Mediagazer: News Corp ices Alesia digital newsstand plan-source (Reuters)

3:10 PM ET, October 22, 2010

Top News:

Alicia Shepard / NPR:

NPR's Firing of Juan Williams Was Poorly Handled — Juan Williams once again got himself into trouble with NPR for comments he made at his other job, at Fox News. And NPR's reaction has unleashed an unprecedented firestorm of criticism directed not at Williams - but at NPR.

Discussion: TVNewser, Romenesko, The Nation, Free Press, Los Angeles Times, Gretawire, NPR Topics, Runnin' Scared, Big Journalism, Hot Air, Scripting News, Guardian, GroundReport.com, The Huffington Post, Swampland, Rhetorica, Speakeasy, Hit & Run, The Awl, The Hill and Hubbub

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Williams Episode Shows 2 Versions of Journalism — NPR's decision Wednesday to fire Juan Williams and Fox News Channel's decision to give him a new contract on Thursday put into sharp relief the two versions of journalism that compete every day for Americans' attention.

Discussion: NPR, TVWeek.com, The Buttry Diary, The Huffington Post, Philly.com, Washington Post, Fox News, Cision, Romenesko, Company Town, The Caucus, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Tuned In, Poynter Online, Gawker, Daily Kos and Inside Cable News

Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:
In wake of NPR controversy, Fox News gives Juan Williams an expanded role

Reuters:

News Corp ices Alesia digital newsstand plan-source — * Alesia did not attract enough publisher partners — * Alesia not seen on fast track to launch in U.S. — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp (NWSA.O) has put on ice ambitious plans to create a subscription online newsstand …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Romenesko, Free Press, Hollywood Reporter, Poynter Online, THINQ.co.uk and campaignlive.co.uk, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Rupert Murdoch Admits He Can't Compete With Google — News Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch has likely never acknowledged (at least not publicly) that he has failed at something, particularly when it involves a market worth billions of dollars, but he appears to have conceded defeat in his attempt to build a competitor to Google News.

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Wall Street Journal:

Networks in Rift With Google TV — ABC, CBS and NBC are blocking TV programming on their websites from being viewable on Google Inc.'s new Web-TV service, exposing the rift that remains between the technology giant and some of the media companies it wants to supply content for its new products.

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
Why the TV Networks Blocked Google TV (It's About the Ads)

Discussion: Search Engine Land and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Tom Krazit / CNET News:
Some networks blocking shows on Google TV

Discussion: New York Post and Search Engine Land

Jennifer Saba / MediaFile:

AOL loses key editors — A OL is losing more key writers and editors, including the head of AOL News. Mike Nizza the editor in chief of AOL News is decamping for News Corp. World editor James Graff is departing to take the managing editor position at The Week and James Burnett, AOL's enterprise editor, left for Rolling Stone.

Discussion: paidContent, Mixed Media, SAI and New York Magazine

Robert Quigley / Old Media, New Tricks:

Newspapers on Twitter, ranked by followers — Inspired by this interesting but flawed effort to measure U.S. newspaper Twitter followers, I scoured the Twittersphere to come up with an exhaustive list of Twitter followers for as many U.S. newspapers as I could. I ended up with 200, but I think I'm the only one exhausted.

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:
Tweet This: The Top 25 Magazines on Twitter

Discussion: Anil Dash, SocialTimes.com and Thompson on Hollywood

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Looks Like Our Friends Over At GigaOm Just Raised Another $2.5 Million — Om Malik, well-respected journalist and founder of technology news blog network Giga Omni Media and its flagship blog GigaOm, broke the news about us being acquired by AOL about a month ago now.

Discussion: MWD Tech News

Om Malik / GigaOM:
Okay, We Got More Money

Discussion: paidContent

Media Week:

Murdoch aims sideswipe at ‘traditional elites’ curbs on News Corp — Rupert Murdoch used a speech in London last night to obliquely criticise the UK media industry's opposition to his attempt to secure full control of BSkyB. — Rupert Murdoch: aims to secure full control of BSkyB

Discussion: Press Gazette and Arif Durrani

Media Week:
Rupert Murdoch's full speech at the Centre of Policy Studies

Discussion: paidContent, Guardian, Journalism.co.uk and Crikey

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

R.I.P. Chatroulette: A Sad Tale of Missed Opportunity — Remember Chatroulette? It's hard to believe that barely eight months ago the anonymous video chat site had everyone captivated. Venture capitalists clamored to invest, journalists tripped over one another to profile—and now Chatroulette is dying, unused and unloved.

Discussion: Social Culture …, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Beaujon / TBD All News:

Tom Shales confirms he's likely to leave Washington Post — Tom Shales, the Washington Post's Pulitzer-prize winning television writer, says he's probably going to leave the paper when his contract expires at the end of December. “It's been a long process,” he says. — Shales took the paper's buyout offer in 2006.

Discussion: Gawker, New York Observer, tony of all media, The Huffington Post and Romenesko

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Wall Street Journal Investigation Into MySpace Was Quietly Killed — A few days ago the Wall Street Journal published a series of articles about a supposed Facebook privacy breach. We and others noted that the article was complete rubbish. — We also noted that the Wall Street Journal's sister company …

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

How US newspapers are coping with abusive commenters — What's to be done when readers' online comments tip over from the critical into the abusive? That problem has been faced by several newspapers in the US. — In the latest example, the Portland Press Herald shut down its comments service …

Damon Kiesow / Poynter Online:
Comments return to the Portland Press Herald

Discussion: CJR, Nieman Journalism Lab, Editors Weblog and Shaping the Future …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Plans for News Corp.'s iPad Tabloid Taking Shape — Fast! — Who launches a newspaper in the year 2010? Rupert Murdoch, that's who. The News Corp. chairman's pet project — a national news tabloid, created expressly for tablet computers like the iPad — is moving ahead rapidly …

Discussion: New York Observer and New York Magazine

Amol Sharma / Wall Street Journal:

Google to Combat India Piracy — NEW DELHI—Google Inc. plans to launch a music service in India to help users search for legal online streams and downloads, a move aimed at combating rampant digital piracy that has held back the country's entertainment industry.

Discussion: paidContent, TechCrunch and The Next Web, more at Techmeme »

Scripting News:

New blogging techniques — What I call paragraph-level permalinks have made an appearance in Jay Rosen's blog, thanks to the innovative design work of Lauren Rabaino. — Nieman Lab calls out the feature. — And this got a geek going, Daniel Bachhuber, whose new (today) …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and Lauren Michell Rabaino

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

After Three Issues, Jody Quon Resigns from ‘W’ — Jody Quon has resigned as creative director and editor Stefano Tonchi's number two at W after three issues. She was one of the leading voices in the new design of the magazine for its September relaunch. A spokesperson for the magazine told …

Discussion: Daily Front Row and New York Magazine

Martin Langeveld / Nieman Journalism Lab:

AP's “ASCAP for news” — new ecosystem, new revenue streams, new enterprise opportunities — In a speech on Monday, Associated Press CEO Tom Curley announced that the AP would soon set up “an independent rights clearinghouse for news publishers to manage the distribution and use of their content beyond their own Web properties.”

Greg Braxton / Los Angeles Times:

TV reporter Lu Parker plays by her own set of rules — The KTLA reporter is dating L.A. Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, advocating for causes and promoting herself in ways that critics say is a problem for her professional reputation. Parker says media standards have to change with the times.

Discussion: Gawker, Romenesko and LA Observed