Mediagazer: How Slate's Jack Shafer Calls Out Bogus Trend Stories (Mallary Jean Tenore/Poynter Online)

4:55 PM ET, September 22, 2010

Top News:

Scott Rosenberg / Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard:

Journalists follow their voices, vote with their feet — As the beleaguring of traditional news organizations continues, newsrooms are actually growing elsewhere. You may have noticed that places like Yahoo, AOL and the Huffington Post are all hiring these days — and they're hiring, um, actual journalists.

Discussion: Etaoin Shrdlu

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Huffington snags N.Y. Times star — In the latest sign that Web sites can compete on an equal footing with media giants, a top reporter for the New York Times is defecting to the Huffington Post. — Peter Goodman, until recently the paper's national economic correspondent and now a writer …

Discussion: On Media's Blog, The Wire, New York Observer, Washington Monthly, Soup, Gawker and The Wrap

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:
John Cook Leaving (Maw of) Yahoo News, Returning to Gawker

Discussion: The Wire, Andrew Golis, The Wrap and New York Observer

The New York Times Company:

The New York Times Company Updates Third-Quarter 2010 Outlook — The New York Times Company today will discuss its business, strategy and management's outlook during the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XIX Conference. — The following are certain anticipated results for the third quarter of 2010 compared to the same period in 2009:

Discussion: Associated Press, The Wrap, Guardian, Gannett Blog and eMedia Vitals

Henry Blodget / The Wire:

The Next Shoe Drops At The New York Times: Now Circulation Revenue Is Starting To Decline — The New York Times Company just issued a disappointing outlook for Q3. — None of the news is good, but the worst part is that the company's circulation revenue, which held the ship together through the bust, is starting to break down.

Discussion: Romenesko

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
New York Times: We're Not a Newspaper Company. …

Discussion: paidContent, WebNewser and Press Gazette

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

So A Blogger Walks Into A Bar... Yesterday I was tipped off about a “secret meeting” between a group of “Super Angels” being held at Bin 38, a restaurant and bar in San Francisco. “Do not come, you will not be welcome,” I was told. — So I did what any self respecting blogger would do …

Henry Blodget / Silicon Alley Insider:
Hooray For Mike Arrington

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, VentureBeat and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

How Slate's Jack Shafer Calls Out Bogus Trend Stories — After Jack Shafer called out The New York Times for running a “bogus trend story” about criminals wearing Yankees caps, journalists had fun with the criticism on Twitter. — The Times' Nicholas Kristof tweeted: “@jackshafer Quit picking on us!

Discussion: Romenesko

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

What's Behind the Exodus at Newsweek? — Next week, the sale of Newsweek to Sidney Harman will be finalized, giving the 91-year-old audio equipment magnate control of the struggling newsweekly. — And the magazine's masthead will look quite a bit different than the one he agreed to buy more than a month ago.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Romenesko and MediaPost

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post: Harman: My son's an intern, not an heir apparent

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Tim Armstrong Won't Talk About AOL's Secret Video Plans — Tim Armstrong will usually talk at length, if not in specifics, about what he's up to at AOL. Not so when it comes to video. — “Yes, we have a video strategy, and no, I'm not going to go into detail on it,” he told (or didn't tell) …

Discussion: Media Money …, paidContent and Silicon Alley Insider

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

Live Blog: Bill Keller Discusses the Future of the News — New York Times executive editor Bill Keller will be on NPR's On Point with Tom Ashbrook this morning discussing “his paper and the radically changing news business,” according to a promo. Live blog updates from the Media Mob here once the program gets started.

Discussion: Romenesko, WBUR and NPR and The Wire

Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:

Google Campaign to Build Up Its Display Ads — Google, the online search ad giant that rarely advertises, has decided it needs to advertise the fact that it is in the online display advertising business. — And if that is not enough advertising about advertising, it has picked …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, MarketingVOX, New York Observer and NYConvergence

Julie Creswell / New York Times:

For a Few, Papers Seem a Timely Bet — Randall D. Smith, a pioneer in the hard knocks business of vulture investing, is circling a new target: the beleaguered newspaper industry. — Mr. Smith puts money into risky investments that few others will touch — and these days, that includes many newspaper and radio companies.

