Mediagazer: Examiner finds fraud evidence in Tribune sale (David Roeder/Chicago Sun Times)

4:40 PM ET, July 27, 2010

Top News:

John Cook / Yahoo! News:

Leaked files indicate U.S. pays Afghan media to run friendly stories — Buried among the 92,000 classified documents released Sunday by WikiLeaks is some intriguing evidence that the U.S. military in Afghanistan has adopted a PR strategy that got it into trouble in Iraq: paying local media outlets to run friendly stories.

Discussion: Romenesko, Journalism and the World and Mother Jones

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:
WikiLeaks Rolled Dice to Raise Its Profile

Discussion: Guardian, Media Decoder, techPresident, Digits, Computerworld, Daily Kos, Reuters, J-Source, CNET News, The Politico, Christian Science Monitor, Beet.TV and The Huffington Post

C.W. Anderson / Nieman Journalism Lab:
When do 92,000 documents trump an off-the-record dinner?

Discussion: Washington Post, The Nation, Press Gazette, Mother Jones, New York Times, NPR, Hot Air and Editors Weblog

Fred Kaplan / Slate:
No one who's been paying attention should be surprised by the …

Discussion: At War, Los Angeles Times, Guardian, The Huffington Post, New York Times, Fast Company, George Brock, Danger Room, ProPublica, CJR, Open Culture, The Nation, Law Blog, Politics Daily, The Caucus and Gawker

Joel Meares / CJR:
WaPo, Time, and Others Play Catch-up on WikiLeaks

Discussion: Time, Los Angeles Times and Swampland

Justin Osofsky / Facebook Developers:

Working with Media Organizations to Build Social News — Small blogs to major media organizations focus on producing great content and surfacing it to the right people. Facebook Platform offers the ability to supplement this content by making the experience more social …

Discussion: The Next Web, The Wire, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, Fast Company, The Wrap, Online Journalism Blog, Romenesko, Mashable!, Editors Weblog and WebNewser

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Facebook launches a “Facebook + Media” page — Last night, Facebook unveiled a project that it's had in the works for a while: a media page devoted to journalists, developers, and other “media partners.” Facebook + Media is dedicated, it says, to “helping news, TV, video, sports …

Discussion: Hacks and Hackers …

Dominic Ponsford / Editor's Blog:

The paywall debate: At the Financial Times there is no debate, it works — Wherever you stand on the great paywall debate, you can't argue with the fact that one UK national newspaper publisher has proved that a paywall can work. — Figures released by the Financial Times yesterday revealed …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
'FT's paywall helps us understand users'

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Daniel Frankel / The Wrap:

The Twitter Effect Isn't What Hollywood Thought — The Twitter Effect. — The term entered the lexicon last summer after Universal's Sacha Baron Cohen comedy “Bruno” tumbled more than 36 percent in its first 24 hours in theaters. — One year later, the social media trend …

Patricia Sellers / Fortune:

Steve Jobs' mark on ABC's Lost — How the Apple CEO may have changed the course of the hit ABC show with one comment back in 2005. — by Patricia Sellers, editor-at-large — from left to right Carlton Cuse, Barry Jossen, Damon Lindelof, and Anne Sweeney

China Real Time Report:

GQ China Pulls July Issue … The Chinese edition of GQ quietly recalled its July issue the day after it hit the newsstands to remove an unflattering feature on rich Chinese young people, but no one can say why. — On Friday, a news article discussing the recall was quickly taken …

Discussion: Gawker, International Media, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine and The Wire

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Redstone gifted rocker with his own stock — THR EXCLUSIVE: Mogul gave shares to Barbarellas singer — NEW YORK — Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone gave the lead singer of a girls' band some of his own company stock as a personal gift, according to a copy of the regulatory filing obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.

