Mediagazer: NY Times reporter defends profile of WikiLeaks' Assange (Michael Calderone/Yahoo! News)

7:55 PM ET, October 26, 2010

Top News:

Nikesh Arora / The Official Google Blog:

$5 million to encourage innovation in digital journalism — Journalism is fundamental to a functioning democracy. So as media organizations globally continue to broaden their presence online, we're eager to play our part on the technology side—experimenting with new ways of presenting news online …

Discussion: The Evolving Newsroom, Knight Foundation, Romenesko, MediaMemo, MediaFile, KnightBlog, Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Mixed Media, paidContent, mediabistro.com, JNews, ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch and The Next Web

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Google donates $5 million for news innovation to Knight Foundation and new international efforts — Google and news organizations have had a rocky time of it. To overdramatize the situation only slightly: Google insists that it cares about journalism as a necessity of our shared democracy …

Discussion: rbr.com, The Atlantic Online, SAI, New York Magazine and The Next Web

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

NY Times reporter defends profile of WikiLeaks' Assange — New York Times reporter John F. Burns considers WikiLeaks editor-in-chief Julian Assange—the subject of a front page profile he co-authored Sunday— to be “an incredibly smart man” with an “extremely high IQ.”

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite, The Wire, New York Observer and FlowingData

American Journalism Review: Spreading Leaks Before WikiLeaks

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
In Growing Up, Did Wikileaks Also Sell Out?

Discussion: Gawker, Thanks:bcaulfield

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Conde Nast Magazines Can Finally Sell Their Own Websites — Most Ad Sales Handled by Conde Nast Digital and CondeNet Before That Now Belong to Publishers — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Conde Nast, the publisher of magazines from Vogue to The New Yorker, is integrating many of the digital operations …

Discussion: paidContent, MediaPost and MediaPost

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

Fox Warns Cablevision: Stop Telling Customers to Steal Our Content — The nasty fight between Fox and Cablevision over fees just got nastier. — On Tuesday, Fox sent Cablevision a cease-and desist-letter demanding the company stop encouraging its customers to steal copyrighted material.

Discussion: NY Daily News, Media Decoder, NewTeeVee, Media Money …, rbr.com, paidContent, Hillicon Valley and NYConvergence.com

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:
Claims of Good Faith, and Bad, in Cable Dispute

Discussion: Multichannel, rbr.com, Company Town, Gothamist, paidContent and Broadcasting & Cable

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Politico, Seeing a Market Need, Adds a Paid News Service — To the rapidly growing field of Washington reportage, add one more entrant: Politico Pro. — Politico, the Web site and free daily publication that brought a 24-7 cable news sensibility to political reporting …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Nieman Journalism Lab, The Wire, AdPulp, Editors Weblog, New York Observer, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine, Thanks:eldon

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

NPR receives threat; timing suggests link to Juan Williams firing — NPR received a bomb threat Monday, five days after its decision to fire news analyst Juan Williams sparked a hugely negative reaction. — Sources at the news organization said the threat was received via U.S. mail …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, ThinkProgress and TBD All News

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: Yahoo Courts Former News Corp. Digital Exec Ross Levinsohn As U.S. Head — He's baaaaaack. — Former Fox Interactive Media President Ross Levinsohn, that is, who is the top candidate to replace Hilary Schneider as Yahoo's U.S. head, according to several sources close to the situation.

Discussion: SAI

Dumplings from this Panda!:

Did Digg game its own system to benefit publisher partners? — Digg recently published a blog post titled “Digg's Algorithmic Mystery Tour” on October, 15th. While a Digg blog post is a normal thing, a post about the algorithm was very surprising to me. Why did Digg, which never bothers …

Discussion: Digg Blog, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and WebNewser, more at Techmeme »

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Katie Couric, On the Move — The CBS anchor is nearing the end of her contract—and signs point surprisingly to her staying put. Howard Kurtz talks to her about her salary, her next move—and her love of the campaign trail. — Katie Couric is feeling liberated.

Discussion: TVNewser, Romenesko, Chickaboomer, Gawker and The Wire

Steve Myers / Poynter Online:

George Packer's 5 Tips for Reporting on Anything — The New Yorker's George Packer has written about disaffected voters in Ohio and beleaguered homeowners in Florida; the massive city of Lagos, Nigeria, and the cloistered, oppressed country of Burma. He has described the dangerous predicament …

Discussion: Romenesko and New York Observer

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

The Perfect Content Companion For iPad + Instapaper, Longreads Gets A Website — I've been in love with the simple bookmarking service Instapaper for a few years now. The release of the iPad has made it even better. You see, my daily routine now involves using the Instapaper app on the iPad …

Discussion: MarkArms, Brooks in Beta, The Awl and New York Observer, Thanks:markarms

Nielsen Wire:

Nielsen estimates 362,000 Britons behind the Times paywall — Matthew Dodd, SVP, Research & Analytics, EMEA — As newspapers grapple with monetizing their content online, a recent Nielsen study found that one in five UK visitors to the Times of London and the Sunday Times websites …

Discussion: paidContent

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

BoingBoing Slows Original Video Production, Focuses on Curation — SAN FRANCISCO — BoingBoing, the popular blog about technology and culture, has dialed back significantly from producing original daily packages to presenting mostly other's videos, says David Pescovitz, co-editor, in this interview with Beet.TV

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Sarah Rabil / Bloomberg:

Martha Stewart Executives Said to Leave Amid Reorganization Under Preston — Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia Inc.'s heads of marketing, broadcast sales and digital advertising sales are leaving the company amid a reorganization under executive Sally Preston.

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

AP boss to staff: I've strived to keep your pension plan intact, but... AP Staffer: — I want to let you know about some changes in your pension plan that we are proposing as we negotiate a new contract with union employees. Under our proposal, the AP defined benefit pension plan …