Mediagazer: Is Spokesman-Review's 5-Year-Old ‘Porous’ Pay Wall the Future of Online? (Rick Edmonds/The Biz Blog)

1:45 PM ET, August 3, 2010

Top News:

How Newsweek Blew It — Ninety-one-year-old audio tycoon Sidney Harman's purchase of Newsweek yesterday was greeted with internal cheers. But a look inside the magazine's financial records, leaked to The Daily Beast, reveals its new crisis. — Yesterday's purchase of a 77-year-old magazine …

Discussion: CJR, On Media's Blog, Guardian, Folio, FishbowlNY, MediaPost and Media Matters for America

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:
Panic And Relief At Newsweek As Layoffs Loom

Discussion: New York Times, Media Decoder, Newsweek and Hot Air

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:
Newsweek's Finances Were Even Worse Than Many Thought

Discussion: New York Post

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
Newsweek's Meacham prepares to leave the magazine

Discussion: The Wire, Romenesko, The Wrap, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal and On Media's Blog

Washington Post:
Dr. Sidney Harman to Purchase Newsweek from The Washington Post Company

Discussion: On Media's Blog, Romenesko, Media Decoder, Crain's New York Business, rbr.com, WWD Media Headlines, International Media, Boing Boing, AdAge and The Huffington Post

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
Newsweek's Fineman helped bring Harman to the table

Discussion: New York Observer and The Politico

Michael Corkery / Deal Journal:
The 411 on Newsweek Buyer Sidney Harman

Discussion: This Just In, New York Observer, FishbowlNY and New York Magazine

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
Newsweek editor Meacham expected to leave after sale

Discussion: MediaMemo, The Wrap, The Daily Caller, AdAge, paidContent, Romenesko, FishbowlNY, Gawker, MarketWatch and Runnin' Scared

Nick Bilton / Bits:

No E-Books Allowed in This Establishment — A few weeks ago I decided to mosey over to a local Manhattan coffee shop for an afternoon cappuccino. — After placing my order I sat down at a table and pulled out my Amazon Kindle. — I barely made it a sentence into the e-book I was reading …

Discussion: Jacket Copy, TeleRead, Between the Lines Blog and Eater National

David Carnoy / CNET News:

Amazon: We have 70-80 percent of e-book market — Recently, I sat down with Ian Freed, an Amazon vice president in charge of the Kindle, to get a sneak peek at the new Kindles and discuss e-books and the Kindle business in general. Naturally, a good portion of the conversation centered …

Discussion: Kindle Review, the Econsultancy blog and theBookseller.com, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:
E-Book Prices in Question

Discussion: Law Blog and 24/7 Wall St., more at Techmeme »

Charles V. Bagli / New York Times:

Condé Nast to Move to Skyscraper at Ground Zero — Condé Nast, the publishing giant, has signed a tentative deal to move its stable of chic magazines to ground zero, where it will anchor the skyscraper now under construction, according to two real estate executives who have been briefed on the negotiations.

Discussion: The Wire, New York Observer, Gawker, New York Magazine and Curbed NY

Wall Street Journal:

Early Doubts on Tribune Deal — Investment Bank in 2007 Declined to Endorse the Buyout, Which Later Soured — An investment bank declined to give Tribune Co. a clean bill of financial health in 2007 that would have cleared the way for Sam Zell's $8.2 billion leveraged buyout of the media conglomerate …

Discussion: Romenesko, Reuters and DealBook

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Hey, Newspaper Paywall Fans: News is Not Like HBO or Talk Radio — Fans of newspaper paywalls like to roll out a number of defences for their position, including the fact that some publications — such as the Wall Street Journal and the Economist — charge for their content, and therefore, every newspaper should be able to.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

Forbes Blogs To Get A Big Upgrade, Every Reporter Will Have One — Forbes.com will complete a major upgrade of all its blogs by tomorrow afternoon, we hear from several sources familiar with the plans. — The blogs will relaunch on a completely revamped WordPress installation that's expected …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Guardian, One Man & His Blog and NYConvergence

Gawker:

Will Wired Proclaim ‘The Web is Dead?’ — Word from inside Wired is the magazine is prepping a cover story in which editor Chris Anderson declares that “the Web is Dead.” At a magazine founded by digital utopians, that would be something close to sacrilege.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, broadstuff, Noted, TeleRead, FM Blog, Change of Subject, Media Buyer Planner and SteveOuting.com

