Mediagazer: Bartz On Blogging: “An Extremely Hard Engineering Feat” (Erick Schonfeld/TechCrunch)

9:15 AM ET, October 20, 2010

Top News:

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Yahoo Says Display Ad Sales Up 17 Percent — Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which has been under pressure to turn around its flagging performance, couldn't afford to disappoint Wall Street this quarter. And the company did not. But it didn't exactly surprise either, posting quarterly results in line …

Discussion: Mashable!, MarketWatch, BoomTown, Silicon Alley Insider, AdAge, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Digits, CNET News and Tech Trader Daily, more at Techmeme »

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Bartz On Blogging: “An Extremely Hard Engineering Feat” — Carol Bartz was almost subdued on today's earnings call. Missing were the salty outbursts of previous conference calls, but she did manage one zinger. Apparently, one of Yahoo's problems before was an inflexible content management system …

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Internet Is a Weapon in Cable Fight — In disputes between television programmers and distributors, the new battleground is the Internet. — In its continuing contract showdown with Cablevision, the News Corporation tried to extend its blackout of the Fox Broadcasting network to Fox.com and to Hulu …

Discussion: Soup

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:

No Hulu For You! — Once or twice a year, a cable company and a TV network start brawling over “carriage rates”—the fees that the cable company pays to the broadcaster to feature its programming. These fights are tedious for everyone involved. While each side puts on a PR offensive …

Discussion: Free Press, BBC and Technology Liberation Front

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

The Media Deal That Wasn't — Around lunchtime on Monday, staffers heard Danny Klaidman, one of two acting editors at Newsweek since the end of August, cursing in his office on Hudson Street ("F**k! S**t!"). Mr. Klaidman had just read the news online from The Wall Street Journal …

Discussion: Romenesko

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

Discussion: MinOnline, The Wrap, Romenesko, Gawker and New York Post

Chicago Tribune:

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: rbr.com, Romenesko, The Wrap, New York Magazine, blogs.vocalo.org, Collective Talent and Chicago Breaking Business

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Tribune's Lee Abrams Defends Himself: “I Will Not Stop Pushing”

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

Caroline McCarthy / CNET News:

How Starbucks is trying to change the media — On Tuesday evening, caffeine behemoth Starbucks finally unveiled its revamped Web hub, a landing page that's only accessible from its in-store Wi-Fi networks in the U.S. Teaming with the likes of Yahoo (the main technology partner) …

Discussion: New York Post and ClickZ, more at Techmeme »

Dana Lacey / J-Source:

Why journalism needs a saviour: Fortune's Andy Serwer — Andy Serwer, Fortune magazine's managing editor, explains the economic crisis, Apple's iron grip on news subscriptions and why journalism needs a saviour. — Warren Buffett used to boast two facts: Newspapers will always be around and the whole world will drink Coca Cola.

Discussion: SABEW

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

ATD Welcomes Ina Fried as Our New Mobile Reporter — Here at All Things Digital, we've always prided ourselves on our journalism efforts, while also fully embracing the fast-paced new world of blogging. — So, we could not be more thrilled to announce the hiring of Ina Fried as our new reporter …

European Fund for Investigative Journalism:

1,1 million euro for journalistic research grants — Journalists with a good idea for an investigative story with a European angle can now apply for research grants from the European Union. 1,1 million Euro will be distributed in two rounds of applications. The first deadline is on January 15th 2011.

FAIR:

Taking the Public Out of Public TV — PBS fare differs little from commercial TV — A multi-part FAIR exposé of PBS's most prominent news and public affairs programs demonstrates that public television is failing to live up to its mission to provide an alternative to commercial television …

Discussion: Romenesko

Sherman Frederick / Las Vegas Review-Journal:

All's quiet on the ethical journalism front at the Las Vegas Sun — All's quiet on the journalism front over at the Las Vegas Sun for revising headlines that originally appeared to favor Sharron Angle, but now show up on line to benefit Harry Reid. — In particular, the ever-verbose Jon Ralston …

Simon Waldman / paidContent:

What Media Companies Can Learn From IBM's Turnaround — Simon Waldman is Group Product Director of LOVEFiLM, and author of “Creative Disruption: What you need to do to shake up your business in a digital world” [FT Prentice Hall]. He blogs here, and tweets as @waldo. — Imagine a business in trouble.

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 …

Jesse Young / Flood Magazine:

The New Yorker, or How Not to Set Up a Paywall, Part 1 — On the topic of paywalls, The New Yorker is clearly in favor of monetizing their content. In June, editor David Remnick said, “I was going to be damned if I was going to train 18-year-olds, 20-year-olds, 25-year-olds, that this is like water that comes out of the sink.”

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

PaidContent Names Andrew Wallenstein Entertainment Editor — (Updated: 2:55 p.m. PT) That didn't take long. Just a week after leaving the Hollywood Reporter, Andrew Wallenstein has been named senior editor for paidContent — Wallenstein will cover the digital-entertainment business …