Mediagazer: Who's a journalist? Does that matter? (Dan Gillmor/Salon)

10:50 PM ET, August 27, 2010

Top News:

Welcome to your new vital, valuable media brand; USA Today's reorganization steps back to the past — In a major shift in strategy, a top Gannett executive has announced a sweeping restructuring of its newspaper publishing strategy, one designed to be a model for the newsroom of the future in a rapidly changing digital marketplace.

Discussion: Poynter Online and New York Observer

David Kaplan / paidContent:

USAT Starts ‘Radical’ Shakeup: 130 Layoffs; News Tailored To Mobile, Ads — USA Today Publisher Dave Hunke is embarking on the biggest change in the Gannett (NYSE: GCI) flagship's 28-year history as he shifts away from print and towards mobile. The newsroom is being restructured around content rings instead …

Discussion: National Media, MediaPost, Media Decoder, MediaPost, 5 Blogs Before Lunch, rbr.com and Newspaper Death Watch

Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:

USA Today shaking up staff in ‘radical’ overhaul — SAN FRANCISCO — USA Today, the nation's second largest newspaper, is making the most dramatic overhaul of its staff in its 28-year history as it de-emphasizes its print edition and ramps up its effort to reach more readers and advertisers on mobile devices.

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
USA Today to Remake Itself To Stress Digital Operations

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Shaping the Future … and Electronista

Mike Taylor / FishbowlNY:

Source: Tina Brown Gunning for Editor-in-Chief Spot at Newsweek — A source tells FishbowlNY that Tina Brown, editor of The Daily Beast, has thrown her hat into the ring for the editor-in-chief job at Newsweek. — This is interesting, since we hear Brown is still under contract with The Daily Beast.

Discussion: The Wrap, MinOnline, Romenesko and 5 Blogs Before Lunch

New York Post:
Three more leave listing Newsweek

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines and The Wire

Mark Briggs / Poynter Online:

Why News Startups Should Think Collaboration, not Competition, with Big Media — How will new media replace old media? The rise of independent journalism startups, combined with the shrinking of mainstream news organizations, provokes the question. And for some media pundits, the question is when - not if.

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote: A look at Miami Herald's hyperlocal approach

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Reddit Tells Conde Nast to Go to Hell — Incredibly popular Internet linkdump Reddit was informed by its corporate parent, Conde Nast, that it could not sell ads supporting Proposition 19, California's marijuana legalization ballot initiative. So Reddit figured out how to preserve its soul and screw Conde, too.

Discussion: Switched

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:
Ben Huh of “Cheezburgur” …

Discussion: The Daily What, The Social, benhuh!, The Next Web, VentureBeat and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Dan Gillmor / Salon:

Who's a journalist? Does that matter? — What should we call the people who are creating valuable new information in the new-media ecosystem? — If you're a creator of media, and most of us are these days in one way or another, what should I call you? — Why do I ask?

Discussion: J-Source, Gawker and Kirk LaPointe's …

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Blockbuster tells Hollywood studios it's preparing for mid-September bankruptcy — After dominating the home video rental business for more than a decade and struggling to survive in recent years against upstarts Netflix and Redbox, Blockbuster Inc. is preparing to file for bankruptcy next month …

Jack Neff / AdAge:

Isaiah Mustafa and Social Media Prove No Match for Free Goods — As Flood of Body Wash Slows, so Do Old Spice Sales — BATAVIA, Ohio (AdAge.com) — Muscular as Isaiah Mustafa and his viral videos may be, they seem no match for the power of free goods. — The latest four-week scanner data …

Discussion: Gawker and the Econsultancy blog

Joe Strupp / Strupp:

Major Garrett on Fox, His New Job And The Briefing Room Seat Controversy — Major Garrett, the Fox News White House correspondent who is leaving for National Journal, offered his views in a wide-ranging interview that touched on the stresses of life at Fox, the controversy over the briefing room seat …

Discussion: New York Magazine and Romenesko

Emily Wood / The Official Google Blog:

Find out what's hot on search with the Google Beat — Every day, there are more than a billion searches for information on Google. Have you ever wondered what those searches are about—or whether what you're searching for also happens to be on the minds of millions of others across the country?

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, NewTeeVee, Search Engine Land, MediaPost, VentureBeat, ReadWriteWeb, Pocket-lint and BlueGlass, more at Techmeme »

James Hibberd / The Hollywood Reporter:

‘Modern Family’ creator: Why I took on Hulu — Exclu: Ever since “Modern Family” creator Steve Levitan told THR about his efforts to remove his Emmy-nominated comedy hit from ABC.com last month, the showrunner has been stirring up cyberspace with his take on Modern Viewing.

Discussion: Company Town, TVbytheNumbers and Movieline

Miguel Helft / New York Times:

Charges Settled Over Fake Reviews on iTunes — SAN FRANCISCO — Savvy Internet users know that glowing online reviews of things like books or restaurants can't always be trusted. But federal regulators are giving notice that if you stand to gain financially from the review you are writing, you should be up front about it.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Technology & …, Inc.com, Techdirt, New York Observer, Federal Trade Commission, DailyFinance, Andy Beard, hypebot and eMedia Vitals

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

The Tweet Paywall — If it's true that attention is a scarce resource, drawing attention to something ought to be worth something, right? — That's the idea behind a service that soft-launched this summer called PayWithATweet. It allows you to stash a piece of content (say …

Discussion: Inc.com

Deborah Potter / NewsLab:

Mobile news apps fall short — Little interactivity and even less innovation. That's the headline from a new study of the state of mobile news from the University of Colorado. The report chides news organizations for playing it safe and creating apps that just do the basics.

Katya Foreman / WWD:

Memo Pad: Remember Those Hachette/Hearst Rumors? — Lagardère, the parent company of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., finally broke its silence Thursday and waved off rumors that it plans to imminently off-load certain titles to another U.S. company. Speculation has been rife recently …

Discussion: mediabistro.com and FishbowlNY

Brian Stelter / ArtsBeat:

Going Online With the Emmys — LOS ANGELES — On the fringes of the Emmy telecast this year, producers are trying to appeal to the growing number of people who split their time between the television set and the computer screen. — The Academy of Television Arts & Sciences …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Laura Oliver / Journalism.co.uk:

Breaking news agency BNO withdraws iPhone app, expands wire services — News agency BNO News, which began as a breaking news Twitter service, is withdrawing its iPhone application as it expands its wire service. — The organisation launched the iPhone app in August 2009 prior to handing control …