Mediagazer: Washington Post acquires iCurrent, a personal news aggregator (exclusive) (Matt Marshall/VentureBeat)

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

How the Old Spice Videos Are Being Made — How do you take the social web by storm in a day, winning over even the coldest of hearts and gaining international acclaim - with commercials? — A team of creatives, tech geeks, marketers and writers gathered in an undisclosed location in Portland …

Discussion: Fast Company, NewTeeVee, Pulse2, The Next Web, Social Media at Work, AdPulp, SocialTimes.com, Techdirt, Boing Boing, brandflakesforbreakfast, Technically Incorrect and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Discussion: Fast Company and WatchingTV Online

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: Editors Weblog, Gawker, Guardian, BBC and Press Gazette

Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:

Washington Post acquires iCurrent, a personal news aggregator (exclusive) — The Washington Post Company has acquired iCurrent, an online tool that allows users to collect news automatically according to their interest. The purchase price was not disclosed, and while not a big deal, it was likely north of $5 million.

Discussion: paidContent, WebNewser and Guardian

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: New York Observer

PR Newswire:

Wall Street Journal, Miami Herald, Seattle Times Among National Press Club Award Winners — The Wall Street Journal won two awards and the Miami Herald and Seattle Times won one apiece in the annual National Press Club journalism awards. PBS's Frontline was among the broadcast winners.

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

Discussion: mediabistro.com, FishbowlNY and GalleyCat

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Hearst Magazines Outlines Major App Rollout For Second Half Of 2010 — Five days after releasing its iPad app version of Popular Mechanics, Hearst Magazine says iTunes users have downloaded more than 10,000 copies of its $1.99 “showcase issue.” While other mag publishers, like Condé Nast …

Discussion: New York Observer

Subtraction.com:

A Change — For many months now I've been thinking about the long-term trajectory of my career, wrestling with some serious questions about what it is I want to do with the few talents I'm lucky enough to have. After a lot of internal debate, I came to the conclusion that the time is right for me to make a change in my job.

Discussion: Romenesko, New York Observer and The Wrap

Gawker:

News Anchor Admits Chupacabra Story Is a Naked Ploy for Ratings — “What would it be, if we didn't have a story about a chupacabra?” the perky Texas news anchor wondered aloud. Her co-host's reply: “It would not be a ratings month—I'm sorry, can I say that?” — The segment was about this mysterious, headline-grabbing beast.

Discussion: Mediaite and WOAI-TV

Derek / The Scoop:

How APIs Help the Newsroom — As nice as it is to get praised for the civic-mindedness of your work, the not-so-secret secret about APIs at The Times is that we're the biggest consumer of them. The flexibility and convenience that the APIs provide make it easier to cut down on repetitive manual work and bring new ideas to fruition.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Adweek:

Online Video Ad Segment Poised to Explode — Look for rapid growth over the next few years — The online video advertising market is poised for rapid growth over the next few years, according to eMarketer. — The research firm estimates online video advertising spending will grow …

Discussion: Tubefilter News, VideoNuze and MediaPost

Emily Steel / Wall Street Journal:

Google Wins Omnicom as Ally — Internet Firm Will Help New Partner Tap Ad Exchange in Return for Ad Buying — Google Inc. plans to announce Thursday it has landed advertising company Omnicom Media Group as a partner in online display advertising, an area the Internet giant is seeking …

Discussion: Econsultancy, MediaMemo, paidContent, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and AdExchanger.com

Jeremy Porter / Journalistics:

Journalists Find Some News Releases Useful — 75 percent of journalists find well-targeted news releases with high-quality content useful, according to a new survey of 750 journalists conducted by Oriella PR Network, an alliance of 15 PR agencies around the world. — Surveys like this drive me crazy.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb

Antonina Jedrzejczak / The Wire:

Mediabistro Ramps Up Coverage Of Startups — Mediabistro is beefing up its coverage of startups. — The website announced today that it has hired Kenneth Musante, a freelance writer and former CNN staffer, to write “mb Startups,” a new recurring feature that will appear …

MediaShift:

The Case for Turning Around Print Media Companies — This article was co-authored by Neil Heyside. — The media and publishing industry — and print publishing in particular — doesn't have to show up to its own funeral. — There's still opportunity to enable profitable, desirable businesses.

Discussion: MEDIA BEESWAX

Financial Post:

PCWorld and Macworld Expand Marketer Services — Responding to overwhelming demand from technology marketers, PCWorld and Macworld have announced the formation of PCWorld | Macworld Content Workstm, a new division that will design, produce and distribute custom content.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, MinOnline and MediaPost

Claire Beale / The Independent:

Hey big spenders: Media companies need to be creative to keep the advertising revenue rolling in — It's often said that advertising is the canary in the economic coalmine, turning sickly well before the rest of the country catches a whiff of recession. But if the ad business is often …

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: Soup and Runnin' Scared

Todd Spangler / Multichannel News:

Providers Likely To Charge For ‘TV Everywhere’: Analyst — 39% of Pay-TV Subscribers Would Pay $5 or More Per Month for Access to TV on PCs — Cable, satellite and telco TV providers at some point probably will institute a separate subscription for “TV Everywhere” services …

Brad McCarty / The Next Web:

WordPress And Thesis Go To Battle. Mullenweg May Sue. — WordPress is the world's most popular blogging platform. Long the product of choice for writers big and small, Wordpress is the online content king. — Under the surface of the giant however, there is tension between …

Discussion: Matt Mullenweg, more at Techmeme »

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 …

Discussion: Gawker

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Washington Post-Bloomberg Co-Branded Biz Section Goes Live; Worth The Wait? — Some eight months after announcing a partnership for a co-branded online business page, the Washington Post (NYSE: WPO) and Bloomberg have finally delivered. The result is a pretty standard …

Discussion: Talking Biz News and New York Observer