make a pigeon of an honest editor these days—the bottom line, the top brass, slide shows of dogs, Rupert Murdoch—there is, lately, the added fear …

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Curtis Brainard / CJR:

A Second Chance — How mobile devices can absolve journalism of its original sin: giving away online content — 1 Talk to people who are into mobile reading devices like the Kindle and the iPad, and a scene from the movie Minority Report tends to come up. Tom Cruise, who is on the run from the law, is on a train.

Discussion: news i/o, Romenesko and Kirk LaPointe's …

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Mother Jones reports 125% increase in unique visitors in 2Q — Mother Jones traffic and digital revenue soar to record levels in 2Q 2010 — Mother Joneswhich just won its second National Magazine Award for General Excellence in three yearsreported today that its investigative reporting …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

BrauBlog:

Journalism Online's Press+ paywall: easy to defeat — After my skeptical post yesterday about Journalism Online's new Press+ paywall at the Lancaster (Pa.) Online site, a source let me know how easy it was to beat the meter. — Recall that the meter allows out-of-towners to read seven obits for free …

Discussion: Romenesko, Pursuing the Complete …, New York Magazine and Leadership

reddit:

This was a triumph. — We're making a note, here: On three separate fronts, reddit gold has emerged as what can only be termed a huge success: We're getting a much-needed cash infusion. We've shown that, despite popular belief, people on the Internet are willing to be supportive if you treat them with honesty and respect.

Discussion: Mashable!, TechCrunch, Changing Way, Erictric, Pulse2, New York Observer and Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim

Nikki Finke / Deadline.com:

My First & Last Statement On HBO's ‘Tilda’ — Considering how many inaccurate media claims have been made regarding myself and the potential series Tilda for HBO, I wish to set the record straight. I had no prior knowledge that this show was being created or put into development.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, The Wrap and New York Magazine

Brian Steinberg / AdAge:

How Cisco Got the Spotlight in CNBC News Segments — The Pressure Is on as Marketers Seek Ways Into News Shows — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Cisco Systems is enjoying prominent screen time within news programming on the business-news cable channel CNBC, which is using Cisco's TelePresence …

Discussion: BusinessJournalism.org …, Romenesko and Talking Biz News

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

Kraft Unveils App for Apple's IPad — Food Giant Aims ‘Big Fork, Little Fork’ Utility at Parents in Their 20s and 30s — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — While much of the buzz around iPads has focused on publishers and their digital magazines, one of the few brand apps on the market sounds like a publishing project, too.

Discussion: iMediaConnection Blog and 5 Blogs Before Lunch

Cory Doctorow / Guardian:

Reports of blogging's death have been greatly exaggerated — Blooging is not on the way out - it's just that other social media have taken over many of its functions — A report last month in the Economist tells us that “blogging is dying” as more and more bloggers abandon the form for its cousins …

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Dawna Friesen Leaving NBC News to Anchor Canadian Network Newscast — NBC News Correspondent Dawna Friesen is leaving the network after 11 years and will join Canada's Global National Newscast as anchor, TVNewser has learned. — Friesen replaces former “Good Morning America” …

Dennis Kneale / CNBC:

Rupert Murdoch Should Break Up News Corp — Rupert Murdoch became one of the great builders of business empires in the 20th century, starting in 1952 with a small family-owned newspaper in Australia and relentlessly adding properties like trinkets on a charm bracelet.

Oyl Miller / McSweeney's:

Tweet (7/13/10) — I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by brevity, over-connectedness, emotionally starving for attention, dragging themselves through virtual communities at 3 am, surrounded by stale pizza and neglected dreams, looking for angry meaning, any meaning …

Matt Saldana / Speakeasy:

Liz Phair: Why I Left My Record Company … Following last week's surprise release of “Funstyle,” an online-only album that vents frustration at the recording industry, rocker Liz Phair has posted an instructive note on her website, titled “How To Like It.” In it, she announces that …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Jennifer Van Grove / Mashable!:

The Boston Globe Takes Readers on Mobile Scavenger Hunt — The Boston Globe is encouraging mobile users to hit the streets of Boston and learn a little more about the city's attractions with a new checkin-based scavenger hunt. — If you think the publication is using Foursquare for the promotion, think again.

Discussion: Boston Globe

Joanne Kaufman / Wall Street Journal:

Authors: Where Do I Sign? — When “Marry Him: The Case for Settling for Mr. Good Enough” was published earlier this year, its Los Angeles-based author, Lori Gottlieb, nabbed the brass ring: an appearance on “The Today Show.” Far more problematic was securing a slot for a book signing …

Discussion: GalleyCat and New York Observer

New York Post:

Another CNN King doomed? — The next head to roll at CNN will be John King's, insiders say. “Since King replaced Lou Dobbs, he's lost more than half his audience,” one source told us. “If it were a fight, it would be stopped on a TKO because of the bleeding.”

Discussion: TVNewser, B&C, Mediaite, Gawker, Inside Cable News, Vanity Fair, TVWeek.com, The Wrap and New York Magazine

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

On Hyperlocals, Hyper-hiring, and Hype — MainStreetConnect has big plans for the future — Carll Tucker, founder of hyperlocal news organization MainStreetConnect, was profiled on Wednesday on Journalism.co.uk, and his claims about the company's goals raised some eyebrows at CJR.