Mediagazer: Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farm (MediaShift)

9:50 PM ET, July 22, 2010

Top News:

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Times Co. Posts Operating Profit Gain — The New York Times Company reported on Thursday that its second-quarter profit declined 18 percent compared with results in the period a year earlier, when it recorded a tax benefit. On an operating basis, profit more than doubled.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, EditorandPublisher.com, Guardian, Business Wire, Romenesko, The Awl, Mediaite, New York Times Co. Blog and The Wrap

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

After Second Quarter, New York Times Co. is ‘Well Positioned’ But Also Staring at Increasing Costs — The New York Times Company is “well-positioned to thrive,” according to CEO Janet Robinson, who announced the company's second-quarter earnings this morning. The best news is that there were no major catastrophes this quarter.

Discussion: CJR, DailyFinance, NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaMemo and The Biz Blog

David Kaplan / paidContent:
NYTCo's Robinson: Paywall Enters Development Phase, Pricing Coming Soon

Discussion: Romenesko and Reuters

MediaShift:

How Content Farms Train Their Writers to Write for the Web — Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

MediaShift:
Writers Explain What It's Like Toiling on the Content Farm

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Silicon Alley Insider, The Independent Journalist, Romenesko, Gannett Blog and WebNewser

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Martin Bashir Leaving ABC for MSNBC; GMA Weekend Anchor Bill Weir Moves to ‘Nightline’ — First on TVNewser: Big changes afoot in the TV news world. ABC News “Nightline” co-anchor Martin Bashir is leaving the network and joining NBC News. At the same time, ABC has announced Bill Weir …

Discussion: Moraes on TV, Media Decoder, industry.bnet.com, MediaPost, Gawker, Tower Ticker, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wire, Multichannel, The Wrap, On Media's Blog, Variety and New York Magazine

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Breitbart: ‘I am public enemy No. 1...’ — An unrepentant Andrew Breitbart told POLITICO on Thursday that the Obama administration and its allies have manufactured a controversy over the video he posted of Shirley Sherrod's speech to the NAACP as part of an orchestrated effort to take him down.

Discussion: Romenesko, The Informer, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, ABCNEWS, Politics Daily and Poynter Online

New York Times:
Faster Than a Speeding Blog

Discussion: CJR, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Regret the Error, Mediaite, Show Tracker, Media Research Center, News Prints, New York Times, Media Matters for America, TVNewser and New York Times

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
Gibbs criticism of Sherrod media coverage puts cap on frantic 48 hours

Discussion: The Politico, ABCNEWS and Big Government

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Literary Agent Plans E-Book Editions — The literary agent Andrew Wylie said on Wednesday that he would begin his own publishing venture, called Odyssey Editions, which will produce e-book editions of titles by some of his clients, including Saul Bellow, John Updike and Philip Roth.

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, The Huffington Post, ResourceShelf, theBookseller.com, New York Observer, The Second Pass and Bookninja

Gary Moskowitz / Time:

Are Hyperlocals Replacing Traditional Newspapers? — All politics may be local, but apparently not enough journalism is. As newspapers keep cutting back on staff and printing skimpier editions, journalists, entrepreneurs and ordinary citizens have responded by creating websites to cover …

Discussion: Romenesko

Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:

AOL Mobile Goes HTML5, Picks Android Over iPhone for New App — Longtime Internet pioneer, AOL today matured its mobile platform with two new applications for Android handsets and an HTML5 version of the AOL Mobile website for smartphones. The new site — still found at http://m.aol.com …

Discussion: MediaPost, TechCrunch, MediaPost, Fortune and paidContent, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

AOL Campaigns For Political Dollars With New Ad Hub — Since the Supreme Court struck down limits on corporate spending on political candidates ads, media companies have been salivating over the expected deluge related to this fall's midterm elections. Online advertising should be an even bigger factor …

Discussion: MediaPost, the Econsultancy blog and TechCrunch

David Kaplan / paidContent:

ABC News Puts A Different Spin On Its iPad App — While a lot of iPad apps are mostly larger versions of an existing iPhone app, ABC News has tried to do something a little different with its new free app, making the most of the screen with a spinning, expandable “news globe” that features the news items.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Editors Weblog and ABC News' Press Room

Ward Room / NBC Chicago:

Wall Street Journal to Fight Charges Against Arrested Reporter — Douglas Belkin didn't follow orders while covering Rod Blagojevich trial, authorities say. — A Wall Street Journal spokeswoman said the newspaper will fight the charges lobbed against one of their reporters following his arrest Wednesday.

Discussion: Romenesko and mediabistro.com

Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:

Hollywood: Google TV would put us on board big pirate ship — The comments are streaming in from video and content providers on the Federal Communications Commission's AllVid proposal. Quite a few are critical of the scheme, especially those of the trade association representing Hollywood's biggest studios.

Discussion: NewTeeVee and Yahoo! News, more at Techmeme »

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

New Graduate J-School Program Will Teach Students How To Actually Run A Business — Earlier this month, Stephen B. Shepard, dean of CUNY's Graduate School of Journalism, announced on the school's website that it would be introducing a new master's degree track.

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

Arianna Huffington Is Moving to New York — Web empress Arianna Huffington is moving from Los Angeles to New York, multiple sources tell us, which means the globetrotting boss will finally be living in the same city as the editorial headquarters of her Huffington Post. Brace yourselves, underlings.

Discussion: Associated Press and The Wrap

Erik Sass / MediaPost:

‘New York’ Partners With Foursquare — New York is joining the check-in parade with this week's announcement that it has joined forces with Foursquare, the popular location-based social-media site. The move will enable the magazine to create co-branded social-media loyalty programs for readers visiting participating businesses.

Discussion: WebNewser