Mediagazer: The Newsonomics of journalist headcounts (Ken Doctor/Nieman Journalism Lab)

12:40 PM ET, November 12, 2010

Top News:

Daily Beast, Newsweek to Wed! — Some weddings take longer to plan than others. The union of The Daily Beast and Newsweek magazine finally took place with a coffee-mug toast between all parties Tuesday evening, in a conference room atop Beast headquarters, the IAC building on Manhattan's West 18th Street.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Guardian, The Awl, Company Town, Editors Weblog, Gothamist, Media Nation, Politics Daily, The Daily Beast, Tuned In, TechCrunch, AdAge, Deadline.com, New York Observer, WebNewser, Mixed Media and New York Magazine

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 Daily Beast, Adweek, Mediaite, SAI, MediaPost, paidContent, The Wrap, DailyFinance, Romenesko, The Daily Caller, NY Daily News, AdAge, Macleans.ca, TBD All News, Journalism.co.uk, Gothamist, eMedia Vitals and Post Now, Thanks:taylorbuley

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Newsweek and Daily Beast Have a Deal — Tina Brown is back in the world of print. — After a brief and interrupted dalliance, Newsweek, the 77-year-old magazine, and The Daily Beast, Ms. Brown's two-year-old Web site, have decided to put their cultural differences aside and join forces.

Discussion: Washington Post, Romenesko, Commentary, NPR, Guardian, The Huffington Post, TheStreet.com and New York Observer

Wall Street Journal:

Valuing Facebook's Ads — The Site Commands 24% of Online Display Ads, but the Dollars Don't Match — Facebook Inc. is attracting more advertising, but marketers are still trying to figure out the value of those ads. — New data from comScore Inc. show that in September 24% …

Discussion: SAI and MediaPost

Wall Street Journal:

James Frey's Next Act — For James Frey, success and controversy are a package deal. — His 2003 debut book, “A Million Little Pieces,” was named Amazon Book of the Year and has sold eight million copies in more than 30 languages. When it was revealed that parts of the purported memoir …

Discussion: io9

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Twitter Takes the Newsroom — The media's in trouble. The microblogging sensation is on fire. Can Biz Stone's latest gambit help prop up a financially crippled industry? Howard Kurtz reports. — Biz Stone, the funny and engaging co-founder of Twitter, had an unusual message …

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

@ Monaco Media Forum: James Murdoch's First Rule — The Monaco Media Forum isn't exactly Fight Club but James Murdoch, News Corp (NSDQ: NWS) CEO for Europe and Asia, has a first rule: “First rule—if you are going to monetize something, you probably should not give it away for free.”

Discussion: Telegraph and Editors Weblog

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

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

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Can Adding Staff Curators Help Digg Recover? — Digg has had a rough time since it launched a redesign of the site several months ago; users reacted badly to the loss of certain features and the site's new focus on more “mainstream” sources of content, and the new CEO spent his first few weeks apologizing …

Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:
Digg Adds Editors to Break News Faster

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

George Winslow / Broadcasting & Cable:

iPad Users More Likely to Cut Pay TV — A new survey from The Diffusion Group (TDG) finds that people who own iPads or are planning to purchased one in the new few months are significantly more likely than average adult broadband users to either downgrade or cancel their pay TV services.

Discussion: TVWeek.com and MediaPost

BBC:

Newspaper review: Papers dissect benefit reforms — “Bold and principled” is how The Daily Telegraph describes the welfare changes proposed by the Work and Pensions Secretary Iain Duncan Smith. — The paper says it is the first serious attempt by any government to change a corrupt and wasteful benefit system.

Discussion: Telegraph

Alexis Mainland / City Room:

Young Manhattanite Is a Beacon on the Blog Scene — ON THE SCREEN In a list on its home page, the group blog Young Manhattanite offers 13 definitions of itself, including “a random Tumblr page” and “blogging Illuminati.” Both are accurate, as is this: YM is a cipher of insider chatter.

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 …

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.

Hunter Walker / New York Observer:

Just How Big Is Patch.com? — After receiving approximately $50 million in funding from AOL, the hyperlocal news network Patch.com went on a hiring spree that earned it the ire of alt-weeklies and the nickname “Poach” from one rival. — Trepidation about the rapid rise of Patch hasn't been limited to its competitors.