Mediagazer: Hard News Pays Better Than Fluff — or Does It? (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

5:45 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: Gawker, The Huffington Post, blogs.vocalo.org, Mixed Media, New York Magazine, Chickaboomer and LA Observed

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Daily Beast Drops Out of Talks With Newsweek — The Daily Beast news and commentary website has withdrawn from talks with Newsweek magazine about a possible merger between the two news organizations, according to a person familiar with the matter.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

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

Discussion: The Local

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: LA Observed

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

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

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

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

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

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: MediaPost, VentureBeat, Silicon Alley Insider, paidContent and All Things Digital

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

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 …

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: Guardian, Romenesko, Media Decoder, Talking Biz News, Globe and Mail, The Huffington Post, Press Gazette and paidContent:UK

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: Nieman Journalism Lab, PRWeb and Romenesko

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, Wall Street Journal, Post Tech and Silicon Alley Insider, more at Techmeme »

Martin Schwimmer / The Trademark Blog:

NY Times v Kachingle — Kachingle says that it has pioneered a new approach that will save traditional journalism thorugh ‘micropayment monetization’ of content such as blogs. A Kachingle customer's account is billed some small amount when they read content on a site that partners with Kachingle.

Discussion: paidContent

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

NextNewNetworks Building Scale Through Producer Network...Christine O'Donnell Mash-up Goes Viral — A mash-up video of the Christine O'Donnell campaign a spot, in which the candidate denies being a witch, has reached some 250,000 views today (10/18) in its first day. It is among the top ten most watched on YouTube.

Discussion: The Huffington Post