Mediagazer: Lee Abrams resigns from Tribune Co. (Phil Rosenthal/Chicago Breaking Business)

2:45 AM ET, October 16, 2010

Top News:

Phil Rosenthal / Chicago Breaking Business:

Lee Abrams resigns from Tribune Co. — Lee Abrams. (Handout) — Tribune Co. Chief Innovation Officer Lee Abrams, who began the work week by sending a companywide e-mail that contained content deemed inappropriate, resigned Friday. — The e-mail, the latest in a weekly series …

Discussion: Romenesko, Tanner Friedman, rbr.com, The Informer, New York Times and Chicago Tribune

Media Decoder:

Fox Stations Go Dark as Dispute With Cablevision Escalates — Updated The clock struck midnight and Fox stations disappeared from homes subscribing to Cablevision as the dispute between the cable company and Fox's owner, News Corporation, escalated into action early Saturday.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel, Company Town, TVNewser, B&C, NewTeeVee and New York Magazine

Alex Weprin / mediabistro.com:

Dennis Kneale to Join Fox Business Network — It looks like another CNBC reporter is leaving to join Fox Business Network. — TVNewser hears that Dennis Kneale is expected to join Fox Business in an on-air role covering media and advertising. — We have calls out to Fox Business, and will update when we hear back.

Discussion: Mediaite, Dealbreaker, The Wire and Talking Biz News

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Gannett's Digital Revs Continue To Surge, As Print Declines Recede — Digital revenues in Gannett's U.S. Community Publishing unit, which houses the company's 80 local papers, were up 10.2 percent in the quarter due to gains in virtually all ad categories. Meanwhile, flagship USA Today's …

Discussion: rbr.com

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Index, Union Square Like SoundCloud's Web-Based Tune — Here's another bet on Web-based music: SoundCloud, a start-up that makes it easy to share streaming music, is about to land a funding round from high-profile investors. — Sources tell me that Index Ventures and Union Square Ventures are leading a …

Discussion: MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Columbia developing a year-round news outlet to let students learn how to build and serve an audience — It's only a slight exaggeration to say that journalism schools, even more than other media institutions, are experiencing an existential crisis under news' new conditions.

Jeremy Porter / Journalistics:

How the Top 25 U.S. Newspapers Stack Up Online — Most newspaper rankings are usually based on circulation numbers from the Audit Bureau of Circulations (ABC). It makes sense to rank newspapers by circulation, since the more papers that ship, the more people a paper reaches and the more influence it has.

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Actor-writer McCarthy named Travel Journalist of the Year — Former “Brat Pack” actor Andrew McCarthy (left) took the top individual honors as 2010 Travel Journalist of the Year in the Lowell Thomas Travel Journalism Competition for his articles in National Geographic Traveler, Bon Appétit, Islands, Afar and other magazines.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Dan Trombetto / Folio:

Would These Editors Hire You? — Three top editors chime in about what skill sets they're looking for today. — “An editor's role will never be what it was just five years ago.” — That's a line from a June 2009 FOLIO: story on publishers developing the edit staff that will define the company's future.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

NBC U Perks Up a Bit for Its New Owners — This should make the folks in Philadelphia feel a bit better about their purchase-to-be: GE says that its NBC Universal unit, soon to become a Comcast property, had a decent third quarter. — Unofficially, that is.

Discussion: rbr.com, Company Town and Multichannel

William Glaberson / New York Times:

A Grisly Murder Trial, in 140-Character Bits — NEW HAVEN — Dr. William A. Petit Jr., whose wife and daughters were killed by two intruders in Cheshire, Conn., took the witness stand. It was one of the most expectantly intense moments of the three-week trial of one of two defendants in the case.

Discussion: WebNewser

ProPublica:

Reporting Recipe: Using Amazon's Mechanical Turk for Data Projects — Of all of journalism's recent evolutions, data-driven reporting is one of the most celebrated. But as much as we should toast data's powers, we must acknowledge its cost: Assembling even a small dataset can require hours of tedious work …

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Size Does Matter When It Comes To Tablets, Newspapers Fear — The iPad has been a hit with newspaper and magazine publishers because its 9.7-inch screen gives apps room to play with layout. At a recent industry conference, a digital strategist for the Gannett newspaper chain worried …

Discussion: Poynter Online