Top News:
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 …
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Robin Sloan / Snarkmarket:
Why Old Spice matters — So the Old Spice campaign was funny, surprising, and perfectly-calibrated. These would be reasons enough to like it. But I'm not going to let you stop there. Here's how I think the campaign establishes an important new precedent—not for online advertising, but for online storytelling across the board.
Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:
Penthouse Owner Makes $210M Bid for Playboy — Marc Bell, owner of Penthouse magazine and FriendFinder networks, made his promised bid on Playboy Enterprises on Thursday, offering to pay $210 million for the struggling bunny brand. — Bell's bid is effectively $25 million …
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Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Blog Networks Try One More Time to Turn Local Journalism Into Cash — Can building a network of local bloggers help turn online journalism into a money-making proposition? Two new media ventures are hoping that it can, and have partnered with a startup called GrowthSpur to try and make that hope become a reality.
Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Is There an iPad Premium? Hearst Says its Popular Mechanics App May Cost More Than the Print Version — Internet axiom: Digital stuff — movies, music, whatever — should cost less than its physical counterparts. Because it costs less to make it. — But don't tell Hearst.
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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 …
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.
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 …
Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The Newsonomics of the dead cat bounce — [Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.] — The season's upon us, as newspaper and media companies announce their second-quarter earnings.
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.
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 …
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.
Steve Buttry / Pursuing the Complete Community …:
Academics measure new media (again) by old-media yardstick — For academics studying whether “citizen journalism” is going to “replace” traditional journalism, let me save you some time: It won't. It's not trying to. It shouldn't. — Journalism is not, never has been and should not become a zero-sum game.
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.
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Joshua Cohen / Tubefilter News:
Will Hulu's ‘Ad Selector’ Become Online Video's Advertising Standard? — Online video ad revenues in the US are on track to pass $1.3 billion this year. That's a big industry, but when compared to the behemoth $70 billion business that is traditional television advertising, it's little more than a rounding error.
Stu Woo / Wall Street Journal:
Newspaper War Rages in West Marin — POINT REYES STATION — This sleepy town of 800 residents is home to west Marin County's two weekly newspapers. A nasty battle will decide whether it is big enough for both of them. — Last month, the upstart West Marin Citizen accused …
Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:
Joel Stein makes me feel ‘stomach-sick’ — Commentary: His ‘My Own Private India’ piece is shameful — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — When Joel Stein issued an apology for his recent Time magazine column, entitled “My Own Private India,” he took pains to point out that he felt “stomach-sick” for hurting so many people's feelings.
Kate Sheppard / Mother Jones:
“They Just Don't Know Who They're Messing With” — If you've been reading Mother Jones lately, you've heard about BP's stranglehold on media access in the Gulf, which has included preventing reporters from visting oil-soaked public beaches and barring its spill cleanup workers from talking to the press.
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CJR
Zeke Turner / New York Observer:
‘Bloomberg BusinessWeek’ Grabs ‘Times’ Tech Correspondent — New York Times technology correspondent and Bits blogger Brad Stone has been scooped up by Bloomberg BusinessWeek editor Josh Tyrangiel. — Mr. Stone launched his career at Newsweek in 1996, taking up coverage of Silicon Velly for the newsweekly two years later.
Discussion:
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.
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 …
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!
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