Mediagazer: PaidContent Names Andrew Wallenstein Entertainment Editor (Brent Lang/The Wrap)

2:30 AM ET, October 20, 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, rbr.com, The Wrap, blogs.vocalo.org, Collective Talent, Chicago Breaking Business and New York Magazine

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, DealBook and LA Observed

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, AdAge, BoomTown, Silicon Alley Insider, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Digits, CNET News and Tech Trader Daily, more at Techmeme »

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

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 …

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 …

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

Discussion: The Wrap, MinOnline, Romenesko and New York Observer

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

Discussion: Technology News, ClickZ, Gawker, DailyFinance, New York Times and Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »

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: Technology Liberation Front, SocialTimes.com and Ars Technica

Brent Lang / The Wrap:
As Fox, Cablevision Play With Fire, the Whole Cable Industry Could Get Burned

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

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.

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: IanSchafer.com, MediaPost and paidContent

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, MediaNama and Beet.TV

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

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 …

Martin Langeveld / Nieman Journalism Lab:

NAA finds a more favorable website stats vendor — but misses the readership shift to mobile news — When last we checked on the Newspaper Association of America's web stats (and other data) back in April, the monthly website usage information that the nation's daily newspaper organization …

Discussion: CommPilings

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