Mediagazer: A better way to monetize search traffic? (Rob ORegan/eMedia Vitals)

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Slate Group pulls the plug on The Big Money — A memo to Slate Group employees says: “This has been a difficult decision, in part because so many aspects of the project have worked as we hoped. ... The problem, in a nutshell, is that the site is not pointed toward profitability on a fast enough timetable.”

Discussion: MediaMemo, The Wrap, New York Observer, paidContent, DailyFinance and New York Magazine

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Audio Tycoon's Newsweek Bid Said to Be Favored — As the Washington Post Company prepares to sell Newsweek to the most appealing bidder, it is closely examining an offer from Sidney Harman, the California billionaire who made his fortune selling audio equipment.

Discussion: New York Post, Romenesko, Gawker, paidContent, On Media's Blog and Tim Sprinkle

Discussion: New York Observer, DailyFinance, Romenesko, New York Magazine and FishbowlNY

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Why Flipboard Won't Help Publishing's Smoldering Model — Sure, Smart Publishers Want to Be on Flipboard, But Let's Stop Pretending Why — Good news! Flipboard is ready to log me in via Twitter and Facebook. It took a while because demand for the new iPad app — a visual …

Discussion: Canadian Magazines, more at Techmeme »

Emma Barnett / Telegraph:

Spotify ‘will launch in US by end of 2010’ — Spotify has vehemently denied an American news report that its negotiations in the US have made no progress, saying it is “still on track to launch in 2010”. — Yesterday, Billboard, a US music industry magazine, reported that Spotify's …

Discussion: hypebot

Discussion: MediaMemo and Epicenter, more at Techmeme »

Financial Times:

News Corp looks at unit for tablet devices — The media group is said to be close to a decision on whether to start a news organisation to provide content for a subscription application on platforms such as Apple's iPad

Discussion: blogs.journalism.co.uk, paidContent, Shaping the Future …, Poynter Online and Editors Weblog

New York Times:

Disney Sells Miramax for $660 Million — LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company agreed to sell Miramax Films to an investor group late Thursday for about $660 million. — The deal ends a laborious six-month bidding process that saw the co-founders of the storied independent film label …

Discussion: Guardian, Los Angeles Times, /Film, Company Town, New York Observer, Fast Company and Top Digital Journal News

Amy Gahran / Knight Digital Media Center:

Scott Rosenberg: Why are news corrections so hard? — On July 19, video excerpts from a speech by USDA official Shirley Sherrod were posted to the web site of popular conservative blogger Andrew Breitbart. He claimed they demonstrated blatant racism, and a media firestorm ensued.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and Media Matters for America

Hunter Walker / The Wrap:

Breaking: Piers Morgan Gets CNN Gig — NBC Universal Television Entertainment chairman Jeff Gaspin, confirmed that Piers Morgan will be going to CNN at the TCA summer press tour Thursday. — Morgan's “America's Got Talent” contract with NBC was the last obstacle standing in the way between …

Discussion: Mediaite and New York Magazine

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

Bringing a Big Story Home at The Omaha World-Herald — Local reporting in the age of wire copy — Most regional papers have relied on wire copy to tell the story of the 92,000 classified military documents released by WikiLeaks. The Omaha World-Herald, weekday circulation around 150,000 …

Discussion: ProPublica, Romenesko and Omaha World-Herald

the nytpicker:

At Last: New Website Lets Status-Crazed Readers Search NYT Wedding Announcements By Snooty College, Swanky Job, Glitzy Locale. — Wondering which Harvard grads got their wedding announcement into the NYT this week, while your best friend from Northeastern never even got his calls returned by the social editor?

Discussion: New York Observer, Gawker, Romenesko and New York Magazine

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Barnes & Noble Planning Big Push to Increase Nook Sales — BARNES & NOBLE customers are about to see a lot more of the Nook. — In September, the chain will begin an aggressive promotion of its Nook e-readers by building 1,000-square-foot boutiques in all of its stores, with sample Nooks …

Discussion: Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Jason Fell / Folio:

Transcending Print — Last week, Condé Nast announced a slew of management changes, including the promotion of consumer marketing group president Robert Sauerberg to president of the company. The moves were part of a transitioning business model “focused around digital connectivity …

Rob ORegan / eMedia Vitals:

A better way to monetize search traffic? — Traditional publishers have been slow to adapt to the search-driven economy - getting steamrolled by content aggregators, bloggers and content farms that are much more effective at tuning their content for search engines.

aolnews.com:

Pioneering Weird News Agency Calls It Quits After 30 Years — The world is a little less weird today, thanks to the demise of FlashNews, a pioneering news agency that made journalism even stranger than it already was. — After three decades of generating offbeat stories …

Discussion: Romenesko

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

Anatomy of an Error: Why Nobody Got Fired From the New York Post This Week — We reported Wednesday on the turmoil an embarrassing New York Post correction caused in the newsroom, fueled by what we heard was rage called down from the top: News Corp owner Rupert Murdoch. Fun times.

