Mediagazer: Web outlet is sold short (James Rainey/Los Angeles Times)

7:40 PM ET, October 29, 2010

Top News:

By Any Means Necessary: Gawker and the O'Donnell Post — We get it. It's a dirty, terrible world out there and anything and everyone is fair game. So when some guy was willing to trash Christine O'Donnell, the Republican candidate for United States Senate in Delaware …

Discussion: The Not-So Private Parts, The Wrap, Guardian, American Journalism Review, Slate, Runnin' Scared, The New Yorker Blog, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Fox News, The Corsair, The Caucus and The Awl

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Gawker editor defends anonymous O'Donnell post — Gawker was convicted Thursday in the court of Twitter opinion. The charges: misogyny and reckless link-baiting. — “Today, we are all Christine O'Donnell,” wrote Salon's Justin Elliott. — He was one of several journalists and bloggers …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Smoking Gun, Facebook, Vanity Fair, The Daily Beast, Guardian, The Wire, Romenesko, Jezebel, The First Post, New York Observer, Salon, Gawker, The Huffington Post, Politics Daily, FrumForum and Mixed Media

Gawker:
Why We Published the Christine O'Donnell Story

Discussion: TBD All News and Jezebel

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:
Updated: Gawker Pulls Ads From O'Donnell Post

Discussion: Gawker and Songs that Didn't Used …

Charles Lewis / Investigative Reporting Workshop:

New journalism ecosystem thrives — In the immortal words of Sir Isaac Newton more than three centuries ago, “To every action there is always opposed an equal reaction.” It is perhaps peculiar and maybe even ill-advised to apply Newton's immortal Laws of Motion to the quirky, peculiar world of journalism.

Discussion: Romenesko

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

Do bloggers devalue journalism? — Science journalist Angela Saini has written an interesting post on ‘devaluing journalism’ that I felt I had to respond to. “The profession [of journalism] is being devalued,” she argues. … Firstly let me say that I broadly agree with most of what Angela is saying …

Discussion: Nothing shocks me …, Ben Mazzotta's Weblog and Lippmann Would Roll

Michael Oneal / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune braces for competing bankruptcy plans — Unhappy creditors face Friday deadline to offer alternatives — Still recovering from a management scandal that claimed its chief executive a week ago, Tribune Co. is bracing for its next disruption: How to cope with legal challenges …

Discussion: Romenesko

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

AOL's Armstrong answers question, ‘Is Patch evil?’ — On stage at the Online News Association's annual conference here in DC, AOL chief Tim Armstrong (left) was winding down the keynote session with NPR's Vivian Schiller. That's when USC's Robert Hernandez (right) walked up the microphone …

Joel Meares / CJR:

Keeping Up With Chuck Todd — “I'm in a business where I'm not allowed to miss right now” — It's 6:50 a.m. on a drizzling New York morning and Chuck Todd is standing behind a wall on the cluttered Today Show set, safely out of shot as he waits to talk America's early risers through the upcoming day in politics.

Discussion: Gawker, TVNewser, Romenesko and Inside Cable News

Laura McGann / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Center for Public Integrity's HTML5 product aims to make long-form journalism readable on any device — Is it possible to enjoy long-form investigative journalism in a digital age without a fancy tablet? A 5,000-word piece can be tough to get through on an ad-supported website.

Discussion: rbr.com, WebNewser and The Center for Public …

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Google yearns to make YouTube a TV network — Tweet — YouTube wants to be the boob tube. — Google is pitching YouTube not only as a popular Web destination, but as a content channel to have a place in the living room alongside TV networks like ABC, CBS and NBC.

Discussion: ClickZ, TVWeek.com, Online Video News and Urlesque

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:
YouTube Won't Fix Google TV's Content Problems

Discussion: GigaOM, Fast Company and San Francisco Chronicle

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Demand Media's IPO Is On Deck, With Amended Filing — Demand Media, which posted its S-1 regulatory filing August, filed an amended version today that is likely to allow it to move quickly to an initial public offering. — The new version for the online content company has updated financial information for the third quarter.

Discussion: paidContent and WebNewser, more at Techmeme »

Bianca Bosker / The Huffington Post:

Marie Claire Editor-In-Chief Joanna Coles On Apple's ‘Sexy’ iPad, Women In Tech, And More — “We had pizzas coming in at 1AM,” recalled Marie Claire editor-in-chief Joanna Coles of creating the magazine's iPad app. “It was like a startup within the magazine. It felt like our equivalent of Facebook.”

Jason Stverak / Online Journalism Review:

Joining the online news bandwagon — By Jason Stverak: Howard Kurtz, Peter Goodman, Jim VandeHei, and Richard Johnson are just a few of the many reporters voluntarily exiting the legacy media to join online news ventures. — While many are scratching their heads wondering …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

David Kaplan / paidContent:

AOL's Homepage Revamp Aims For TV Network Model — You don't usually hear the word “dayparts” when talking about a website's homepage, but the new AOL (NYSE: AOL) homepage that's going live Monday morning has a lot in common with the content values of a TV network.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, MediaPost, SAI and WebNewser, more at Techmeme »

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

Web outlet is sold short — A business news website, meant to be funded by short-selling stocks, goes quiet amid news reports and internal recalculations. — A onetime con man and a veteran newspaper reporter launched a partnership eight months ago that they hoped would be a new model for business reporting.

Dan Duray / New York Observer:

Rah Rah Rah! MSNBC Leans Forward — Last night when network execs, on-air personalities and hungry young producers stepped out of the elevator to the party celebrating MSNBC's new slogan “Lean Forward” on the 49th floor of 7 World Trade Center, they were immediately blinded by yellow spotlights.

Discussion: Inside Cable News