Mediagazer: Media Matters Pays $86,000 In Auction To Have Lunch With Murdoch (Sam Stein/The Huffington Post)

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: The Wrap, Romenesko, The Huffington Post, paidContent, Mediaite, AdAge, NY Daily News, Macleans.ca, Runnin' Scared, The Wire, Gothamist, TheStreet.com, New York Magazine and Post Now, 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: Yahoo! News, Romenesko, New York Observer, Gawker and New York Magazine

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 …

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: Slate and New York Observer

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 »

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

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

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

Gabrielle Gurley / CommonWealth Magazine:

The Herald's head man — Q&A with Joe Sciacca, Editor-in-Chief — A 27-YEAR VETERAN of the Boston Herald, editor-in-chief Joe Sciacca has spent most of his career covering Massachusetts politics. So on election night when US Rep. Barney Frank complained about the “complete political irrelevance …

Discussion: Romenesko and Media Nation

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

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

New Rules for Media Ethics — After the absurd spectacle of one of TV's most partisan shouting heads being suspended for making political donations, it's clear that the time has come for journalism's ethical guidelines to be updated, in the spirit of common sense. Let's try! — Disclosure

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 Mixed Media

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

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

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Kommons Launches Quora-Like Platform To Question Public Figures — Leveraging on the success of Quora, niche Q&A sites are popping up everywhere. There's a Quora for the enterprise, and even a Quora for the legal community. Even Facebook is throwing its hat in the ring with Facebook Questions.