Mediagazer: Richard Morgan on payback, freelancing and the myth of the “made man” (Andrea Pitzer/Nieman Storyboard)

4:55 PM ET, August 14, 2010

Top News:

The huge obstacles facing Murdoch's new tablet newspaper — Rupert Murdoch is launching a new national newspaper, which will be “distributed exclusively as paid content for tablet computers such as Apple's iPad and mobile phones”. — The interesting thing here is the “paid content” part …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Gawker, The Atlantic Online and FishbowlNY

Joe Pompeo / Silicon Alley Insider:
Meet The Print Guy Who Will Lead Rupert Murdoch's Digital Newspaper

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Big Think and CJR

Tom Scott / Tom Scott's updates:

CONTENTS NOT VERIFIED — It seems a bit strange to me that the media carefully warn about and label any content that involves sex, violence or strong language — but there's no similar labelling system for, say, sloppy journalism and other questionable content. — I figured it was time to fix that, so I made some stickers.

Discussion: WHAT'S NEXT, TechCrunch, Romenesko, Techdirt, Boing Boing, Common Sense Journalism, CJR, Jon Slattery and New York Magazine

Andrea Pitzer / Nieman Storyboard:

Richard Morgan on payback, freelancing and the myth of the “made man” — Richard Morgan recently found a new measure of fame writing about writing, with his funny/terrifying piece “Seven Years as a Freelance Writer, or, How to Make Vitamin Soup.” Though Morgan's work has appeared …

Ron Mwangaguhunga / eMedia Vitals:

Why now is a good time to go hyperlocal — We are experiencing something of a hyperlocal renaissance right now. The Long Island daily Newsday is on a hiring binge, looking for thirty-four hyperlocal beat reporters. If by the second half of last year the hyperlocal space was heating up …

Katie Roiphe / New York Times:

The Language of Fakebook — I HAVE a feeling that if Andy Warhol were alive he would be spending the summer writing a novel that takes place in real time on Facebook. In that spirit, Lauren Mechling and Laura Moser have been writing a clever serialized novel on Slate called “My Darklyng.”

Discussion: New York Observer

Devon Glenn / FishbowlNY:

Digital Media Startup Bootstrapped, but Otherwise ‘Stoked’ — The art of online publishing isn't so much about novelty as it is about having a clear focus and the right packaging for your content. In our inbox yesterday was a link to a newly-launched online magazine and e-newsletter called …

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

More Jobs Up In The Air At A&E Television Networks 9 Months After Mass Layoffs — We got a tip yesterday that layoffs had come down at A&E Television Networks (AETN), which is jointly owned by Hearst, Disney and NBC Universal. — Some quick background: A year ago, A&E merged with Lifetime …

Joe Strupp / Strupp:

Edmonds is Second Dow Jones Spokesperson to Leave This Year — Emily Edmonds, one of Dow Jones' top corporate communications people, is leaving for Time Inc., she revealed in an e-mail today. — Edmonds follows former Dow Jones vice president of communications Robert Christie …

Discussion: Romenesko

Rachel Sklar / Mediaite:

Fair Use: Okay, Let's Talk About It — It is a pet peeve of mine when people throw around arguments citing “Fair Use” and yet fail to actually explain what a fair use argument actually is. So it was mostly for that reason that I was annoyed by Jeff Bercovici's misleading, poorly-reasoned post yesterday on AOL's Daily Finance.

Discussion: Inside Cable News, Romenesko and Runnin' Scared

Laura McGann / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Knight Foundation's new biz consultant thinks news startups can learn from outside of journalism — When Nick Denton sent out an email to his Gawker empire in April 2008 announcing the sale of the popular political site Wonkette, it came as a shock to those of us who so closely identified Wonkette with the Gawker brand.

Katherine Heisler / eMedia Vitals:

For owners, iPad is now go-to reading device — According to a survey of UK iPad owners put forth by Cooper Murphy Webb, people who own iPads are now using them as their preferred device for reading newspapers, magazines and books. Of the 1,034 iPad owners polled via telephone between July 28th …

Discussion: TUAW, Trends in the Living Networks and Poynter Online

Erik Huggers / BBC:

HTML5, open standards, and the BBC — Recent commentary on this blog has suggested that our use of Flash on BBC iPlayer and across BBC Online in general, betrays our commitment to open standards. Is this a reasonable assumption? I do not think so. — Open standards have always been part of the BBC's DNA.

Discussion: paidContent and NewTeeVee, more at Techmeme »