Mediagazer: Blog platform Tumblr's soaring traffic brings growing pains (John Boitnott/VentureBeat)

3:10 PM ET, September 8, 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: The Wrap, Romenesko, Mediaite, New York Observer, The Wire, On Media's Blog, Tuned In, The Huffington Post, Press Gazette and PopEater

Alan Duke / CNN:

Piers Morgan to replace Larry King — (CNN) — British TV host Piers Morgan will take over Larry King's prime-time hour with “a candid, in-depth newsmaker interview program” starting in January, CNN announced Wednesday. — Morgan, best known to American viewers as a judge on NBC's …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wrap, newsfeed.time.com and Ryan Seacrest What's Happening

Christopher Lawton / Wall Street Journal:

Google TV to Roll Out World-Wide Next Year — BERLIN—Google Inc. Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said the Internet giant plans to launch its Google TV platform globally next year, in the company's latest move to expand its reach outside its core U.S. market. — Google used Mr. Schmidt's …

Discussion: Pulse2 and Multichannel News, more at Techmeme »

Nicola Leske / Reuters:

Google to start TV service in U.S. this autumn — (Reuters) - Google Inc will launch its service to bring the Web to TV screens in the United States this autumn and worldwide next year, its chief executive said, as it extends its reach from the desktop to the living room.

Discussion: Fast Company, MediaPost, MediaPost, NewTeeVee, TVWeek.com, broadstuff and The Next Web

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

NPR's Argo Launches With Dozen Sites In Search Of Sustainability — NPR promised to launch its $3 million local journalism effort Project Argo this summer and it's making the deadline with days to spare. The Argo Network goes live officially today: twelve sites hosted by 14 stations …

Discussion: Center for Sustainable … and Romenesko

Lois Beckett / The Snitch:
NPR Takes ‘Web-First’ Approach to Blogging. What Does That Mean?

Discussion: rbr.com

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.

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

Tina Brown Reaffirms Commitment to Daily Beast; 'I'm Not Serious About The ‘Newsweek’ Thing!' — Earlier tonight Tina Brown co-hosted a book party for Harold Ford Jr.'s More Davids Than Goliaths at Barbetta on West 46th Street. Drinks were in the garden. — The Observer asked Ms. Brown …

Discussion: Gawker, Romenesko, The Wire and On Media's Blog

Joe Pompeo / Silicon Alley Insider:

Brandon Holley Leaves Yahoo, Heads Back To Conde Nast As Editor Of Lucky — Back in March, Brandon Holley spoke with The New York Times about how “her new life as a digital women's-service journalist is much less glamorous than her old one at Condé Nast's glossy dream factory,” …

Discussion: New York Magazine, New York Observer, paidContent, Romenesko and minonline.com

Bill Carter / New York Times:

At ABC News After Westin, Risk and Opportunity — David Westin's resignation as president of ABC News represents, in the words of one long-time television news executive, “an inflection point” for an industry still trying to figure out how to survive. — Andrew Heyward, a former president …

Discussion: Company Town, Romenesko, TVNewser, Associated Press, New York Observer, Wall Street Journal, The Wrap and Variety

Tom Peck / The Independent:

Porn boss to oversee children's TV at Five — “Suburban orgies” and “Wobbling Whoppers” are all in a day's work for Paul Dunthorne, the managing director of Television X, Richard Desmond's network of adult pay-TV channels. But in an unusual case of diversification, the executive has just welcomed …

Nate Freeman / New York Observer:

Fidel Castro Has The Atlantic Over for a Visit — It's not your typical relaxing day in Martha's Vineyard: while on vacation, Atlantic writer Jeffrey Goldberg got a call out of the blue from Fidel Castro's office, inviting him down to the island for a chat, he explains in a piece titled …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Riptide 2.0 and The Daily Dish

Eric Wilson / New York Times:

At Fashion Week, It's Where You Sit That Counts — Bright and early Monday morning (Labor Day, though you wouldn't know it), every seat in the offices of the fashion publicist Paul Wilmot was filled with a young account executive whose holiday weekend was being disrupted by the mechanics …

Discussion: New York Observer

Holly Brubach / New York Times:

Clubhouse Confidential — Gay Talese left the prime real estate to his colleagues. Let other reporters write stories that would land their bylines on the front page. That meant covering the news. For Talese, the news was never the story. — Not even when the news was presumably what he'd been sent to cover.

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Jim Wiatt, ex-William Morris Chief, Takes Content Strategy Job With AOL — Jim Wiatt, the subject of much speculation after a bruising exit from William Morris Endeavor last year, will be joining the Internet portal AOL as a strategic advisor to develop content partnerships across media and entertainment.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Media Decoder, Deadline.com, paidContent and Media News International, more at Techmeme »

Jack Shafer / Slate:

Newsweek makes the publisher's case for not sending print journalists onto TV news shows. — Appearing on television can be good for a print journalist's career. But does it add any publicity value to the publications for which they write and edit? The decline and sale of Newsweek indicates …

Discussion: Romenesko

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Gordon McLeod Resigns As President, WSJ Digital — Gordon McLeod is leaving Dow Jones (NSDQ: NWS) effective October 1. The president of the Wall Street Journal Digital network announced his resignation in an internal memo this morning, telling his team: “A lot has changed in the digital world since I joined you four years ago.

Discussion: The Wrap, The Wire and Broadcasting & Cable

John Boitnott / VentureBeat:

Blog platform Tumblr's soaring traffic brings growing pains — Tumblr, a social media network made up of millions of personal and business blogs, is seeing massive traffic growth, but is undergoing equally big growing pains. — Activity on the network of Tumblr blogs skyrocketed …

Leon Neyfakh / The New York Observer:

Foursquare's Alex Rainert: Key to Dominating Location Space Will Be Informing People's Behavior in Real Time — After deadline yesterday for this story on the future of Foursquare, we spoke to the start-up's head of product Alex Rainert about what the team must do in order to make Foursquare …

Discussion: New York Observer and NYConvergence, more at Techmeme »

CNN:

Exclusive first peek at ‘Parker Spitzer’ — CNN announces the name and Oct. 4th premiere date for the Kathleen Parker and Eliot Spitzer program, weeknights at 8 p.m. ET.

Discussion: Salon, The Wire, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, rbr.com, The Wrap, New York Observer and Wonkette

Max Read / Gawker:
Eliot Spitzer's New CNN Show Looks Awful

Discussion: Crain's New York Business, Guardian, rbr.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Moraes on TV, City Room, Variety, DailyFinance, blogs.tampabay.com, Jezebel, International Media and Gothamist

Guardian:

Key witness will testify on News of the World phone hacking — • Ross Hall transcribed hacked voicemail for other journalists — • Police likely to interview Andy Coulson, says Met officer — • New inquiry launched by home affairs select committee