Mediagazer: Five Reasons Sports Departments Are Digital Innovators (Jason Fry/National Sports Journalism …)

5:45 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Daily Beast Drops Out of Talks With Newsweek — The Daily Beast news and commentary website has withdrawn from talks with Newsweek magazine about a possible merger between the two news organizations, according to a person familiar with the matter.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, New York Magazine, Folio, Mediaite, Gawker, The Wrap, The Wire, The Atlantic Online, Mixed Media, Romenesko, 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: Mediaite, AdAge, CJR, SEOmoz Daily SEO Blog and Brooks in Beta

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’

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, Ben Smith's Blog, Nieman Journalism Lab, New York Magazine, Yahoo! News, Politics Daily, Hot Air, CJR, Gateway Pundit, The Daily Caller, BAGnewsNotes, The Daily Dish, Talking Points Memo and Boing Boing

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

Peter Preston / Guardian:

We thought the internet was killing print. But it isn't — There is no clear correlation between a rise in internet traffic and a fall in newspaper circulation. Some papers are growing in both formats, others are succeeding in neither, according to new research — The woe, as usual, is more or less unconfined.

Discussion: Brooks in Beta and Kirk LaPointe's …

Paul Carr / TechCrunch: NSFW: Respected Newspaper Man on the Death of Print - “La La La, I Can't Hear You”

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

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.”

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

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 …

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 …

Jason Fry / National Sports Journalism Center:

Five Reasons Sports Departments Are Digital Innovators — Earlier this month, the University of Memphis's Carrie Brown-Smith and Drury University's Jonathan Groves offered a post on Brown-Smith's excellent blog The Changing Newsroom identifying sports departments as homes for newspaper's Web innovators.

Discussion: State of the Fourth Estate

Gabriela Schneider / Knight Foundation News Releases:

Sunlight Foundation to Launch “National Data Apps” with grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation — WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Sunlight Foundation will create a series of new “National Data Apps” that will help citizens easily use federal data to better understand everything …

Discussion: KnightBlog and Sunlight Foundation …

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

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.

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

The Maynard Institute:

Editor & Publisher Staff Fired — Replacements named at “bible of the newspaper industry” (10/18/10); White House stands by bloggers; uplifting, yes, but were 1,300 journalists needed? ; O'Reilly's ratings rise after dust-up on “The View”; “journalist” calls to mind white women …

Discussion: Romenesko, paidContent, Mediaite, GalleyCat and Jacket Copy