Mediagazer: BBC Builders: Vicky Spengler prototypes the future of TV (Jemima Kiss/Guardian)

4:15 PM ET, November 2, 2010

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

It's Official: News Corp.'s Paywalls Are a Bust — After months of speculation about the impact of reader paywalls at two News Corp. newspapers in Britain — the Times and the Sunday Times — the media giant finally released some official numbers today, and they don't paint a very pretty picture.

Discussion: BBC, Felix Salmon, New York Observer, Guardian, The Next Web, Boing Boing, paidContent:UK and Jon Slattery, Thanks:mathewi

Laura Oliver / Journalism.co.uk:

News International publishes paywall figures, claims 105,000 online customers — Tweet — News International has released its first figures for subscriptions to the Times and Sunday Times websites since introducing a paywall to the sites five months ago.

Discussion: TechCrunch, paidContent, blogs.independent.co.uk, paidContent:UK, New York Times, Guardian, BBC, Beehive City, Techdirt, Wired.co.uk, Associated Press, SAI, THINQ.co.uk, Media News and Jon Slattery, more at Techmeme »

Dean Starkman / CJR:

Felix Salmon is the Columbia Journalism Review's New Peterson Fellow — Will blog about media coverage of fiscal and economic policy — Felix Salmon, the finance blogger for Reuters and a leading voice on financial and economic issues, has been appointed the Columbia Journalism Review's …

Discussion: Romenesko

Steve Myers / Poynter Online:

Washington Post Sponsors Election Day Trending Topic on Twitter — It's a pretty safe bet that the election will be a hot topic on Twitter on Tuesday, and The Washington Post plans to capitalize on users' interest by sponsoring an election-related trending topic.

Edmund Lee / AdAge:
Twitter Begins Publishing Ads in Users' Streams

Discussion: CenterNetworks, HootSuite blog, Twitter Blog, The Next Web, VentureBeat, GigaOM, eMedia Vitals, paidContent, ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch

Larry Kramer / American Journalism Review:

Navigating the Future — While nostalgia may nudge some of us to see the news media's present financial crisis as the chaotic collapse of a once great, solid and rational system, the truth is that the old business models that paid for traditional media were always jury-rigged …

Discussion: C-Scape

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

O'Donnell receives most coverage of 2010 candidates — Senate candidate Christine O'Donnell didn't get too much national media coverage before upsetting the Republican establishment and winning the Delaware primary in September. But since then, O'Donnell's been all over the news …

Discussion: New York Observer, Mediaite, Gawker, Romenesko, The Daily Caller, Ezra Klein, Ben Smith's Blog and http://www.fosterkamer.com/

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Bang! Publishers Say Giant Web Ads Have “Stopping Power” — Bigger really is better! — So say Web publishers who have been running supersized, don't-you-dare-look-away-from- me ads for the past year. — Even better, the ad sellers insist-they have scientific proof to back up their claim.

Discussion: Mediaweek, MediaPost and mediabistro.com

Jenna Sauers / Jezebel:

How Justin Long Affably, Reasonably Ended An Internet Flamewar — After a critic panned his movie, and cruelly joked about his looks, Justin Long derided her on national television. But when the critic wrote back, Long left her what must be the kindest, humblest comment in an Internet fight, ever.

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, The Life and Times …, New York Magazine and Movieline

Josh Tapper / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Getting lapped by innovation abroad? Mario Garcia's path to better designed newspapers — In seeking out inspiration for its print redesign, Canada's Globe and Mail didn't look south of the border, as one might expect. Instead, the national daily focused its gaze overseas …

Discussion: Garcia Media

Kevin Fagan / San Francisco Chronicle:

Bruce Brugmann: Guardian of influence loved, hated — To know Bruce Brugmann's office is to know him. — Papers lie heaped against every wall - story printouts, protest posters, data sheets. Muckraking classics and bound volumes of every San Francisco Bay Guardian from 1966 on are stuffed …

Discussion: Romenesko

David Kaplan / paidContent:

E.W. Scripps: Print Bundling Continues To Pull Down Online Ad Revs — Bundling print and online newspaper ad sales together has come to be viewed as problem that publishers need to move away from. E.W. Scripps (NYSE: SSP) situation over the past year makes that point pretty well.

Discussion: MediaPost

Jemima Kiss / Guardian:

BBC Builders: Vicky Spengler prototypes the future of TV — The next in our series profiling developer talent at the BBC is Vicky Spengler, lead designer in George Wright's prototyping team at BBC Research & Development. — Spengler works with a team of designers, producers and engineers …

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

A Gold Mine in Attack Ads on Local TV — In Waco, Tex., $350 will usually buy 30 seconds of advertising time on a local evening newscast. But not this week. — In a scene being repeated in markets across the country, the Democratic congressman who represents Waco and the surrounding region …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Phil Rosenthal / Tower Ticker:

Don Meek to head reorganized, rechristened Tribune Digital — Tribune Co. is renaming its Tribune Interactive division Tribune Digital, in a reorganization that places Don Meek, who had been chief revenue officer for the company's publishing and interactive operations, in charge as executive vice president.

Discussion: paidContent and Romenesko

Vinny Minchillo / AdAge:

What Internet Election? Why Online Advertising Didn't Matter In 2010 — Online's a Fine Place to Start, but TV Is the King of Results — Remember 2008? The battle for the presidency was waged via Facebook and the campaigns battled over Google search terms. This was supposed to be the future of political advertising.

Discussion: MediaPost

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Media Guardian retreats from B2B territory — The appointment of Dan Sabbagh as the new head of the Guardian's media and technology team coincides with its retreat from seeking to compete with established trade players such as Press Gazette, Broadcast and Media Week.

Katie Manning / The Georgetown Dish:

Bob Woodward admits to starting a rumor during the Q&A Cafe — Bob Woodward answers questions from the Georgetown Dish — Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter Bob Woodward joined “Q&A Cafe ” host Carol Joynt on Friday at the Ritz-Carlton in Georgetown where he admitted to starting …

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Editor of Daily Variety Is Pushed Out — The editor of Daily Variety has been pushed out after less than a year on the job. — Leo Wolinsky, a Los Angeles Times veteran who was hired by Daily Variety last year to help it survive in the rapidly changing Hollywood media market, confirmed that he was let go on Monday.

Discussion: Romenesko, New York Magazine and LA Observed