Mediagazer: Simon Who? ‘Idol’ Spots Still Priciest in Prime Time (Brian Steinberg/AdAge)

4:40 PM ET, October 18, 2010

Top News:

Daily Beast Drops Out of Talks With Newsweek — The Daily Beast news and commentary website has withdrawn from talks with Newsweek magazine about a possible merger between the two news organizations, according to a person familiar with the matter. — The two parties have been discussing …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, New York Observer, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Gawker, Folio, The Wire, The Wrap, The Atlantic Online, Romenesko, Mixed Media, Mediaweek and The Huffington Post

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Traffic Bait Doesn't Bring Ad Clicks — Sure, articles about Lindsay Lohan's repeat trips to rehabilitation and Brett Favre's purported sexual peccadilloes generate loads of reader traffic, but do they actually make decent money for the Web sites that publish them? — According to a new analysis, no.

Discussion: AdAge, CJR, SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog and Brooks in Beta

Richard Mauer / Anchorage Daily News:

Miller security guards handcuff editor — The editor of the Alaska Dispatch website was arrested by U.S. Senate candidate Joe Miller's private security guards Sunday as the editor attempted to interview Miller on camera at the end of a public event in an Anchorage school.

Discussion: Alaska Dispatch, KTVA-TV, The Huffington Post, Nieman Journalism Lab, Ben Smith's Blog, New York Magazine, Yahoo! News, CJR, The Daily Caller, Gateway Pundit, Politics Daily, Hot Air, BAGnewsNotes, The Daily Dish, Talking Points Memo and Boing Boing

Rick Edmonds / The Biz Blog:

New York Times to Launch Texas Regional Edition By Month's End — The New York Times will up the ante on its year-old venture into regional editions with the launch later this month of two pages of statewide Texas news in its Friday and Sunday papers. — While the business metrics …

Robert Feder / blogs.vocalo.org: Editor calls damage to Tribune reputation ‘shameful’

David Folkenflik / NPR:

What's The Point Of Journalism School, Anyway? — If there's one thing a journalism school expects of its students, it is the ability to pose a tough question. — Orion de Nevers, a freshman at the University of Southern California, serves up this one: Why would anyone major in journalism at all?

Discussion: Gawker, Romenesko, freefromeditors and FishbowlDC

Chris Wickham / Reuters:

Reuters columnist resigns after trading code breach — (Reuters) - A columnist at Reuters Breakingviews has resigned after multiple breaches of the Thomson Reuters TRI.N (TRI.TO) code of conduct on share dealing, and cases involving other commentators are being investigated.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Media Decoder, Guardian and paidContent

Brian Steinberg / AdAge:

Simon Who? ‘Idol’ Spots Still Priciest in Prime Time — Ad Age's Exclusive Annual Survey of Broadcast TV Ad Costs Has Fox Sitting Pretty With Five of Top 10 Shows — What a spot costs — Sunday Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday Saturday

Discussion: rbr.com, TVNewser and Media Buyer Planner

J. Jennings Moss / Portfolio:

The Quiet Mogul — What does it take to succeed in China or win as a venture capitalist or figure out a successful media strategy? For IDG's Pat McGovern, the answer to all three rests in trusting the people you hire. — Talking with Pat McGovern, you wouldn't automatically label him as a “media mogul.”

Paul Carr / TechCrunch:

NSFW: Respected Newspaper Man on the Death of Print - “La La La, I Can't Hear You” — By any measure you care to use, British newsman Peter Preston deserves respect. — A former editor of the Guardian, the paper's investigative reporting on his watch - including the infamous ‘cash for questions’ scandal …

Peter Preston / Guardian:
We thought the internet was killing print. But it isn't

Discussion: Brooks in Beta and Kirk LaPointe's …

Russ Smith / splicetoday.com:

One Quibble About the Best English-Language Magazine — Britain's Spectator stomps the competition for witty and erudite commentary, but its explanation of a re-design was gratuitous. — An editor of a magazine these days may receive no greater compliment than when a reader expresses …

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Why Do So Many New-Media Startups Ultimately Commit Suicide? — Life in the Fast Lane With VC-Enabled ‘Geniuses’ Who Do Themselves in With Not-So-Genius Moves — It's become accepted wisdom that many old-media companies are doomed; they're led by, the thinking goes, out-of-touch numbskulls.

John Koblin / WWD:

Condé Nast Banks On Scott Dadich — CUTTING THE WIRE: Condé Nast “It” boy Scott Dadich has resigned as creative director at Wired to focus full time on his other gig as the company's executive director of digital-magazine development. Dadich got his corporate job back in July …

Discussion: New York Observer, Romenesko and magCulture.com/blog

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

HTML5 Video is Not Ready for the Web, W3C's Le Hegaret — CAMBRIDGE, Mass — Despite the growing demand for HTML5, and its deployment by many big online players, its commercial introduction is premature as there is no standard for the new technology, says Philippe Le Hegaret …

Jeremy Porter / Journalistics:

The Top 25 U.S. Newspapers According to Google — Clicks is one thing, credibility is another. When it comes to online credibility, Google PageRank rules over all. Few metrics illustrate true authority on the Web more than Google's PageRank. PageRank is the accepted standard for authority on the Web.

Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:

Brightcove preparing for IPO in 2011: source — (Reuters) - Online video publisher Brightcove is preparing for an initial public offering in the first half of next year, according to a person close to the company. — Brightcove, which helps media and marketing companies distribute Web videos across …

Discussion: paidContent, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider and All Things Digital, more at Techmeme »

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:

With Grant, NPR to Step Up State Government Reporting — NPR has received a $1.8 million grant from the Open Society Foundations to begin a project called Impact of Government that is intended to add at least 100 journalists at NPR member radio stations in all 50 states over the next three years.

Discussion: Big Journalism

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo to Offer Media Links — Yahoo Inc. plans to mimic a strategy used by rival Facebook Inc. to help drive traffic to its site, people familiar with the matter said. — The Sunnyvale, Calif., company soon will roll out a feature called Y Connect to allow media publishers …