Richard Morgan / The Awl:

Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How To Make Vitamin Soup — People like my resume—here's a PDF! But a resume is only the skin of a career. And, even then, it's skin with a lot of make-up on it. People live their lives, knowing the interior of their existence …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Steve Outing:

One city's blossoming digital media landscape — Over on the website of the Digital Media Test Kitchen (I'm director of that program at CU-Boulder), I've posted an update on one of our projects, called “Slices of Boulder,” which we're working on with a technology partner, Toronto-based Eqentia …

Discussion: The Digital Media Test Kitchen and NetNewsCheck Latest

Lara Sinclair / TheAustralian:

New online business model will succeed, says Rupert Murdoch — NEWS Corp chief Rupert Murdoch said Apple would sell more than 40 million iPads by 2012 as he flagged plans to put content on more tablet devices. — Appearing by video at a new media breakfast and panel debate hosted by Media …

Discussion: Multichannel, Guardian and Jon Slattery

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

ITV unveils pay-TV push — Five-year strategy to cut dependence on advertising begins with deal to put three high-definition channels on Sky — ITV today made its first move back into pay-TV for nearly a decade with a deal to put three high-definition channels behind BSkyB's subscription wall …

Discussion: Variety and paidContent:UK

Media Week:

Virgin Media in regulatory challenge to Project Canvas — Virgin Media has submitted a formal complaint to Ofcom, asking the regulator to investigate the internet-connected digital TV service Project Canvas on the grounds that it is anti-competitive and restricts consumer choice.

Discussion: Guardian, Variety and paidContent:UK

Vanity Fair:

Lady Gaga On Sex, Fame, Drugs, and Her Fans — Photograph by Nick Knight. Lady Gaga tells Vanity Fair contributing editor Lisa Robinson that she tries to avoid having sex because she is afraid of depleting her creative energy—"I have this weird thing that if I sleep with someone they're …

Discussion: Speakeasy, Ministry of Gossip, Billboard.com The Feed, Gothamist, EW.com, MTV Buzzworthy Blog, Styleite and PAPERMAG

Marc A. Thiessen / Washington Post:

WikiLeaks must be stopped — Let's be clear: WikiLeaks is not a news organization; it is a criminal enterprise. Its reason for existence is to obtain classified national security information and disseminate it as widely as possible — including to the United States' enemies.

Discussion: PostPartisan, Swampland, Guardian, The Independent, Fast Company, Slashdot and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Another Magazine App? Yep. But This One's For the Ladies: Condé Nast Brings Glamour to the iPad. — It's getting increasingly difficult to justify writing about a new iPad magazine app, but what the heck: Condé Nast has new iPad magazine app!

Discussion: The Wire, New York Observer, eMedia Vitals and Poynter Online

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

Pulse adds Posterous integration — The briefly banned-by-NYT iPad app Pulse, which turns RSS feeds into a digital magazine format, has launched a new ‘My Pulse’ feature that lets you publish your feeds to a Posterous ‘lite blogging’ account. … Add a story to your favourites inside Pulse and …

Discussion: TechCrunch and Mashable!, more at Techmeme »

Rick Edmonds / The Biz Blog:

Is Spokesman-Review's 5-Year-Old ‘Porous’ Pay Wall the Future of Online? — Shaun Higgins, who directs digital operations at The Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Wash., watches with bemusement as the newspaper industry tiptoes into experiments with limited pay walls.

Discussion: Romenesko and CJR

rbr.com:

Dickey family looking to grow media empire — For years Cumulus Media CEO Lew Dickey has been railing against the inefficiencies of print advertising as an opportunity for radio stations. Of course, he was talking about newspaper print advertising. He's actually an investor in another type of print advertising: magazines.

Discussion: New York Post

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Yahoo Restructures U.S. Ad Sales Force-With No New Head (But Apparently a Lot of Prince Charmings) — Yahoo announced today that it was restructuring its advertising sales force, after being without a head of its key U.S. unit since mid-March. — Big news: No new top ad sales exec.

Discussion: paidContent, Silicon Alley Insider and Search Engine Land