Mediagazer: Reuters Taps Slate's James Ledbetter As Website Editor (David Kaplan/paidContent)

5:25 PM ET, September 9, 2010

Top News:

David Zurawik / Z on TV:

Fox News says it will not cover burning of Quran — In a bold move that is likely to be much discussed in coming days, Fox News said today that it will not cover the burning of the Quran on Saturday if Pastor Terry Jones follows through on his plan to burn copies of Islam's sacred book.

Discussion: Romenesko, Media Decoder, Mediaite, USA Today, Howard Kurtz, The Wire, TVNewser and CNN

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Plan to burn Qurans ignites media frenzy — Pastor Terry Jones of Gainesville, Fla., got a bit of local press last Sept. 11 when members of his small congregation stood on the side of the road wearing “Islam is of the devil” T-shirts. This year, he has upped the ante with an anti-Islam stunt …

Discussion: Mediaite, Romenesko, New York Times, George's Bottom Line, Agence France Presse, The Huffington Post, Silicon Alley Insider, Threat Level, The Register, Poynter Online, The Daily Caller, CrunchGear, Politics Daily, Data Center Knowledge and CNN

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

Don't Blame Media, Blame the Media-Audience Infinite Loop — I've spent two days listening to and reading near-constant coverage of the wacko who's planning to burn Korans in Gainsville, Florida, and increasingly the stories have been about whether or not all the press attention has been irresponsible.

Discussion: Mediaite and New York Times

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: Romenesko, rbr.com, Ben Smith's Blog, CJR, The Politico, The Wire, WebNewser, New York Magazine, Gawker and The Huffington Post

Wall Street Journal:

As Ratings Slump, CNN Shifts Focus to New Faces — CNN, rebooting in a bid to revive its slumping ratings, officially tapped a former British tabloid editor to take over its flagship prime-time show. — Piers Morgan, who in recent years has reinvented himself as a TV interviewer and judge …

Discussion: Speakeasy

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

Discussion: Company Town, Movieline and New York Times

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Reuters Taps Slate's James Ledbetter As Website Editor — Two months after the Slate Group folded its business news site The Big Money, its former editor-in-chief James Ledbetter is heading to Reuters (NYSE: TRI) to run the company's website, paidContent has learned. Both Reuters and Ledbetter confirmed the hiring.

Discussion: Talking Biz News and DailyFinance

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What Apple's new App Store rules mean for news orgs: Some new clarity, but still plenty of fuzziness — After loads of criticism for unexplained decisions, inscrutable rules, and what appeared to be a desire to protect the public's morals and the feelings of the powerful …

Discussion: Romenesko, Gizmodo, Apple, Daring Fireball, Google Mobile Ads Blog, TechCrunch, Gadget Lab, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, ReadWriteWeb and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Newsweek's Weymouth heads to Washington Post — Lally Weymouth, a special diplomatic correspondent at Newsweek, becomes the latest high-ranking staffer to leave the magazine since audio magnate Sidney Harman agreed to buy it from the Washington Post Co. — Weymouth will join …

Discussion: Romenesko and The Wire

John Koblin / New York Observer:

Wall Street Journal To Launch A Book Review Section — The Observer has learned that The Wall Street Journal will launch a weekly book review within the next few weeks. The Journal has never had a standalone book review before, and creating one now flies in the face of ever-dwindling book coverage in papers across the country.

Discussion: Shaping the Future …, Gawker, Crain's New York Business, Media Buyer Planner, New York Magazine, The Wire and On Media's Blog

Ethan Smith / Speakeasy:

MTV Overtakes Vevo as Top Online Music Destination … Thanks largely to an ad-sales partnership with Warner Music Group, MTV Networks last month became the Web's most-visited music destination, surpassing rival Vevo, according to new statistics from ComScore Media Metrix.

Discussion: AdAge, The Wrap and Crain's New York Business

Evelyn Rusli / TechCrunch:

Video Publishing Platform Ooyala Raises $22 Million, Prepares For Major Asian Expansion — Advertisers are not the only ones plowing money into the online video space with gusto, you can add large, international investors to that growing list. — This morning, Ooyala announced …

Discussion: Online Video News, NewTeeVee, paidContent, The Huffington Post and Beet.TV

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.

Discussion: PlagiarismToday

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Newspaper Paywalls: Full Speed Ahead — News Corp rolled out a paywall at two of its major UK papers. It's not going well. The New York Times is scheduled to roll out its own paywall in January. Should anyone there be having second thoughts? — Rupert Murdoch, of course …

Discussion: New York Times, FollowTheMedia, CJR and TeleRead

Emma Heald / Editors Weblog:
Arthur Sulzberger on charging online: to succeed, we need to take risks

Discussion: Mediaite, Deadline.com, Mashable, MarketBeat, New York Observer, The Huffington Post, Romenesko, Chickaboomer and The Wrap

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.

Discussion: Andrew Lark

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Pacifica Radio in talks to air Al Jazeera in major U.S. markets — Pacifica Radio, the nonprofit organization that runs the nation's oldest public-radio network, is in talks with the Al Jazeera Network to put the Persian Gulf-based news service on its five stations, including WPFW-FM in Washington.

Discussion: Romenesko, Washington Post, Media Network and Chickaboomer

Dave McNary / Variety:

Public TV writers ratify new pact — Deal covers made-for-Internet programming — Public television writers repped by the Writers Guild of America have unanimously ratified a new four-year pact. — The WGA said the deal, announced Wednesday, covers made-for-Internet programming …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and The Wrap

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

Paley Center Sets Date for Its First Anti-Emmys Awards Show: May 2012 — The Emmys' new competitor has marked its date in the sand. — The Paley Center for Media — formed in March to explore opportunities to create an awards alternative to the Emmys, reportedly encompassing all dayparts and genres …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost and Multichannel

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.

Discussion: Gadget Lab

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Glam Acquires Men's Online Media Company Fantastic Zero — Blog network Glam Media is getting less and less female focused these days and the company's latest acquisition of German men's online media company Fantastic Zero will only help to broaden its demographic and geographic reach.

Discussion: TechCrunch

Damon Kiesow / Mobile Media:

Five Mobile Media Issues that Will Define the Future — This Mobile Media blog launched in January, just a week before the unveiling of the iPad. During those pre-iPad, pre-Facebook Places, pre-Android-everywhere days, newsrooms were still focused on rolling out iPhone apps …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Editors Weblog

Dan Reimold / MediaShift:

How College Students Became Mini-Media Moguls in School — Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by Carnegie-Knight News21, an alliance of 12 journalism schools in which top students tell complex stories in inventive ways. See tips for spurring innovation and digital learning at Learn.News21.com.

Discussion: HackCollege

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: Mashable and YouTube Blog