Mediagazer: Topix Finds Niche In Political Ads (Laurie Sullivan/MediaPost)

5:10 AM ET, October 31, 2010

Top News:

Frances Martel / Mediaite:

Jon Stewart Explains The Purpose Of The Rally To Restore Sanity — For a few seconds there, it seemed even Jon Stewart wasn't quite sure what the nature of his beast, the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear, was. “What exactly was this?” he asked the crowd.

Discussion: New York Times, Washington Post, Speakeasy, Tuned In, TBD All News, The Daily Caller, The Daily Beast, The Wrap, Guardian, BAGnewsNotes, The New Yorker Blog, Multichannel News and Gawker

Brian Stelter / The Caucus:

Rally Includes Lesson in Media Criticism 301 — The Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear will be remembered, in part, as an expensive, engrossing act of media criticism. — Jon Stewart, the comedian who hosted the Comedy Central rally alongside Stephen Colbert, spoke about the press as an …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Examiner and digiphile

Hadley Freeman / Guardian:

Arianna Huffington's on the bus to the ‘fantastic’ Rally to Restore Sanity — 200 vehicles laid on by the Huffington Post travel to join Jon Stewart in Washington DC — Like religious devotees who believe physical hardships make the pilgrimage all the more satisfying, over 10,000 people …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Caucus, Speakeasy, The Politico, Washington Examiner, TBD All News, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, TVNewser and NY Daily News

Media Decoder:

Fox Returns to Cablevision — The Fox network flickered back to life in three million homes serviced by Cablevision on Saturday night, signaling an end to an unusually long and bitter feud between the cable company and Fox's parent company, the News Corporation.

Discussion: paidContent, The Spy Report, Multichannel, rbr.com, The Wire, Company Town, Tower Ticker, MediaPost, The Wrap and Broadcasting & Cable

Hunter Walker / New York Observer:

The Perils of Being a Gawker Media Tipster — Gawker Media founder Nick Denton built a multimillion media empire with a ruthless brand of no-holds-barred tabloid blogging often aided by a wide network of anonymous, mercenary spies and tipsters. Lately, though, Gawker Media's record …

Discussion: The Corsair, The Not-So Private Parts, New York Magazine and FrumForum

Gawker:
Why We Published the Christine O'Donnell Story

Discussion: Examiner, Big Journalism, The Wrap, Guardian, Fox News, The Wire, Jezebel, The Caucus, Mediaweek and The Daily Dish

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:

Updated: AOL Lands Obama, Celebs for Series — AOL thinks Web users are ready for appointment TV. — The beleaguered portal on Monday (Nov. 1) will roll out three new daily series, which will be scheduled much like traditional TV. The new shows include You've Got, which will consist …

Discussion: Tubefilter News

David Kaplan / paidContent:
AOL's Homepage Revamp Aims For TV Network Model

Discussion: TechCrunch, MediaPost and WebNewser

ProPublica:

A New Partnership: American Public Media's Public Insight Network — Today we are announcing our partnership with American Public Media's Public Insight Network. — The Public Insight Network began in 2003 at Minnesota Public Radio as a new way to connect journalists with the community they serve …

Discussion: Romenesko and WebNewser

Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:

Topix Finds Niche In Political Ads — Local is fast becoming the biggest part of a company's online social strategy, and politicians are catching on, albeit slowly. The insight led Topix to create forums based on ZIP codes that let visitors share their views on local and state political issues and candidates.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Faulty Metrics Make for a Media Guessing Game — The irony is keenly felt by virtually every media entity, whether it is a tiny web-native outlet or a giant traditional publisher: The Internet, the most easily — and frequently — measured medium in the history of humanity …

Thanks:mathewi

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Redbox planning to expand onto the Web next year — As more consumers leave DVDs behind for digital downloads, the company that brought movie vending machines to grocery stores nationwide is following the audience. — Redbox unveiled Thursday a new digital strategy that by next year …

Discussion: TechFlash, The Moviefone Blog, TVWeek.com and Tech Trader Daily

Larry Kramer / C-Scape:

Why A Daily Beast Move Into Print Could Be Brilliant — It may not seem like the most obvious move to make, but the internal discussions IAC is having over extending the Daily Beast into print could lead to a major step forward for the two-year old business that has made it's mark …

Discussion: Brooks in Beta and Romenesko

Joshua Brustein / Media Decoder:

Newsweek Offers iPad App With Subscription Option — Newsweek released an iPad application this week that allows readers to buy subscriptions using Apple's in-app purchasing system, seemingly resolving a major frustration that magazine publishers have had with the iPad.