Mediagazer: Ad Giant Thinks You'll Pay for Media Again With the Content Project (Austin Carr/Fast Company)

1:10 PM ET, September 15, 2010

Top News:

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: AppleInsider, Lost Remote, BusinessJournalism.org …, The Wire, Romenesko, SlashGear, 9 to 5 Mac, Digital Trends, FierceMobileContent, MacRumors, iLounge and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

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.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

You're a Media Company Now, Twitter — Good Luck — Twitter rolled out a fairly radical overhaul of its website last night, including support for embedding of photo galleries, videos and other media content, and what appears to be plenty of room for advertising.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, TeleRead and WebNewser, 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

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, Media Buyer Planner and New York Observer

Dorian Benkoil / Poynter Online:

paidContent's Rafat Ali Describes Grim View of Online News' Prospects — In 2002, after unsuccessfully trying to get a reporting job, Rafat Ali launched paidContent.org, a blog about the business of media. The site gained a following, then sponsorships, and became a leading voice in the industry.

Discussion: Poynter Online and Romenesko

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.

Martin Belam / currybetdotnet:

Nieman Journalism Lab shows the way to do apologies and corrections online — A good compare and contrast with media accountability over mistakes. — Yesterday, the Nieman Journalism Lab broke an embargo over a Pew Research Centre study. When they realised, they removed the story …

Laura McGann / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Five important mobile app findings for news orgs

Discussion: MediaMemo, MarketingVOX, 9 to 5 Mac, Romenesko, Editors Weblog, VentureBeat, the Econsultancy blog, Pew Internet, VatorNews, Embargo Watch, MediaPost, PewResearch.org and The Hill, more at Techmeme »

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

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

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: Canadian Magazines, MediaPost, Media Buyer Planner, MarketingVOX and Business Wire

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, Romenesko, Views of the News and On Media's Blog

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.

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com

Stuart Elliott / New York Times:

Newspaper Group Offers a Guarantee to Marketers — NEWSPAPERS are joining media like television and magazines in guaranteeing some results for advertisers. — The Newspaper National Network, which is owned by 25 major newspaper publishers and the Newspaper Association of America …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, New York Observer and Romenesko

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

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

Times Launching Web Notifications Dashboard, TV Ad For Paid Pitch — I often find it confusing when people charge The Times with having introduced reader fees without having launched a service that really takes advantage of the internet (have you seen those infographics or daily emails?).

Discussion: The Times

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.

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.

Discussion: Epicenter, mobile-ent.biz and Music Ally, 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

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: FishbowlNY, Romenesko and National Media

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 …

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

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.