Mediagazer: Comcast to Reorganize, Streamline Executive Suite at NBC Universal (Wall Street Journal)

7:20 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.

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

New Details Emerge on Newsweek-Beast Merger — Tina Brown met separately with the staffs of The Daily Beast and Newsweek today, just hours after a merger between the two very different publications was completed. Details of the combined entity, to be known officially as The Newsweek Daily Beast Company, are beginning to emerge.

Discussion: Mediaweek, mediabistro.com, Guardian, Mediaite, Runnin' Scared and Romenesko

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.

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Newsweek CEO First Casualty of Deal with Daily Beast — Tweet — No sooner did the ink dry on the Newsweek-Daily Beast merger, than it claimed its first casualty in what could be a tumultuous marriage between print and the Web. — Newsweek CEO Tom Ascheim — the Washington Post Co. holdover …

Discussion: Telegraph, Mashable!, Los Angeles Times and The Week Magazine

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast: Inside the New Beast — As The Daily Beast and Newsweek combine …

Mark Milian / CNN:

Yahoo to expand its blog network Monday — (CNN) — As countless print- or TV-based news organizations continue their descent, the future of the news business still seems curiously bright. — Just sniff around online for a look at the multitude of startups and internet giants throwing their bets on the table.

Discussion: Romenesko, MediaPost and New York Observer

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 …

Discussion: KnightBlog, AllTwitter and Romenesko

Hillary Busis / Mediaite:

Did NY Mag Rush Their James Frey Feature Online Only After Learning Of WSJ Scoop? — Readers of both NYMag.com and the Wall Street Journal's website may have noticed that in the wee small hours of the morning, both publications posted similar but competing articles about author James Frey …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Suzanne Mozes / New York Magazine:
James Frey's Fiction Factory

Discussion: New York Observer, The Paris Review, GalleyCat and Boing Boing

Wall Street Journal:
James Frey's Next Act

Discussion: io9 and The Awl

Wall Street Journal:

Comcast to Reorganize, Streamline Executive Suite at NBC Universal — Comcast Corp.'s chief operating officer Steve Burke plans to announce a major reorganization of NBC Universal as early as next week, according to people familiar with the matter, bringing in some new talent while expanding the role of several existing executives.

Discussion: paidContent, Company Town, GigaOM and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

As Funding Talk Swirls, Tumblr Lands A Director Of Product — Earlier today, a Business Insider report indicated that Tumblr has landed a “very big and competitive” new round of funding from Sequoia Capital. We're still looking into that, and they're not commenting, but here's one thing …

Discussion: New York Observer, more at Techmeme »

SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Tumblr Lands “Very Big And Competitive” Round From Sequoia

Discussion: VentureBeat

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter Online:

Chat Replay: Can You Judge Wired by its Covers (and Coverage) of Women & Tech? — In an open letter to Wired this week, reader Cindy Royal criticized the magazine for featuring a cover image of a woman's cleavage for a story about breast tissue regeneration.

Discussion: Romenesko, The Huffington Post, BlogPost, Change The Ratio, Journalism.co.uk, The Awl and Cindy's Take on Tech

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: MediaPost and SAI

Ted Koppel / Washington Post:

Olbermann, O'Reilly and the death of real news — To witness Keith Olbermann - the most opinionated among MSNBC's left-leaning, Fox-baiting, money-generating hosts - suspended even briefly last week for making financial contributions to Democratic political candidates seemed like a whimsical …

Discussion: Mediaite, Romenesko and TVNewser

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.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Why Boxee's Box Doesn't Matter-And Why It Does — I've seen lots of oohing and aahing about the new Boxee Box that rolled out Wednesday. I haven't played with it yet, but for now I'll assume it's as cool as the gadget press says it is. — But let's be clear about what the Boxee Box is, and what it's not:

Discussion: GigaOM, more at Techmeme »