Discussion: MediaPost

David Roeder / Chicago Sun Times:

Examiner finds fraud evidence in Tribune sale — An examiner probing Sam Zell's buyout of the Tribune Co. in late 2007 has found evidence of “dishonesty” in the deal's latter stages, a conclusion that could throw the company's 20-month-old bankruptcy case into turmoil.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap, Romenesko, New York Observer, Reuters and National Media

Amy Wicks / WWD Media Headlines:

Deborah Needleman New Editor in Chief of WSJ Magazine — Deborah Needleman has been named editor in chief of WSJ. and editor of a new weekly Saturday lifestyle section in development, slated for fall. During the past few months, Needleman has served as a consultant for the new weekend section.

Discussion: New York Observer, Romenesko, The Wrap, BusinessJournalism.org …, The Wire, Media Decoder and The Huffington Post

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Discovery Promotes Digital Media Head Campbell — Discovery Communications (NSDQ: DISCA) is giving corporate development exec Bruce Campbell some additional responsibilities as chief development officer and general counsel. At the same time, Campbell will be handing over his duties …

Discussion: Variety, Discovery Communications …, Guardian and MediaPost

Joe Mandese / MediaPost:

Clients Weigh In On Nielsen Plan To Give Less ‘Weight’ To Internet Households — Nielsen will huddle with clients this morning to discuss a controversial plan to begin mathematically adjusting its TV ratings estimates this fall based on several new factors, including the number of households …

Richard / Electronic Frontier Foundation:

Recording Industry Giant Tries to Undermine ‘Safe Harbor’ Rules for Online Video Sites — San Francisco - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and a coalition of nonprofit groups have asked a federal appeals court to protect the “safe harbor” rules for online video service providers …

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Boston Screamer: News nabs Convey to pummel Post — Kevin Convey's office at the Boston Herald isn't far from downtown Boston, but its windows look southeast, across a freeway, toward Southie, the longstanding Irish and white ethnic Boston enclave that, in the past two decades, has rapidly gentrified.

Discussion: Media Nation

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

If Your Music Business Model Is To Make Money On Live Shows, Make Those Live Shows Experiences To Remember — In talking about various business models for musicians these days, we've never suggested that concerts are the only (or even the best) way to make money. However, they certainly are one way that can work.

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

Why Fair Use is Not Just Acceptable, It's Essential for the Future — The Library of Congress added a number of ambitious new exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act's prohibition of breaking copyright technologies today, most notably concerning iPhone jailbreaking and unlocking.

Discussion: Ars Technica, TeleRead, DailyFinance and Gizmodo

Damien Hoffman / Wall St. Cheat Sheet:

A True American Success Story - with David Asman at Fox Business Network — This is Part 1 of a 2 part interview ... David Asman has lived an adventurous life on his road to classic American success. From a school teacher in Chicago to the host of a world wide show on Fox Business Network, David has worked hard for his rewards.

Discussion: Inside Cable News and Talking Biz News

Daniel Lyons / Newsweek:

Read On — Why the iPad hasn't killed the Kindle. — Amazon's Kindle e-reader is a terrific device, but a lot of people, myself included, figured that once Apple's iPad came out, the poor little Kindle would be toast. The first thing I did at the iPad introduction event was snap …

Discussion: Poynter Online and msnbc.com

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

BlogBeat: The New Yorker Is Working on a Profile of Nick Denton — After a long hiatus, the column that cost this company a cool mil in advertising has returned! BlogBeat is back, and this week, we're coming out swinging. The New Yorker's working on a forthcoming profile …

Lawrence Meyer / Watchdog Blog:

The Newsroom on Steroids — Let's state the obvious at the outset: The Internet is a miraculous medium that makes it possible for people to communicate with each other from almost anywhere in the world, and it makes it possible for news organizations to report the latest news virtually …

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Just-launched iNeedaGreatStory.com claims it ‘makes life easier for editors everywhere’ — iNeedaGreatStory.com makes editors' lives easier — CHICAGO Introducing iNeedaGreatStory.com, a new resource for anyone in need of well-reported, well-told, well-illustrated content for websites and publications at an affordable price.