Mediagazer: New York Times Editor Bill Keller Thinks He Is a Magnificent Rhinoceros (Tom Scocca/Scocca)

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

Observer Exclusive: Newsweek and Daily Beast to Merge — Newsweek and The Daily Beast will announce tomorrow morning that the two publications will merge, a source close to the deal tells The Observer. — It will be a 50-50 merger of the two companies. The editorial staffs will combine under …

Discussion: Mediaite, paidContent, AdAge, Runnin' Scared and New York Magazine, Thanks:taylorbuley

‘Beast’ talks on again — Tweet — Big-name principals behind Newsweek and the Daily Beast have resumed merger talks, insiders said late today. — Talks between the online news firm, owned by media mogul Barry Diller and led by Chairman and Editor-in-Chief Tina Brown, and Newsweek's new owner …

Discussion: Romenesko, Yahoo! News, New York Observer, Gawker and New York Magazine

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

“Hulu for Magazines” Launching Early 2011-But Only for Android — Next Issue Media, the “Hulu for Magazines” joint venture, plans to have its digital storefront open early next year. But you won't be able to shop there if you've got an iPad. — Next Issue's initial incarnation will only work …

Discussion: paidContent, eMedia Vitals, Poynter Online, SAI, WebNewser and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

5 Ways to Get People to Contribute Good Content for Your Site — As news organizations experiment with user-generated content, they're learning that users are capable of creating quality content that can be turned into powerful projects. What's not as clear: How can news organizations motivate people …

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Times Will Rank E-Book Best Sellers — In an acknowledgment of the growing sales and influence of digital publishing, The New York Times said on Wednesday that it would publish e-book best-seller lists in fiction and nonfiction beginning early next year. — The lists will be compiled …

Discussion: Mobile Marketing Watch, Gizmodo, Epicenter, Business Wire, ReadWriteWeb, The Atlantic Online, FierceMobileContent, Switched, The Next Web, Cheat Sheet and All Things Digital

Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:

Digg Adds Editors to Break News Faster — One of the issues Digg has always struggled with is that it can take quite a while before a breaking news story hits the front page. Waiting for enough users to vote a story up can sometimes take a few hours and in this age of real-time breaking news …

Discussion: GigaOM, TechCrunch, Digg Blog, The Next Web and Download Squad

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Mediabistro launches blog about Twitter — Mediabistro Launches AllTwitter Blog Covering Business and User Aspects of Twitter — Mediabistro (a division of WebMediaBrands Inc., Nasdaq: WEBM) has launched AllTwitter, a new blog covering news, providing tips, and supporting opinions about social media platform Twitter.

Discussion: New York Observer and Slate

Cindy Royal / Cindy's Take on Tech:

An Open Letter to Wired Magazine — Dear Wired: — I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship with you. I love you. You're charming, attractive and smart, everything I could ever want in a magazine. My heart skips a beat when I see a new issue in my mailbox.

Discussion: The Awl

Noah Bierman / Boston Globe:

State tells man he may be jailed for releasing data — Information was provided by Mass. — Governor Deval Patrick's administration told a local website operator he could face jail time for publishing information that the state provided under an open-records request.

Discussion: Romenesko

Peter Lauria / The Daily Beast:

Can This Man Save NBC? — Bob Greenblatt made Showtime a must-watch network with shows like Weeds and Dexter. Now he's expected to turn around NBC Universal Entertainment. Peter Lauria on why he's the right man for the challenge. — Since leaving his post as Showtime's president …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter

Joel Johnson / Gizmodo:

You Write ‘Bias Journalism’ and I Read ‘Derp’ — First of all, you probably mean “biased.” Second of all, journalism isn't a term that means “stories you agree with”. Third of all, f**k you. — It seems like every so often the comments at Gizmodo fill up with entitled, half-witted thinkers, like a boil taut with ignorance.

Thanks:alexia

Chris Dale / YouTube Blog:

Great Scott! Over 35 Hours of Video Uploaded Every Minute to YouTube — Remember in March when we shared with you that more than 24 hours of video being uploaded to YouTube every minute? Well, you continue to amaze us: you've increased the amount of video uploaded to YouTube to 35 hours per minute.

Discussion: SAI, Crave and WebNewser

Felix Salmon:

The NYT's subscription strategy — If a gaffe is when somebody accidentally tells the truth, then Gerry Marzorati's latest comments probably count: … Marzorati went on to become positively disingenuous: … Well, no. When I pay for most things by credit card, I know exactly what I'm paying.

Discussion: main page collection, The Consumerist and Romenesko

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

What's Former NBC Chief Jeff Zucker Doing at AOL? — Does Jeff Zucker have mail? Image by Getty Images via @daylife — Former NBC Universal chairman Jeff Zucker is newly back on the job market, so any visits he makes to the offices of other media companies are bound to attract attention …

Discussion: The Wire and Moneywood

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Media Matters Pays $86,000 In Auction To Have Lunch With Murdoch — WASHINGTON — In one of the more clever moments of issue advocacy in recent memory, the progressive media watchdog group, Media Matters for America, successfully won an online auction Thursday to have a “friendly lunch” …

Discussion: Media Decoder, New York Observer, Yahoo! News, Gawker and The Atlantic Online

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Newsonomics of journalist headcounts — [Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.] — We try to make sense of how much we've lost …

Discussion: CJR

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Confirmed: Fox Blocking Google TV — Fox has begun blocking the availability of its TV programming from Google (NSDQ: GOOG) TV, joining ABC (NYSE: DIS), CBS (NYSE: CBS), NBC (NYSE: GE) and Hulu. — A source at the network confirmed the move late Wednesday, but declined comment.

Discussion: GTVHub.com, MediaPost and GigaOM

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Free Press, GigaOM, Hillicon Valley, Fortune, Media Maverick, Gizmodo, The Next Web, TechCrunch and Engadget