Mediagazer: TBD.com making its move into the crowded market of local news (Paul Farhi/Washington Post)

8:30 AM ET, August 9, 2010

Top News:

TBD.com making its move into the crowded market of local news — TBD.com — odd name, but let's move on — is a new all-local news Web site that seems to be the answer to a question that no one has really been asking: Do media-saturated Washington and its environs need yet another source …

Discussion: tbd.com, The Solomon Scandals and Romenesko

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Allbritton On TBD.com: 'You've Got To Have Some Staying Power' — When Robert Allbritton put the money and power of Allbritton Communications behind a new DC political news site in 2007, no one knew what to expect. Sure, he had talent in Washington Post vets John Harris and Jim VandeHei …

Discussion: Zombie Journalism, Romenesko and The Solomon Scandals

Steve Myers / Poynter Online:
Four Key Questions that TBD Could Answer about Online News

Discussion: paidContent, eMedia Vitals and Nieman Journalism Lab

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Renewed Interest in Financing Original Web Shows — LOS ANGELES — When Illeana Douglas, long active in independent film, wanted to make a show about a Hollywood actress who becomes a cog in a blue-collar wheel, she turned to the Web and to an unusual ally, Ikea.

Discussion: Mashable!

Jim Harper / Wall Street Journal:

It's Modern Trade: Web Users Get as Much as They Give — If you surf the web, congratulations! You are part of the information economy. Data gleaned from your communications and transactions grease the gears of modern commerce. Not everyone is celebrating, of course.

Discussion: Technology Liberation Front and Rough Type

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:

Fox News' Digital Divide — Dominant cable news net's site lags rival CNN.com. Why? — In the cable TV news world, Fox News Channel is a force to be reckoned with. So why does the network continually get its digital clock cleaned—by CNN, of all rivals?

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

The Economist Markets to the Sophisticated — Its fire-engine-red logo peeks out of fashionable handbags and from the back pockets of designer jeans. Bankers read it in first-class seats. Hipsters read it on the subway on their way to work. — It's The Economist.

Discussion: Romenesko

Glenn Fleishman / Network World:

Interview: Author Susan Orlean on her life with the iPad — Orlean has been tearing up the techie side of things — Susan Orlean has become a geek, something that simultaneously amuses and mildly horrifies her. Orlean has been a staff writer at The New Yorker since 1992 …

Chris Wheal:

Death reporting — Thank you to everyone who has chipped in about the death knock debate, privately by email and publicly through comments on my blog and others. I think there is scope for at least a leaflet to help families in similar situations and possibly a different way of behaving by the press.

Discussion: Guardian, Editor's Blog, Press Gazette and Jon Slattery

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Demand Media's IPO: The Google & SEO Aspects — Demand Media has filed for an IPO. The company, known as a content farm to some, produces much of its content on sites like eHow and others in direct response to what it determines people are searching for on the web.

Discussion: CNET News and All Facebook

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Inside the Numbers: How Demand Media Will Pitch a Billion Dollar IPO

Discussion: AdExchanger.com, MediaPost and Beet.TV

Chris Elliott / Guardian:

Open door ... on publishing the Afghan war logs — The readers' editor on... the moral and legal implications of publishing the war logs — It is an age-old journalistic dilemma: the reporter discovers information that he or she believes is in the public interest to disclose …

Tim Carmody / Snarkmarket:

Unemployment Media — I just learned that Chris Meadows, smart writer and one of the most prolific bloggers at e-book site Teleread, was (until very recently) unemployed for sixteen months: … This resonates with me, because I've been unemployed and in need of a new laptop since the end of the summer …

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

Faithless tune in to new way to go ‘prommercial’ — It is being heralded as the first “prommercial” and will be proclaimed as the future of the music industry. It may also help rescue the tattered reputation of television advertising. Not bad for a 15-year-old British electronica band without a record label.

INMA:

From print to digital audience engagement: why we can't sleep at night — In the halcyon days when consumers lacked news options and the advertiser's money paid for creativity without limits, we printed until the presses couldn't take it anymore, assumed a lot of eyeballs stumbled across our prose …