Discussion: Romenesko and Guardian

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Wrong battlefield — It's kinda touching that Rupert Murdoch's loyal lieutenants are trying to entertain the boss by starting an old-fashioned newspaper war (old-fashioned modifies newspaper). But it's also ever-more revealing of their worldview. — And of course, the best way to declare …

Discussion: Guardian

Michael Oliveira / 570News:

Netflix apologizes for allowing actors to talk to reporters at Canadian launch — TORONTO - Video-streaming website Netflix Inc. (Nasdaq:NFLX) closed down a Toronto street Wednesday and attracted dozens of onlookers for a splashy launch to promote its highly anticipated foray into Canada.

Discussion: Techdirt

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Six Apart Deal With VideoEgg Marks the End of an Era — After denying rumors of a deal over the past several weeks, blogging platform Six Apart and advertising network VideoEgg have confirmed they are merging to create a new social-media company called SAY Media.

Discussion: Bits, Anil Dash, One Man & His Blog, Business Wire, WebNewser and The Blog Herald

Irina Slutsky / AdAge:
VideoEgg Buys Six Apart to Build ‘Conversational’ Media Company

Discussion: Movable Type, CNET News, VentureBeat, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Real-Time Web Analytics Start-Up Chartbeat Tallies Up More Investors — Chartbeat, the real-time Web-publishing analytics service, has added a few more investors to its previously announced $3 million funding round. Joining Index Ventures et al are: Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg …

Discussion: New York Observer

Laura Oliver / Journalism.co.uk:

New online platform to allow freelancers to auction exclusive stories — A new online app has been launched for freelancers looking to sell exclusive stories and ideas to news editors. — Qluso, which was developed by Northern Irish technology start-up NewsRupt and goes live in beta on 4 October …

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian

Rachel Sklar / Mediaite:

Kommons Will Sneakily Make You Blog For Free — Last Wednesday, Sept. 15th, a website called Kommons went live - and is sort of brilliant. It's basically Formspring meets Twitter meets “Meet The Press,” or something: A community that seeks smart, conversation-furthering answers prompted by smart, probing questions — publicly.

Discussion: Kommons

Bloomberg:

Michael Eisner Says ‘Highly Unlikely’ He Would Take Tribune Chairman Job — Michael Eisner, the former chief executive officer of Walt Disney Co., said it's “highly unlikely” that he would take the chairman job at Tribune Co., the bankrupt newspaper publisher.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Yahoo CEO: ‘Our real competitor is TV’ — Carol Bartz also says online advertising will get better — In case it was ever in doubt, Yahoo's competition is television. — That's what Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said Tuesday at the Goldman Sachs Communacopia XIX Conference.

Journal Register Company:

Journal Register Company Launching Hyperlocal Portal to Serve Philadelphia — Partners with Outside.in to Power Community-Based News Venture — Yardley, PA - Journal Register Company, a leading local news and information company, is launching a hyperlocal news and advertising portal serving the Philadelphia area.

Thessaly La Force / The Paris Review:

Jennifer Over and Our New Web Site — You may have noticed that our Web site looks different. It's prettier, less cluttered, easier on the eyes—it's a delight to click on every page. Meet Jennifer, the Web designer with Tierra Innovation who was crucial to envisioning our redesign.

Discussion: PRWeb

Todd Stone / AdAge:

Huddler Looks to Open Up Message Boards to Advertisers — Startup Helps Provide Audience of 9 Million for Display Ads Across Sites Such as EpicSki, BackCountry.com — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In 2007, brothers Dan and Ted Gill realized that there were online discussion communities …

Discussion: VentureBeat and TechCrunch