Mediagazer: Gannett Not Eager To Join Righthaven's Campaign Against Bloggers (Wendy Davis/MediaPost)

6:30 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: Associated Press, Romenesko, Mediaite, Media Decoder, Howard Kurtz, The Wire, TVNewser, New York Magazine, USA Today, Silicon Alley Insider 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: Lost Remote, Mediaite, International Media, Strupp, Romenesko and New York Times

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

Jenna Wortham / Bits:

Betaworks and The Times Plan a Social News Service — Something is stirring deep within the technology incubator Betaworks: A personalized news service called News.me that is being developed in collaboration with The New York Times. — On Thursday, a cryptic placeholder for the service went live.

Discussion: The Next Web

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

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, On Media's Blog and The Wire

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: Gizmodo, Romenesko, Apple, Daring Fireball, Google Mobile Ads Blog, TechCrunch, New York Magazine, Silicon Alley Insider, Gadget Lab, ReadWriteWeb, Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

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

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, Media Buyer Planner, New York Magazine, Crain's New York Business, The Wire and On Media's Blog

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: Romenesko, Talking Biz News and DailyFinance

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, VentureBeat, The Huffington Post, paidContent and Beet.TV

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, Romenesko, The Huffington Post, Chickaboomer and The Wrap

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

Wendy Davis / MediaPost:

Gannett Not Eager To Join Righthaven's Campaign Against Bloggers — Copyright enforcement company Righthaven might have signed up the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette owner, WEHCO, as a new client, but not all newspapers are eager to start suing nonprofits, bloggers and politicians for reposting material.

Discussion: PlagiarismToday

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

MediaShift:

Columbia, Medill Training New Breed of Programmer-Journalists — 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.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

BREAKING: YouTube Still Isn't Profitable. But It Will Be, Says Google. Again. — Officially, Google doesn't talk about YouTube's profitability, or lack thereof. Except, of course, when Google executives do talk about it. — Then they say that YouTube is very close to becoming profitable.

Discussion: Gizmodo

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