Mediagazer: Skype's Chief Development Officer Leaves Amid TechCrunch Comment Fiasco (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch)

3:00 PM ET, August 19, 2010

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

As Combat Troops Leave Iraq, News Media Ride Along — The combat mission in Iraq doesn't officially end until Aug. 31 but viewers and readers could be forgiven for thinking it ended tonight. — In a broadcast that Brian Williams said constituted an “official Pentagon announcement,” …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Romenesko, The Huffington Post, CNN, Washington Post, Aljazeera, Inside Cable News, Online NewsHour, B&C, The Wire, 5280 Magazine, Mediaite, Hot Air, Los Angeles Times, Wonkette, New York Magazine and Gawker

Steve Krakauer / Mediaite:

NBC/MSNBC Get An Iraq Troop Withdrawal Exclusive - But What Did It Mean, And Who Helped? — There's no question NBC News had an impressive, gripping scoop last night: the last U.S. combat troops are leaving Iraq. NBC News' Richard Engel was embedded, MSNBC's Rachel Maddow was in Baghdad …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, New York Times, The Nation and Guardian

Frances Martel / Mediaite:
NBC/MSNBC All-Stars Exclusively Report On Last US Combat Troops Leaving Iraq

Discussion: TVNewser, Media Decoder, The Huffington Post, Inside Cable News, Chickaboomer, Romenesko, Florida News Center and Online NewsHour

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:

iVillage to Launch New User-Gen Content Section — iVillage has always maintained a close relationship with its community—particularly its more vocal and active members. — Now the NBC Universal-owned site is looking to channel the energies of several of its vociferous users …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

Gawker's No Longer a Blog — Gawker is no longer a blog. And Nick Denton no longer runs a blog network. — Gawker Media - which, for better or worse, defined and largely influenced the modern blogosphere as we all know it — is undergoing a massive redesign that will render its collection …

Discussion: Thompson on Hollywood

Prescott Shibles / eMedia Vitals blogs:

Facebook Places: What it means for media brands — Facebook has launched its much-anticipated location-based service, “Facebook Places,” which allows users to “check in” to certain locations such as restaurants, bars, music festivals, etc. Dubbed a “collective memory” …

Discussion: VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch, CNN, Faster Forward, Financial Times, Webmonkey, O'Reilly Radar and Runnin' Scared, more at Techmeme »

Terry Heaton / Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog:

Another opportunity lost — Facebook's announcement yesterday of its entry into the “check-in” space is yet another blow to local media. Local business — many of whom already are deep into Facebook — are now being encouraged to create their “places” pages, which is what users will see when they check in via Facebook.

Discussion: The Praized Blog, TechCrunch and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

Internet use in the UK - implications from Ofcom's research for publishers — I've just been scanning through the internet section of Ofcom's latest report on The Communications Market 2010. As always, it's an essential read and this year the body have done a beautiful job in publishing …

Discussion: Guardian, Media Week, Press Gazette, ResourceShelf and paidContent:UK

BBC:

Ofcom report highlights ‘multi-tasking media users’ — Multi-tasking allows people to consume even more — The average Briton spends almost half of their waking life using media and communications, data suggests. — The statistics from regulator Ofcom suggest people in the UK spend seven hours …

The Wire:

We Need To Change Copyright Laws To Save Newspapers — Copyright and patent laws were introduced to benefit society by providing authors and inventors incentives to create; by giving authors and inventors an opportunity for personal gain from their own creativity intellectual property protections create …

Discussion: Zombie Journalism, TeleRead and Journalism.co.uk

Mike Masnick / Techdirt: Professor Says News Should Get Special 24 Hour Protections …

C.W. Anderson / The Atlantic Online:

Print Culture 101: A Cheat Sheet and Syllabus — Editor's Note: So, people no longer just read ink printed on paper. Now that the electronic word has become embedded in our lives, we have a new perspective on what might have been special and specific about the last few hundred years of information dissemination.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Skype's Chief Development Officer Leaves Amid TechCrunch Comment Fiasco — Madhu Yarlagadda, who joined Skype as Chief Development Officer last month, has left the company. Generally speaking executives don't leave a startup as it jumps into the IPO process, and they certainly don't leave after just a month on the job.

Discussion: Bits, MediaPost, VentureBeat, AdScam/The Horror! and paidContent, more at Techmeme »

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Financial Times launches new audience measurement — The Financial Times has launched a print and digital circulation measure that calculates the total number of people who access paid-for FT content each day. — The paper believes the measure is the first of its kind produced by a media owner.

Robert Feder / blogs.vocalo.org:

No more Mo: Why Tribune lost stellar TV critic to AOL — ← Video: Debrief of Governor's Day at the Illinois State Fair … Authors — blogs.vocalo.orgis proudly powered by WordPress — Entries (RSS) and Comments (RSS). — Yashfa ver. 1.7 created by WP GPL

Discussion: Romenesko

Emily Steel / Wall Street Journal:

As Web Surfers Share, Marketers Track — Add this to the list of consumer-data collection tactics that can raise eyebrows: Clearspring Technologies' “AddThis” button. — The button allows users to alert friends and contacts to interesting or useful material on the Web.

Jolie O'Dell / Mashable!:

YouTube Launches Charts to Rank Top Web Videos — YouTube has just announced it will be featuring its top videos in a new section called YouTube Charts. — This page will keep you updated on which videos are trending right now, which are all-time classics, how various vids stack up against one another and more.

Discussion: NewTeeVee, eMedia Vitals and The Next Web

Michael Malone / Broadcasting & Cable:

Gannett Debuts School Sports Microsites — 38 media markets get local HighSchoolSports.net sites this month — Gannett is launching more than 100 co-branded local sports sites out of its HighSchoolSports.net division. Gannett says the “microsites,” a joint operation between Gannett's TV …

Discussion: Romenesko, eMedia Vitals, paidContent and NetNewsCheck Latest

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Eustace Tilley, Brought to You By ... As The New Yorker magazine puts the finishing touches on the schedule for its 11th annual weekend festival of events, panels and happenings, the commercial side of the line-up is complete — including the festival's first application for mobile devices.

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Print Subscribers Rejoice: People Magazine IPad App Is Free for You — Existing Subscribers to Time Inc. Title Won't Get Charged Again — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Magazines have been aggressive about pricing their app editions for the iPad so far, charging consumers the full print cover price …

Discussion: Romenesko, Poynter Online, Digital Daily and TeleRead

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Where Do Media Companies Give Their PAC Money? — News Corp. the parent company of Fox News Channel, gave a $1 million donation to the Republican Governors Association in June through its News America PAC. The news was buried in a story in Bloomberg Businessweek.

Discussion: Mediaite, DailyFinance, Guardian, Slate, Most Recent Home Page Posts … and On Media's Blog