Mediagazer: Online journalists in Italy protest Wiretapping bill's ‘blog-killing clause’ (Rachel McAthy/Journalism.co.uk)

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, paidContent, The Wrap, mediabistro.com, New York Observer, DailyFinance and New York Magazine

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: MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable, Mediaite, On Media's Blog, Variety 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, Media Buyer Planner, Romenesko, Gawker, paidContent, New York Magazine, On Media's Blog, Wall Street Journal and Tim Sprinkle

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 »

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: NBC Bay Area, Canadian Magazines and Silicon Alley Insider

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, Editors Weblog, Shaping the Future …, paidContent and Poynter Online

The Wrap:

Breaking: Paul Lee a Done Deal at ABC; Will Replace McPherson — Though it's taken a back seat to reports of sexual harassment by his predecessor, ABC finally announced Friday what has been common knowledge for almost a week: Paul Lee, president of the ABC Family Channel …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Media Decoder, MediaPost, Hollywood Reporter, Company Town and The Big Picture

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, Thompson on Hollywood, Company Town, Fast Company, Top Digital Journal News and New York Observer

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: The Next Web and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

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

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, New York Magazine and Romenesko

Laurel Wentz / AdAge:

Is Your Detergent Stalking You? — Brazil's Omo Uses GPS to Follow Consumers Home With Prizes — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Unilever's Omo detergent is adding an unusual ingredient to its two-pound detergent box in Brazil: a GPS device that allows its promotions agency Bullet to track shoppers and follow them to their front doors.

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog

Tony Ortega / Runnin' Scared:

MEMO TO PROSPECTIVE FREELANCERS — Dear Prospective Village Voice Freelancers, — Each and every day, you send me pitches for stories that you hope I'll bite on. Some are quite good. A few are excellent. Most, however, don't interest me in the least. I try my best to answer as many pitches as I can.

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

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 …

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Online journalists in Italy protest Wiretapping bill's ‘blog-killing clause’ — Online journalists in Italy have signed a petition against a so-called “blog-killing clause” in the country's controversial new Wiretapping Bill. — According to a report by the AFP, Prime Minister Silvio …

Paul Dacre / EDITORS' CODE OF PRACTICE COMMITTEE:

KILLING THE MYTHS — Chairman of the Editors' Code of Practice Committee — THE Press lives by disclosure. And so, as an industry, we can't complain when caught in the headlights of public scrutiny. Nor do we. It is healthy, and we welcome it. — Indeed, in a particularly onerous year …

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian

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

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

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

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