Mediagazer: A Newspaper Pay Wall Goes Up-And So Do Visitor Numbers (Peter Kafka/MediaMemo)

6:15 PM ET, October 19, 2010

Top News:

Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels: I have not resigned — Randy Michaels, the embattled chief executive of bankrupt Tribune Co., said Tuesday he did not resign from the company despite expectations that he might step down from his post or be asked to leave it at a board meeting Tuesday.

Discussion: Romenesko, The Wrap, The Wire, Chicago Breaking Business and Collective Talent

New York Times:

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: FishbowlNY, Wall Street Journal, Romenesko, mediabistro.com, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Mediaweek, Mixed Media, Company Town, New York Observer, TVWeek.com, blogs.vocalo.org, Jezebel, The Huffington Post, Gawker, Chickaboomer, New York Magazine and LA Observed

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Tribune's Lee Abrams Defends Himself: “I Will Not Stop Pushing” — Apparently Lee Abrams' hasty exit from Tribune Co. did not involve signing a far-reaching non-disclosure agreement, because the former chief innovation officer just sent an extraordinary email defending himself against a number …

Discussion: Romenesko, The Wire, Gawker, FishbowlNY and LA Observed

Jeremy Porter / Journalistics:

Top 25 U.S. Newspapers Ranked By Twitter Followers — While the Top 50 U.S. newspapers seem to be just starting to build up their fan base on Facebook, Twitter has been a priority for a while. If you were to rank the Top 25 U.S. newspapers by Twitter followers, the order would be much different …

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Welch warns beast — Tweet — Jack Welch, the former General Electric chairman nicknamed “Neutron Jack,” may have blown up merger talks between Barry Diller's The Daily Beast and Sidney Harman's Newsweek, The Post has learned. — Welch was brought in early to advise Diller …

Discussion: Gawker, DailyFinance, ClickZ, New York Times, CNET News and Wall Street Journal

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:
More Staff Shuffling At Newsweek As Merger Talks Collapse

Discussion: The Wrap, New York Observer and The Daily Beast

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Ooyala Launches Video Paywall Powered By PayPal — Video publishing platform Ooyala is launching a new product today, called Ooyala Paywall. The feature is exactly what it sounds like. Ooyala Paywall, which is powered by PayPal, allows publishers to implement a payment system to allow visitors view their videos.

Discussion: Business Wire, VideoNuze and Beet.TV

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: Romenesko, Knight Foundation News …, Shaping the Future …, WebNewser, The Wire, KnightBlog and LA Observed

Gawker:
The Huffington Post May Be Chopping Off Its Investigative Fund

Discussion: New York Observer, NetNewsCheck Latest, New York Magazine, MediaPost and Media News

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

A Newspaper Pay Wall Goes Up-And So Do Visitor Numbers — The New York Times is getting ready to roll out a “metered model” pay wall in January, and plenty of people fret that the paper will see its audience disappear when the (porous) gates go up. Here's a counterargument: The Telegram & Gazette.

Discussion: MediaPost, The Wire, Romenesko, NetNewsCheck Latest and The Next Web

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The scalability of collaboration: ProPublica partners with five (five!) other outlets for its latest story — Today brings the launch of a blockbuster story: A group of investigative journalists, looking into the financial practices of pharmaceutical companies, found that many doctors …

Discussion: ProPublica, Consumer Reports Health Blog, Boston Globe, Romenesko, The Now/ledge, The Consumerist and New York Magazine

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Another Web Ad Shop Gets Gobbled Up: Deep Focus to The Engine Group — Deep Focus, the New York-based digital agency that works for Nike, Time Warner's HBO, Microsoft's Bing and many other blue chip names (here's an example) has been acquired by U.K.-based The Engine Group.

Discussion: MediaPost, IanSchafer.com, paidContent and All Things Digital

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 …

Discussion: MediaFile, MediaPost, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable, rbr.com and AdAge

The New York Times Company:

The New York Times Company Reports 2010 Third-Quarter Results — The New York Times Company announced today 2010 third-quarter results, which are detailed below. — Total revenues decreased 2.7 percent in the third quarter of 2010 compared with the third quarter of 2009 as advertising …

Discussion: New York Times, paidContent, MediaMemo, The Wire, Dow Jones Newswires, The Awl, Romenesko, NetNewsCheck Latest, Crain's New York Business, Mixed Media, New York Magazine and Gawker

Kevin Poulsen / Threat Level:

No, We Don't Hate WikiLeaks — We interrupt our regular coverage to address a rare dispatch from WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange that crossed the WikiLeaks Twitter feed this morning. — In it, Assange slams Wired.com, and this writer in particular, for what he labels a false report …

Discussion: Mediaite, main page collection, Guardian, CIR: All New Content and TwitLonger

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

Slate Taps Bethany McLean 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, mediabistro.com, The Washington Independent and FishbowlNY

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Buddy Media Raises $23 Million For Brand-Focused Facebook Page Management Platform — Buddy Media, a company that provides Facebook Page management tools to brands, has just raised $23 million in Series C Funding led by Institutional Venture Partners with SoftBank Capital, Greycroft Partners …

Discussion: New York Observer, Newsroom, Silicon Alley Insider, SocialTimes.com, AdExchanger.com and NYConvergence.com