Mediagazer: Gawker to Drop Old Blog Look (Jessica E. Vascellaro/Wall Street Journal)

Rally to Shift the Blame — In his new role as a political leader, which is what you call somebody if he hosts a rally on the Washington Mall for over 200,000 people, Jon Stewart was a little hemmed at the Rally to Restore Sanity on Saturday. Because sanity should know no party, partisan rhetoric was not on the teleprompter.

Discussion: Gawker, Lost Remote, Romenesko, This Just In, AllYourTV.com, The Atlantic Online and Big Hollywood

Discussion: Gothamist, TBD All News, The Wire, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker Blog, New York Magazine, Mediaite, SAI, Gawker, MetaFilter, Examiner and FrumForum

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

Gawker to Drop Old Blog Look — Founder Denton Favors Newsmagazine Style, Refashioning Face of Online Media — Gawker Media founder Nick Denton, whose snarky approach has shaped the blogosphere's tone for years, is overhauling his sites to broaden their appeal, an attempted transformation …

Discussion: Romenesko, Guardian and SAI

Steve Coll / New Yorker:

Will WikiLeaks become a trusted source? — Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, had a tumultuous youth in Australia and grew into an autodidact with eclectic skills and a deep distrust of hierarchies and governments. In 2006, as he prepared to launch a digital enterprise devoted …

Discussion: The Daily Caller and the nytpicker

Ross Dawson / Trends in the Living Networks:

Launch of Newspaper Extinction Timeline for every country in the world — Back in August I predicted that newspapers in their current form will be irrelevant in Australia in 2022. That received significant international attention including from The Australian, The Guardian, Editor & Publisher …

Discussion: TheAustralian, Guardian and Jon Slattery

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

Michaels Weighs Comeback Plans — Barely a week after an ignominious end to his career at Tribune Co., Randy Michaels said he hopes to return to the industry that didn't exactly embrace him. — “I may go buy some media, I may go run some media, I don't know,” he said. “My phone's been ringing.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, Romenesko and Tower Ticker

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Keeping the Party Going at Viacom — Philippe Dauman says he paid his way through college in part by playing poker. Now the Viacom Inc. CEO is making bets in an arena with high stakes for the media business: putting traditional content on the Web. — Viacom, a media company …

Discussion: Company Town

Meg Pickard / Guardian:

Open door on ... guidelines for journalists using social media — The Guardian's head of digital engagement on ... the rules of participation — The US department-store chain Nordstrom famously gave new starters an 8in by 5in card as an employee handbook.

Thanks:martinsfp

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Time Magazine's Odd but Unintentional Pairing — Talk about a mismatch. — Time magazine's election preview issue contains four separate inside covers, each one featuring a Republican or Tea Party candidate prominent in politics this year: Rand Paul, Meg Whitman, Marco Rubio and Christine O'Donnell.

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Beware the GOP Coronation — Republicans will win big, and the press coverage will be glowing. But don't forget: At the 100-days mark in his presidency, Obama walked on water. Howard Kurtz on the media's mood swings. — Less than two years after taking office on a wave of hope …

Bloomberg:

Cablevision-Fox Blackout May Raise Hurdles for Comcast in Deal for NBC — The spat between News Corp. and Cablevision System Corp. that blacked out Fox programming for more than 3 million subscribers may raise hurdles for Comcast Corp.'s $28 billion deal to take control of NBC Universal.

Discussion: Hillicon Valley

Financial Times:

Bloomberg launches $2,000 newsletters — Bloomberg is pushing further beyond its traditional financial data terminals with the launch on Monday of a series of newsletters, costing $2,000 per year each, aimed at extending its reach into niche professional markets.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

LYDIA DISHMAN / Fast Company:

Instapaper Founder Marco Arment's Journey From Bagel Jockey to Publishing Pioneer — Marco Arment started Instapaper, because he wanted to be able to read the Web pages he'd saved during the day on his train ride home. “A lot of people think that if you're in a big city, you have [mobile connectivity] all the time,” he laughs.

via:davewiner

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

Meredith Builds Agency Unit as Home for Further Acquisitions — Media Company ‘Hungry’ to Buy More Agencies, New Group Leader Says — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Meredith is creating an Emerging Markets Group within its now-sizeable marketing services arm to house New Media Strategies …

Thanks:kunur

James Robinson / Guardian:

News Corp seeks EU approval for Sky takeover — Rupert Murdoch's media conglomerate is to kickstart its effort to gain clearance this week — News Corp is expecting to formally notify the European commission this week of its intention to bid for BSkyB. — The move will kickstart …

Greg Sargent / The Plum Line:

Alaska station says Breitbart Web site audio attack is bogus — Is another Andrew Breitbart Web site production about to be unmasked as bogus? — Breitbart's Big Journalism site is making an incendiary accusation: That reporters at the Anchorage CBS affiliate KTVA were caught conspiring …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Big Journalism, The Daily Caller and Media Matters for America

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Ben Smith's Blog, TVNewser, The Daily Beast, Media Matters for America, The Daily Caller, The Daily Dish, Mediaite and FrumForum

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Going Mobile (For Tech Geeks Only) — Every so often I'll find something when I'm working on the planning/publishing side of our operation that I think might interest you. Click through to read more only if you're up for some discussion of how many people read TPM on mobile devices.

Discussion: Poynter Online

Tanzina Vega / Media Decoder:

Lucky Magazine Creates Web Videos for Its Birthday — Instead of putting candles on a cake to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, Lucky magazine is lighting up its December issue with more than 100 online videos connected to each editorial page in the magazine.

Discussion: FishbowlNY