Mediagazer: AOL's Tim Armstrong now Chairman of The Ad Council (rbr.com)

3:40 AM ET, August 6, 2010

Top News:

Books of the world, stand up and be counted! All 129,864,880 of you. — When you are part of a company that is trying to digitize all the books in the world, the first question you often get is: “Just how many books are out there?” — Well, it all depends on what exactly you mean by a “book.”

Discussion: CrunchGear, Gawker, Fast Company, The Atlantic Online, ResourceShelf, GalleyCat and The Official Google Blog, more at Techmeme »

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

Hard times working the Patch — Boston Globe reporter Johnny Diaz today writes about Patch.com, the AOL-owned network of hyperlocal news sites that is (excuse me) sprouting up around the country. — As I noted earlier, Diaz writes that Patch is up against considerable competition in Greater Boston …

Discussion: Lost Remote and NetNewsCheck Latest

Johnny Diaz / Boston Globe:
With Patch, AOL offers challenge to local news

Discussion: Romenesko and The Wire

Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost:

Demand Media Extends Content Model To Other Publishers, Hearst And Gannet First To Sign Up — Demand Media on Thursday debuted a new service for publishers to pad their online offerings with the work of independent freelancers. Two of the first properties to employ Content Channels …

Nat Ives / AdAge: Why the San Fran Chronicle Is Running Demand Media Content

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

Condé Nast Titles Morph Into Restaurants — Condé Nast is taking some of its best-known magazine names and parlaying them into the restaurant business in Asia, the Middle East and Latin America. — The effort reflects a growing openness among magazine publishers to try …

Discussion: Romenesko, Techdirt, New York Observer and Eater National

Michael Wolff / Vanity Fair:

The Gray Lady of Cable News — Many think Jon Klein, president of CNN/U.S., has lost the cable-news war to Fox. But CNN has racked up record profits by being bland. — MOST BUSTED NAMES IN NEWS? — Jon Klein is an extremely affable broadcast-news executive, a chinos …

Discussion: Inside Cable News, Romenesko, CJR, The Wire and TVNewser

Jonathan Stray / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How The Guardian is pioneering data journalism with free tools — The Guardian takes data journalism seriously. They obtain, format, and publish journalistically interesting data sets on their Data Blog, they track transparency initiatives in their searchable index of world government data …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

USA Today:

USA TODAY hosts Mashable Summer Tour Event and Syndicates Mashable Content — As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Mashable's Summer Tour will be heading to the DC-area tonight. USA TODAY will serve as host for the event and we're looking forward to having the team from Mashable, and their guests, at our headquarters.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Hyperlocal Gets Highbrow In Public TV Online Video Joint Venture — A large part of success is making the right connections early on. That lesson isn't lost on the start-up Capital New York, a literary and cultural online-only news mag that is solely focused on the Big Apple.

Rebecca Lieb / the Econsultancy blog:

Q&A: Wenda Harris Millard — Wenda Harris Millard is an icon in digital advertising and media. As co-chairman of Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia, and before that chief sales officer at Yahoo, not to mention chair of the IAB, she's long been as out there as she has been outspoken - a passionate advocate for the industry.

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Ex-Chicago Tribune editor: Marine interns were observers, not journalists — From HOWARD TYNER: While I have to admire the intrepid reporter whose sleuthing unearthed infiltration of the Chicago Tribune newsroom 7-8 years ago by the US Marine Corps, I also think a few clarifications are in order.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Yahoo! News

Julia Angwin / Digits:

Lawmakers Seek Answers on Online Tracking — U.S. Reps. Ed Markey, D-Mass., and Joe Barton, R-Texas, are seeking information about the privacy practice of the 15 websites that the Wall Street Journal has identified as installing the most tracking technology on their visitors' computers.

Discussion: information aesthetics and BuzzMachine, more at Techmeme »

Knight Foundation News Releases:

Knight Foundation Names Program Director for Strategic Initiatives — Veteran Social Entrepreneur Siobhan Canty Will Help Work Across Disciplines to Promote Informed and Engaged Communities — MIAMI - Veteran social entrepreneur and nonprofit executive Siobhan Canty has joined Knight Foundation …

Discussion: KnightBlog

Martin Belam / currybetdotnet:

HTML5 for journalists — I've contributed before to the debate about whether journalists need to be programmers, but whether or not you've ever wrestled with Ruby, PHP or Python, if you are involved in online publishing in any way you are almost certainly familiar with some HTML.

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Google, Verizon Deny NYT Story On Their Undermining Of Net Neutrality — Yesterday, the New York Times published a story that detailed an agreement in the works between Verizon and Google that would effectively kill off net neutrality by allowing “Verizon to speed some online content …

rbr.com:

AOL's Tim Armstrong now Chairman of The Ad Council — The Advertising Council announced Tim Armstrong, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, AOL, has been elected as Chairman of the Board of Directors. Armstrong has been a member of the Ad Council Board of Directors since 2008, most recently serving as its Vice Chairman.

Discussion: MediaPost

Johnnie L. Roberts / The Wrap:

Universal Studios and the Los Angeles Times clashed last month after the newspaper published a blistering review of “Despicable Me” on the same day the studio ran an elaborate ad for the movie that took over most of the front of the “Calendar” section, according to two people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Mediaite

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Viacom Profits Surge, But Home Entertainment Revenues Stumble — Viacom (NYSE: VIA) showed the true benefits of having the dual revenue streams of advertising and cable, as its networks division, which includes its MTV Networks, saw dollars rise 6.4 percent and profit gain 14 percent.

Discussion: Company Town, Thomson IR, Variety, NewTeeVee and The Wrap

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Newsonomics of the fading 80/20 rule — [Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.] — Jim Moroney thinks he may be on to a new formula.

Discussion: Romenesko and Gannett Blog