Mediagazer: NBC's got a ratings situation on its hands (Joe Flint/Company Town)

12:45 AM ET, October 23, 2010

Top News:

Tribune Co. CEO Randy Michaels resigns amid accusations of crass behavior — Four-member Executive Council to run company as it struggles to exit bankruptcy. — Having lost the support of many employees, his board and the creditors who will soon take over the bankrupt media company …

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Wrap, Romenesko and blogs.vocalo.org

New York Times:

Tribune Company Ousts Randy Michaels as Chief — The Tribune Company's board of directors resolved on Friday what had been its preoccupation for most of the week: sealing the fate of Randy Michaels, the controversial chief executive who became a dark sideshow to his bankrupt company's financial struggles.

Discussion: Mixed Media

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Why the TV Networks Blocked Google TV (It's About the Ads) — Until Online Revenue Matches TV, Networks Will Do All They Can to Keep Web Shows on PCs and TV Shows on TV — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The Wall Street Journal reported today that the nation's big broadcast networks are blocking Google TV …

Discussion: MediaPost, Epicenter, Search Engine Land, Electronista, New York Magazine, Fast Company, VentureBeat, rbr.com, PC World, Fortune, SlashGear, ChasNote, Digits and All Things Digital

Andrew Baron / TechCrunch:

The Future Of TV Is HTML — The title of this post is both a very old idea and a very new one. With the prevalence of fiber connectivity and pervasive broadband speeds, this year has been a hot one for bringing together the home computer and the living room TV.

more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: NewTeeVee, Online Video News, Post Tech, Company Town, AdAge, New York Post and Knoxville News-Sentinel

Jon Bershad / Mediaite:

The Weekend Of WikiLeaks Begins: Embargo Ends And The Torrent Of Classified Info Starts To Seep Out — And, with that, the release of 400,000 classified military documents, dubbed The Iraq War Logs, has begun. WikiLeaks, the organization that previously released 70,000 documents …

Discussion: Datablog, Guardian, New York Times, The Daily Dish and CJR

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

WikiLeaks suggests news outlets publishing Iraq docs soon — The Pentagon has been bracing all week for online whistleblower WikiLeaks to publish roughly 500,000 classified Iraq war documents, perhaps again in collaboration with news organizations who provide context and analysis of what's in the massive cache.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Agence France Presse and This Just In

New York Times:
The Iraq Archive: The Strands of a War

Discussion: CNN, BBC, Aljazeera, The Atlantic Online, Guardian, The Nation, Politics Daily, The Huffington Post and The New Yorker Blog

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 …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine, VentureBeat, Mixed Media and Boing Boing, more at Techmeme »

Abe Sauer / The Awl:

NPR Should Have Let Juan Williams Go Years Ago — Juan Williams had been warned. The move by NPR to terminate the contract of news analyst Williams has thrown the usual suspects into the expected histrionics of victimization. Karl Rove managed to keep a straight face when he went on Fox News …

Discussion: Media Decoder, ThinkProgress, Broadcasting & Cable, St. Petersburg Times, Fox News, George's Bottom Line, rbr.com and The Plum Line

Alicia Shepard / NPR:
NPR's Firing of Juan Williams Was Poorly Handled

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Okay, We Got More Money — Well, this is what happens when you break news about your competitors getting acquired by AOL. They get back at you by revealing news that you raised additional venture dollars while you are fast asleep. I was planning to write about the fact that we received …

Discussion: paidContent

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:
Looks Like Our Friends Over At GigaOm Just Raised Another $2.5 Million

Discussion: VentureBeat, MWD Tech News and omis.me

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Making Sense of Early Sales for Magazines' IPad Editions — How Do You See These Figures for Seven Titles' Apps? — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — This is an experimental year for magazines on the iPad, but six months after its arrival, it's not too soon to start looking over the early results.

Discussion: Poynter Online, Mashable!, The Awl, CJR and WebNewser

Jennifer Saba / MediaFile:

AOL loses key editors; still says it's home of premium content — 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 …

Discussion: paidContent, Mixed Media, The Now/ledge, SAI and New York Magazine

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: Shaping the Future …, New York Observer, New York Magazine and Free Press

Edmund Lee / Capital New York:

My life in the pictures — On a cool, stubbornly sunny evening in April 2007 I was standing outside the Loews Theater on 34th Street, a dark suit and a Liberty tie sewn tightly around me, my wife Elizabeth, dressed more confidently in a jewel-toned column. The movie actor John Cho of Harold …

Laura McGann / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Using the power of publishing to influence: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce's entry into the news biz — On the front page of today's New York Times is a story on the prodigious corporate funding of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the tax-exempt group that supports business-friendly policies …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, Sunlight Foundation, CJR, The New Republic, Hit & Run and The Washington Independent

Mel Gibson / Hollywood Reporter:

Marisa Guthrie joins Hollywood Reporter — Marisa Guthrie, a reporter at Broadcasting & Cable since 2007, will become The Hollywood Reporter's senior writer-television, joining TV editor James Hibberd. — Among other parts of the business, Guthrie will cover television news from The Reporter's expanding New York offices.

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

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: SlashGear, mediabistro.com, Hollywood Reporter and Reuters