Mediagazer: News Corp. Is Freaking Out (Michael Wolff/Newser)

8:40 AM ET, September 9, 2010

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

CNN Makes It Official: Piers Morgan Will Replace Larry King — CNN said Wednesday that Piers Morgan would take over for Larry King next January, putting an end to speculation about one of the most prized time slots in television. — Mr. Morgan, the British-born journalist and talent show judge …

Discussion: Mediaite, blogs.tampabay.com, Romenesko, The Wrap, Tuned In, Broadcasting & Cable, New York Observer, DailyFinance, International Media, The Wire, Chickaboomer, Press Gazette, PopEater and The Huffington Post

Wall Street Journal:
As Ratings Slump, CNN Shifts Focus to New Faces

Discussion: Speakeasy

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:
How Piers Morgan's Deal To Take Over For Larry King Came About

Discussion: Movieline

Alan Duke / CNN:
Larry King replacement named

Discussion: New York Times, Mercury News, Romenesko, PC Magazine, MediaPost, The Wrap and Mediaite

The Politico:

POLITICO hires first opinion writers — Pioneering journalist Michael Kinsley and GOP congressman-turned-TV-host Joe Scarborough will write weekly columns for POLITICO starting next month. — Kinsley, the left-leaning founding editor of Slate, currently writes for The Atlantic Media Company …

Discussion: Romenesko, Ben Smith's Blog and The Huffington Post

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Scarborough and Kinsley Will Write for Politico — Politico has built a successful enterprise on the idea that there is no such thing as too much information when it comes to political news. Now it is going to apply that concept to political opinion. — Starting on Oct. 1 …

Discussion: Gawker

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Like It or Not, Twitter Has Become a News Platform — There's been plenty of debate lately about whether Twitter has become “mainstream” or not, but examples continue to pile up of how the social network/microblogging platform has worked its way into our lives, to the point where it has become a form of media unto itself.

Steve Rubel / The Steve Rubel Stream:

Google Instant Makes SEO Irrelevant — Google today launched an ambitious effort to speed up searching. But what they really did is kill SEO. — Google says: … The most important consideration for marketers or anyone who creates content, however, is in the bullets...

Meghan Keane / the Econsultancy blog:
Google Instant will change — not kill — SEO

Discussion: MediaMemo, Fast Company and GalleyCat, more at Techmeme »

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

Lucky Girl Brandon Holley Ditches Yahoo's ‘Brainy Geeks,’ Returns to Condé … Three years ago Jane magazine closed, and editor Brandon Holley was out of a job. — “I didn't leave Jane, Jane left me,” Ms. Holley told The Observer on the phone this afternoon.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Folio and AdAge

Joe Pompeo / Silicon Alley Insider:
Brandon Holley Leaves Yahoo, Heads Back To Conde Nast As Editor Of Lucky

Discussion: Gawker, New York Magazine, BoomTown, Romenesko, minonline.com, New York Observer and paidContent, more at Techmeme »

Nick Davies / Guardian:

Phone hacking rife at N0W - witness — • Ex-NoW journalist says Andy Coulson ‘must have known’ — • Speaker paves way for second committee to investigate — • Poll finds 52% think PM's communications chief must go — A former senior News of the World journalist …

Discussion: Bagehot's notebook, The First Post, Jack of Kent, CJR, The Atlantic Online and Politics Daily

Michael Wolff / Newser:
News Corp. Is Freaking Out

Discussion: Press Gazette, The Independent, The First Post and Crikey

Scott Klein / ProPublica:

Welcome to the Nerd Blog … Today we are introducing our Nerd Blog, a place to talk about what programmer-journalists at ProPublica are working on, announce newly-launched news applications, and to hear from technically-minded readers, as well as our fellow nerdy journalists.

Discussion: Romenesko and Nieman Journalism Lab

Emma Heald / Editors Weblog:

Arthur Sulzberger on charging online: to succeed, we need to take risks — Chairman and publisher of the New York Times, Arthur Sulzberger Jr, stressed the need to take risks and not be afraid of failure in the quest to find a business model that can adequately support high quality journalism.

Discussion: Mashable!, The Wire, New York Observer, Romenesko and The Wrap

Next Media Animation:

Wall Street Journal takes on New York Times — After more than a century of peaceful co-existence, the Wall Street Journal has decided to take on the New York Times head on with its Greater New York section. New owner Rupert Murdoch declared “let the battle begin.” Is this going to be a newspaper war for the ages?

Discussion: BoomTown, New York Observer, Mediaite, Gothamist, The Awl and On Media's Blog

Dan Frommer / The Wire:

Flipboard CEO: Only A Tiny Handful Of Publishers Have Complained About Our App Taking Too Much Content — One of the early concerns about Flipboard — the beautiful reading app for Apple's iPad — was that it pulled lengthy excerpts of content from web publishers, without paying them or pulling in their ads.

Discussion: TeleRead

The Wrap:

New Media Upstarts Relying on Journalism for a Change — New websites are launched every day — most, it would appear, involving photos of cats in compromising situations. Sites with real impact potential pop up less often. — Yet three recent digital media launches — Capital New York …

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:

YouTube Launches Branded Travel Channel — YouTube has launched a new travel channel in conjunction with Norwegian Cruise Line for videos highlighting travel ideas and advice. The new YouTube Vacationer travel channel includes videos from experts at Lonely Planet, National Geographic, Travel Channel and Howcast, among others.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Mashable! and YouTube Blog

Kimberley Isbell / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What's the law around aggregating news online? A Harvard Law report on the risks and the best practices — [So much of the web is built around aggregation — gathering together interesting and useful things from around the Internet and presenting them in new ways to an audience.

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Ebyline Launches As A Market For Freelance Journalists And News Syndication — Can a ragtag group of former newspapermen from the L.A. Times help newspapers fight off the content farms of the Web The founders and backers of Ebyline, which has been in private beta for a few months and launches today …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and LA Observed

Jonah Lehrer / Wired Science:

The Future Of Reading — I think it's pretty clear that the future of books is digital. I'm sure we'll always have deckle-edge hardcovers and mass market paperbacks, but I imagine the physical version of books will soon assume a cultural place analogous to that of FM radio.

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:

Netflix Grabs More Streaming Content Ahead of Cable — Netflix is expanding its catalog of exclusive streaming content with a deal that will give its subscribers access to films from Nu Image/Millennium Films during what was traditionally known as the “pay TV window.”

Discussion: PR Newswire and Online Video News

Bloomberg:

New York Times Shares and Options Rise on Slim Takeover Speculation — New York Times Co. shares rose as much as 8 percent and bullish options trading surged to a six- month high on renewed speculation the newspaper publisher may be acquired. — Almost 6,400 calls to buy the stock changed hands …

Discussion: MarketBeat, MediaMemo, Romenesko, Reuters, New York Observer and The Wire

Gabe Rivera / The Atlantic Wire:

MEDIA DIET: Gabe Rivera: What I Read — How do people deal with the torrent of information that rains down on us all? What's the secret to staying on top of the news without surrendering to the chaos of it? In this series, we ask people who seem well-informed to describe their media diets.