Mediagazer: Pooling Resources, Two Newsrooms Merge (Tanzina Vega/New York Times)

9:35 AM ET, October 19, 2010

Top News:

Tribune Board Said Ready to Oust Chief Executive — The board of directors of the Tribune Company is expected to ask for the resignation of Randy Michaels, the controversial chief executive of the company, on Tuesday, according to a person directly involved in the matter.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, New York Observer, Romenesko, blogs.vocalo.org, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Mixed Media, New York Magazine, Chickaboomer and LA Observed

Tanzina Vega / New York Times:

Pooling Resources, Two Newsrooms Merge — The nonprofit investigative journalism world continues to expand with the announcement on Tuesday that the Center for Public Integrity will absorb the Huffington Post Investigative Fund, a nonprofit journalism arm of The Huffington Post.

Discussion: Knight Foundation News …, The Wire, KnightBlog, Romenesko and LA Observed

Gawker:

The Huffington Post May Be Chopping Off Its Investigative Fund — The Huffington Post is poised to announce a merger of its investigative fund with the Center for Public Integrity tomorrow morning, a move that will effectively end the fund as it exists today, we hear.

Discussion: Media News

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

Daily Beast Drops Out of Talks With Newsweek — The Daily Beast news and commentary website has withdrawn from talks with Newsweek magazine about a possible merger between the two news organizations, according to a person familiar with the matter.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, Mediaite, Romenesko, Gawker, The Wire, The Wrap, The Huffington Post and Mixed Media

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post: Welch warns beast

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

Slate Taps Bethany McClean And Annie Lowrey For Business And Economics Coverage — There's been a gap in Slate's business and economics coverage since the departure last month of Dan Gross as Moneybox columnist. But the online news and culture magazine has lured some new talent to fill it.

Discussion: Romenesko and The Washington Independent

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, FishbowlDC and freefromeditors

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

Howard Kurtz finds there are news nuggets in the tough, often tacky blog world — I didn't get into journalism to write about Brett Favre's private parts, and I suspect most of my colleagues would like that story ruled out of bounds. — But our ability to spike such tawdry tales ended many seasons ago.

Discussion: Chickaboomer, MinOnline and New York Times

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:

Univision, Vevo Strike Content Pact — Vevo is looking to widen its footprint in the Hispanic market by adding Univision to its content distribution and ad sales network. — The music video site—a joint venture between Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Abu Dhabi Media Company …

Discussion: rbr.com and NewTeeVee

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Hard News Pays Better Than Fluff — or Does It? — A study released today has drawn a lot of attention in media circles for suggesting that stories on “serious topics” such as the Gulf oil spill and the mortgage crisis draw more revenue for online media outlets than stories about celebrities like Lindsay Lohan.

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog, Nieman Journalism Lab and PRWeb

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: Sunlight Foundation and KnightBlog

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Fear And Loathing At The Wall Street Journal — Ahhhhhhhhhahhhaha! — The inmates are now running the asylum. — All anyone is talking about today is the series of articles that the Wall Street Journal has written about a “Privacy Breach” at Facebook.

Discussion: The Not-So Private Parts, The Daily Beast, Post Tech, Wall Street Journal and Silicon Alley Insider, more at Techmeme »

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

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

As Fox, Cablevision Play With Fire, the Whole Cable Industry Could Get Burned — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. and James Dolan's Cablevision are playing with fire, and the whole cable industry could get burned. — The two companies continued to squabble late into the day on Monday about the price …

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

How Massive Was the Chilean Miners' Rescue Online? [STATS] — Broadcasts of the Chilean miners' rescue broke television and online audience records between Tuesday afternoon (ET) on October 12 — when news first broke that the rescue was set to begin the following day — and midnight ET Wednesday …