Mediagazer: How the Nielsen TV ratings work — and what could replace them (io9)

4:00 AM ET, September 18, 2010

Top News:

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

Steve Jobs In Email Pissing Match with College Journalism Student — Steve Jobs is known for replying to random emails sent to his personal Apple email address. Well, a college journalism student from Long Island emailed him about a problem she had with Apple's PR department. Jobs' response?

Discussion: TechCrunch, Gadget Lab, Hit & Run, Runnin' Scared, Charitini and Gizmodo

Felix Salmon:

Teaching journalists to read — Every six months or so, The Audit, CJR's financial-journalism blog, holds a breakfast to update interested parties on how the blog is doing. Each breakfast has an invited speaker, and so it was that I found myself at 7:45 this morning in a very posh Upper East Side club …

Richard MacManus / ReadWriteWeb:

Tumblr Leaves Posterous in the Dust — One of the more interesting startup battles in recent times has been Tumblr vs. Posterous, two light blogging services that make it easy for anyone to publish ‘found’ things very quickly and at the click of a button. Tumblr was the first kid on the block …

Discussion: New York Observer

io9:

How the Nielsen TV ratings work — and what could replace them — The Fall television season is beginning. Both networks and fans will anxiously scan Nielsen ratings to see which shows will survive. But how do these ratings work? And could we develop a system that measures how we really watch TV?

Discussion: NewTeeVee

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:

Ex-child prostitute sues Village Voice over sex ads — A teenage child trafficking victim has filed a lawsuit against Village Voice Media, for knowingly allowing her pimp to post ads for her “services” on the popular backpage.com. The pimp, Latasha Jewell McFarland, has already pleaded guilty …

Discussion: Hit & Run

C.W. Anderson / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Yeah, but what does it mean for journalism? A visual rhetoric guide — It's become something of a Twitter joke. A new gadget appears, or a dramatic development takes place on the world stage, and the cry goes up: But what does it mean for journalism? I'm guilty of it myself.

Bloomberg:

Apple Said to Negotiate With Publishers Over Digital Newsstand — Apple Inc. is developing a digital newsstand for publishers that would let them sell magazines and newspapers to consumers for use on Apple devices, said two people familiar with the matter. — The newsstand …

Discussion: MacRumors, Engadget, TeleRead and One Man & His Blog

Martin Belam / currybetdotnet:

Journalism shouldn't be afraid of web metrics — There has been some recent discussion about the impact of metrics in the newsroom on the Nieman Journalism Lab site. — It often seems to me that fear of measuring the performance of news gets simplified by many people into worrying that the outcome will be:

Discussion: AdAge

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

NBC's fall guys — Tweet — NBC Universal is looking at a new fall lineup — not just on the screen but in the executive suite. — Execs have been nervously awaiting moves by Comcast Corp., the cable giant that is buying a majority stake in NBC Universal, giving it control of the Peacock network …

Discussion: TVNewser, TVWeek.com and NewscastStudio Blog

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

Checking In on Kachingle — Why haven't any big news sites signed up? — Early in 2009, the micropayment service Kachingle received a lot of attention when a piece in Editor and Publisher suggested that it could—gasp!—"save journalism." By April 2009, Kachingle founder Cynthia Typaldos …

Discussion: Romenesko

Michael Roberts / The Latest Word:

I-News: Can Laura Frank's journalism project slow the disappearance of investigative reporting? — With resources and revenues for print and broadcast news operations continuing to shrink, investigative journalism — a vital form, but among the field's most expensive — is becoming more rare with each passing day.

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

UK newspaper puts editorial content onto Foursquare — Reviews from Metro will now be available through location-based service Foursquare, the first UK newspaper to provide editorial content on the platform. — Users will be able to view location-relevant restaurant and film reviews …

Discussion: paidContent:UK and The Next Web

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Newsweek: Rumors of Deals and Looming Layoffs — In your rumormongering Friday media column: rumors of Newsweek's bleak near future, another Rupert Murdoch paywall, buzzy broadcasters revealed, Dennis Kneale reportedly leaving CNBC, and Doug McKelway gets canned. — The Newsweek rumor train rolls on!

Discussion: Washington Post, Chickaboomer and The Wire

Nicholas Carlson / New York Times:

Hacks Into Hackers — Last spring, Nick Bilton, an adjunct professor at New York University (and a New York Times blogger), and his technology class stashed sensors all over their floor at the Tisch School of the Arts: on elevators, in hallways, outside bathrooms, in the lounge and in classrooms.

Craig Silverman / CJR:

How to Lose Your Gut — The journalist's guide to gutless online verification — Dean Miller has spent years getting journalists to lose their gut. — “Your gut is the most dangerous thing you have,” says Miller, the director of the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University's School …

Ed Walker:

Legal challenges facing online journalists — Had some media law refresher training this morning. It was tough going back three years and trying to remember specific cases but the best bit of the session were the debates about the challenges now faced by journalism when it comes to online and the law.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk