Mediagazer: Do We Still Need Websites? (Pete Blackshaw/AdAge)

5:15 AM ET, August 13, 2010

Top News:

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

AOL Hypocrisy: When It Comes To Video Curation “Mediaite Has A Better Argument Than AOL” — Today AOL Daily Finance reporter Jeff Bercovici attacked Mediaite for the way we aggregate, curate and publish video clips from various television networks. The piece claimed that Mediaite “test(s) …

Discussion: Inside Cable News and MediaMemo

Jeff Bercovici / DailyFinance:

Dan Abrams's Mediaite.com Tests the Limits of Fair Use — The boundaries of fair use — the legal doctrine that allows for the republishing and rebroadcasting of copyrighted material in order to encourage free speech — are awfully hazy when it comes to the Internet.

Discussion: The Wire, Crikey, New York Observer, Inside Cable News, Romenesko, NetNewsCheck Latest, Soup and MediaMemo

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

With Off-the-Record Lunch, Obama Extends a Hand — It may seem odd, but the journalists assigned to cover President Obama on a daily basis often have less access to him than the columnists, television personalities and feature writers who cover the president less frequently.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Runnin' Scared, Romenesko, New York Observer, FishbowlNY and New York Times

Jack Shafer / Slate:

The Tabloidy Goodness of TBD.com … - Donald Duck Groped a Woman? Don't Forget the Bum Sex-Abuse Rap Against Tigger.- The Four Most Common Clichés in Movies About Divorcées- Should I Let My Kid Volunteer at an Animal Shelter? - The Awesome Comic Book That Gave Us Scott Pilgrim …

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Coupons Come to The Wall Street Journal — News Corp.'s SmartSource Moves Insert From Sunday Times to WSJ Weekend Edition — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The Wall Street Journal will start delivering coupons inside its Weekend Edition this Saturday, furthering its push to become a full-service newspaper …

Discussion: CJR, Romenesko, New York Observer and Gawker

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Newsday going on the offensive — Newsday is going on a hiring spree, pledging to add nearly 40 new editorial jobs and dramatically increase the amount of space devoted to local news. — “In a big step forward on boosting our local coverage, during the next six months we will hire 34 …

Discussion: Shaping the Future …, FishbowlNY, Romenesko and The Wire

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:
Newsday doubles down on coverage as Patch arrives

Discussion: Long Island Business News, NYConvergence, mediabistro.com, New York Observer and FishbowlNY

New York Times:

Net Neutrality Issue Divides Media Companies — In an emerging battle over regulating Internet access, companies are taking sides. — Facebook, one of the companies that has flourished on the open Internet, indicated Wednesday that it did not support a proposal by Google and Verizon …

Discussion: The Official Google Blog, Mercury News, A VC, TIME.com, Epicenter, Post Tech, Bits, On Media's Blog and Free Press, more at Techmeme »

BrauBlog:

Why did Jim Dolan and Lynn Casey invest a million bucks in BringMeTheNews? — It's not every day a year-old local news aggregator gets $1 million from investors — much less when it has just 100,000 monthly page views and three advertisers. — But that didn't stop Dolan Media president Jim Dolan …

Discussion: Romenesko, Lost Remote, paidContent and mediabistro.com

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Cable Firms Eye Tablet Space — Comcast, Verizon and Others Plan New Apps; Licensing Content Slows Process — More TV shows and movies may be coming to tablet computers like Apple Inc.'s iPad—for those who pay to watch. — At least seven of the ten largest subscription-TV providers …

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Digg's Kevin Rose Talks About New Look, New CEO and How to Turbocharge an Old Web 1.9 Company! — Yesterday, BoomTown drove over to Digg's San Francisco HQ to pay founder Kevin Rose a visit. — The 33-year-old Rose is one of the iconic entrepreneurs of recent years, since Digg's founding in 2004 …

Discussion: GigaOM, MediaPost and Silicon Alley Insider

Andrew M. Harris / Bloomberg:

Zell Can't Be Made to Pay for Tribune Pension Losses — Aug. 10 (Bloomberg) — Sam Zell can't be made to pay for Tribune Co. retirement fund losses, a judge ruled, rebuffing workers who claim the billionaire caused the company's employee stock ownership plan to lose value.

Discussion: MediaPost

Jim O'Neill / Online Video News:

Dyyno debuts turnkey streaming video service to Roku for businesses — Video portal provider Dyyno today rolled out a turnkey streaming video service to Roku for businesses and individuals, allowing them to stream live, VOD or linear TV channels to the living room.

Discussion: FierceTelecom and NewTeeVee

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

As E-Books Gain, Barnes & Noble Tries to Stay Ahead — In the movie “You've Got Mail,” Tom Hanks played the aggressive big-box retailer Joe Fox driving the little bookshop owner played by Meg Ryan out of business. — Twelve years later, it may be Joe Fox's turn to worry.

Discussion: DailyFinance and DealBook

Wall Street Journal:
Barnes & Noble Expected to Announce Burkle Pact

Discussion: Law Blog, DailyFinance and GalleyCat

Joe Pompeo / Silicon Alley Insider:

Source: Publishers Are Shelling Out More Than $50K For The New York Times' iPad/iPhone App Platform — On August 2, The New York Times announced it is launching a new platform called Press Engine that other publishers can use to create their own iPhone and iPad apps based on templates developed by The Times.

Henry K. Lee / San Francisco Chronicle:

Appellate court upholds Bay Guardian damages — A state appeals court upheld a $21 million damage award to the Bay Guardian on Wednesday, saying a rival publication, SF Weekly, had engaged in predatory price-cutting by selling ads below cost. — SF Weekly had asserted that its low-cost ads amounted …

Discussion: Romenesko, Informer and Hit & Run

Lev Grossman / Time:

Jonathan Franzen: Great American Novelist — A raft of sea otters are at play in a narrow estuary at Moss Landing, near Santa Cruz, Calif. There are 41 of them, says a guy in a baseball cap. He counted. They dive and surface and float around on their backs with their little paws poking …

Discussion: GalleyCat, Jacket Copy, The Book Bench, New York Observer and ArtsBeat

Dawn C. Chmielewski / Los Angeles Times:

News Corp. plans national newspaper for tablet computers and cellphones — It's the latest bid by a major media company to build readership using new devices such as the iPad. The new publication would offer short, snappy stories and operate under the auspices of the New York Post.