Mediagazer: WSJ assigns two editors to secret ‘Special Project’ (Jim Romenesko/Romenesko)

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

The New Twitter.com Is a “Consumption Environment”. Translation: Twitter is a (Reluctant) Media Company — Twitter's new Web site has lots of cool features and gizmos. But they're all supposed to do one thing in particular: They're meant to encourage you to spend more time on Twitter.com, where the company can show you some ads.

John Boudreau / Mercury News:

Apple to announce subscription plan for newspapers — Apple is expected to announce soon a new subscription plan for newspapers, which hope tablets like the iPad will eventually provide a new source of profit as media companies struggle with declining print circulation and advertising revenue.

Discussion: The Wire and Romenesko, more at Techmeme »

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

The news is, that pitch was paid for — (WJBK Fox 2 Morning News / September 14, 2010) — When spokespersons for hire promote products on local TV news shows. — With summer ending, local television news stations recently rolled out their back-to-school features.

Discussion: Romenesko

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

WSJ assigns two editors to secret ‘Special Project’ — To: WSJ All News Staff; Newswires_USERS — I am pleased to announce that two of our most talented editorial executives will be leading a Special Project (notice the capital letters) crucial to our success as a company.

Discussion: Guardian, paidContent, On Media's Blog, Talking Biz News, Editors Weblog and The Huffington Post

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Condé Nast chief: up to 40% of magazine sales could be on iPad — Nicholas Coleridge reveals publisher will launch paid-for applications for December issues of UK Wired and Vogue — Nicholas Coleridge, the managing director of Condé Nast UK, has predicted that in the future …

Discussion: Press Gazette and New York Observer

Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:

Media Buzz: Naming the tastemakers of 2010 — Commentary: A dozen New York-based journalists set the tone — This is the first in a series of columns focusing on journalists who have a buzz. — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — It's getting increasingly difficult to recognize exactly who should be regarded as a journalist in 2010.

Megan R. Wilson / OpenSecrets.org:

Journalists, Media Professionals Donating Frequently to Federal Political Candidates this Election Cycle — Last year, Christopher Hayes gave $250 to the congressional campaign of a good friend, Alabama Democrat Josh Segall. — That's hardly noteworthy, but for one factor: Hayes is the Washington …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, CJR, Hollywood Reporter and On Media's Blog

Dean Starkman / CJR:

The Hamster Wheel — Why running as fast as we can is getting us nowhere — “Newsrooms have shrunk by 25% in three years.” —Project for Excellence in Journalism, “State of the News Media 2010” — “A large majority (75%) of editors said their story counts . . …

Discussion: Romenesko, FishbowlNY and National Media

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Ad Giant Thinks You'll Pay for Media Again With the Content Project — How much content are you willing to pay for online? That's what providers from publishers to media outlets want to know as they gear up to launch subscription services. Hulu and the New York Times are just two of the many experimenting with paywalls.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and AdPulp

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Helping Journalists Become Hackers and Entrepreneurs — Journalism schools are useful for many things, including research into ethical standards, traditional skill development, and so on. Increasingly, some journalism schools are focusing on building their students' digital chops …

Discussion: The News About The News, MediaShift, J-Source and New York Times

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Al Sharpton to launch Sunday-morning show — He'll also start a media company and magazine — The Rev. Al Sharpton has created his own media company and will launch a Sunday-morning syndicated TV show, he told The Hollywood Reporter on Monday. — The controversial civil rights advocate …

Discussion: New York Observer, Gawker and Chickaboomer

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

Lucky Lady — When Brandon Holley took over Jane at the end of 2005 from the eponymous Jane Pratt, the magazine's staff gave her a neon sign. It read “She's so Jane,” and the magazine launched an ad campaign around that tag line to convince readers and advertisers that Ms. Holley would be make a great replacement.

Thomas L. Friedman / New York Times:

Power to the (Blogging) People — This moment was inevitable. Ever since China began to shuck off communism and turn itself into a global economic power, its leaders have followed the strategy of a “peaceful rise” — be modest, act prudently, don't frighten the neighbors and certainly don't galvanize any coalition against us.

Ed Christman / Billboard.Biz:

Exclusive: Sources Detail Google's Proposal For A Music Service — Google is circulating a proposal among major record labels for a long-anticipated music service that would include an a la carte digital download store and a subscription-based cloud-based locker, according to industry sources.

more at Techmeme »

Simon Owens / The Next Web:

DC social media users now regularly scoop local news outlets — Aaron Morrissey was watching football this past Sunday afternoon when he noticed tweets mentioning some kind of shooting in the Adams Morgan neighborhood of Washington, DC. Morrissey is the editor-in-chief of DCist …

Discussion: DCist

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

News Corp Calls On Sun Online Editor For iPad Project — Pete Picton, long-time editor of the Sun Online website in the UK, is leaving London to join parent News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) in New York. — Sun Editor Dominic Mohan told staff on Tuesday Picton will be “helping to launch a new digital project”.

Discussion: The Wire and WebNewser

Steve Smith / minonline.com:

Magazine Video Growth Slows in Q2 — After eight consecutive quarters of growth in online video streams, magazine Web sites saw the first signs of contraction in the second quarter of the year, according to the latest trending statistics from Brightcove and TubeMogul.

Discussion: MediaPost, Media Buyer Planner, MarketingVOX and Business Wire

Nikki Usher / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Why SEO and audience tracking won't kill journalism as we know it — [I'm happy to introduce Nikki Usher, a new contributor here at the Lab. Nikki is a Ph.D. candidate at USC Annenberg and, before academia, was a reporter for The Philadelphia Inquirer and elsewhere.

Discussion: American Journalism Review

Andrew Keen / TechCrunch:

Keen On... with Justine Bateman: “I've been waiting for this my entire life” (TCTV) — “I've been waiting for this my entire life,” the actress, technologist and entrepreneur Justine Bateman confessed to me when we spoke recently over Skype. But Bateman - best known probably for her role …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Weezer's YouTube Trade: We'll Star in Your Videos, You Help Us Sell Music — Weezer had a big hit on YouTube a couple of years ago with “Pork and Beans,” a video that featured some of YouTube's biggest stars. For its encore the band is inverting the strategy: The YouTube stars make their own videos …

Discussion: ClickZ

Adam Frucci / Splitsider:

Conan to Take Questions from the Unwashed Masses on Facebook — Conan O'Brien is really embracing the internet to promote his new show Conan. It makes sense, seeing as the internet is what really rallied behind him during the Tonight Show s**tshow. Today's online promo …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Urlesque, Gizmodo and New York Magazine

Amy Starlight Lawrence / KnightBlog:

Four Innovation and Collaboration Trends in Journalism Education — The Center for International Media Assistance recently released the report “U.S. Universities and Media Development.” Written by journalist and journalism educator, Anne Nelson, the report analyzes the role U.S. universities play in the international media arena.

Discussion: Community Information Needs