Mediagazer: Internet Is a Weapon in Cable Fight (Brian Stelter/New York Times)

3:30 PM ET, October 20, 2010

Top News:

Tribune's top exec poised to resign — Sources: Michaels to exit amid claims of crass behavior — Randy Michaels, Tribune Co.'s embattled chief executive, has decided to resign his post at the Chicago-based media company and intends to leave the company before the end of the week, sources close to the situation said.

Discussion: Romenesko, New York Observer, The Wrap, Tower Ticker, Gawker, Los Angeles Times, Cision, The Wire, LA Observed, CNBC and New York Times

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Tribune CEO Michaels Plans To Step Down; Replaced By Four-Member Council — Following two weeks of chaos at The Tribune Company, Randy Michaels will step down as CEO by the end of this week, the Chicago Tribune reports. Just a day ago Michaels insisted he would be staying on …

Discussion: MediaFile, FishbowlNY and Mixed Media

Constance Boozer / Columbia Daily Spectator:

J-School launches Tow Center for Digital Journalism — With the launch of Columbia Journalism School's Tow Center for Digital Journalism, the J-School is ready to make its mark on new media. — At an evening peppered with Columbia Journalism School faculty and press stalwarts …

Discussion: Romenesko, mediabistro.com and Rebooting The News

Columbia News:
Emily Bell, Director of the Tow Center for Digital Journalism …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Emily Bell

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: The Corsair, MinOnline, New York Post and The Wire

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Tina Brown on Newsweek Talks and Jack Welch's Role

Discussion: The Wrap and Romenesko

Connie Loizos / PE Hub Blog:
Huffington Post's CEO on Tina Brown, Advertising and an Eventual IPO

Discussion: WebNewser

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: AdAge, Company Town, TVWeek.com, mediabistro.com, The Consumerist, Media Money … and Soup

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:
No Hulu For You! — Once or twice a year, a cable company …

Discussion: BBC, Free Press and Technology Liberation Front

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

Ex-Newsweek Editor Jon Meacham Heads to Random House — Jon Meacham, the longtime Newsweek editor and Pulitzer Prize-winning author, has accepted a high-ranking editorial position at Random House, the publisher said on Wednesday. — In January, Mr. Meacham, 41, will become an executive vice president …

Discussion: Romenesko, The Wrap, Gawker, The Wire, New York Observer and DailyFinance

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Analysis: AOL lurches for a content strategy — (Reuters) - Just three weeks ago, AOL Inc (AOL.N) Chief Executive Tim Armstrong promised no more “hail Mary passes” like its deal to buy Time Warner, now considered the worst merger in history. — Instead, it looks like AOL, which Time Warner Inc …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

WWD:

A More Frequent WSJ... Seeing Demarchelier... Digital Ads Up at New York Times.. — A MORE FREQUENT WSJ.: So much for that speculation that Rupert Murdoch wasn't a fan of The Wall Street Journal's glossy magazine WSJ. The supplement will increase its frequency to nine issues next year and 10 issues in 2012.

Discussion: Romenesko and The Wire

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Meet “The Hub,” a virtual clubhouse for community nonprofit news sites — At the Block by Block community news conference last month, an irony emerged: Local site publishers, who spend their days cultivating community, hadn't enjoyed much community amongst themselves.

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: Poynter Online and SABEW

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: ClickZ and New York Post, more at Techmeme »

Mark Suster / Both Sides of the Table:

The Future of Television & The Digital Living Room — Dana Settle & I are hosting a dinner tonight (10/20/10) with some of the biggest companies in entertainment to talk about the future of television, film & digital media. Michael Ovitz, the co-founder of CAA will be the keynote speaker.

Discussion: The Wire and A VC

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: The Huffington Post and Romenesko

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 …