Discussion: Gawker

Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:

Video Content Farms: Howcast — Content farms have been in the spotlight over the past year. They're companies that generate hundreds or thousands of new pieces of content on a daily basis. Much of their traffic comes from Google search, so the aim of content farms is to rake in the money with online advertising.

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Michael V. Copeland / Fortune:

Google: The search party is over — Yes, the company is still growing at rates that would be the envy of the rest of the Fortune 500. But its core business is slowing, its stock is down, its Android mobile platform generates scant revenue, and competition (hello, Facebook) is fierce.

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog, GigaOM and TechFlash, more at Techmeme »

Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:

Music video supersite Vevo: Traffic has grown 62 percent — Vevo, the music video site created as a partnership between the record industry and YouTube, just released impressive statistics showing its growth since launching in December 2009. The site says it attracted 62 percent …

Frances Martel / Mediaite:

Chris Matthews Retapes Sherrod Segment For 7PM Hardball Rerun After 5PM Flap — Today on MSNBC's Hardball, Chris Matthews tried to debate Salon's Joan Walsh and former Gov. Howard Dean that Andrew Breitbart's version of the controversial Shirley Sherrod speech was completely unedited.

Discussion: Salon, Big Government and Big Journalism

Peter Lauria / The Daily Beast:

CBS Staffer Alleges Redstone Abuse — Sumner Redstone's longtime deputy, Karen Zatorski, has told CBS that the billionaire verbally abused her and displayed a violent temper, sources tell Peter Lauria. Is an embarrassing lawsuit next? — A threat to sue media billionaire Sumner Redstone for harassment …

Discussion: TVWeek.com and New York Post

David Kaplan / paidContent:

United Business Media Profits Rise; More Emerging Markets Acquisitions — United Business Media (LSE: UBM), the owner of PR Newswire, turned in decent results for the first half of 2010 and is maintaining a cautious, yet stable outlook for the second part of the year.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Is WikiLeaks More Than Just a High-Tech Brown Envelope? Yes — WikiLeaks, the crusading anti-secrecy organization that just published 90,000 pages of secret government documents about the war in Afghanistan, has gotten a lot of attention for its campaign to become the world's repository …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, CJR, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard and CNN

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Multimedia E-Books, Adorned With Video Extras — E-books of the latest generation are so brand new that publishers can't agree on what to call them. — In the spring Hachette Book Group called its version, by David Baldacci, an “enriched” book. Penguin Group released an “amplified” version of a novel by Ken Follett last week.

Discussion: The Vook Blog, Shelly Palmer and New York Observer

Wendy Davis / MediaPost:

Gawker Settles Case Over Eric Dane Sex Tape, Removes Clips — Gawker Media has settled a copyright infringement lawsuit by Eric Dane and his wife Rebecca Gayheart stemming from Gawker's posting of a sex tape made by the couple, according to court papers filed this week.

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Phoenix Airport Banishes Cable News Channels From Public TV Sets — Do you watch a lot of cable news? Well you won't be if you ever fly out of Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport. The Powers-That-Be have banned cable news channels like CNN and Fox News from the big-screen televisions located throughout the terminal.

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Belo TV Station Website Revenue Rises — A few days after its newspaper sibling A.H. Belo (NYSE: AHC) reported narrowing its losses, local broadcaster Belo Corp. (NYSE: BLC) posted some very healthy profits and revenue numbers. Among them was a 14 percent jump to $8.1 million in online revenues tied to its 20 TV station websites.

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

How Did William Shatner Interview a D.C. Sniper? He Asked. — LOS ANGELES — In an interview to be televised Thursday night, one of the D.C. snipers, Lee Boyd Malvo, said he and the other convicted gunman, John Muhammad, had co-conspirators. — “There were supposed to be three …

Discussion: Mediaite, FishbowlNY, Movieline and Gawker