Mediagazer: Amazon.com going into movie producing with new website, first … (Ben Fritz/Company Town)

The Tina Brown Turnaround — Tina Brown was in a state. It was Tuesday morning, Nov. 9, and the Daily Beast editor was in Barry Diller's office at IAC headquarters on the West Side. Talks with Sidney Harman about merging the site with his recently acquired Newsweek were back on—big time …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Hollywood Elsewhere and Felix Salmon

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Newsweek and the Gray Lady: Your Future Awaits — Ever since the news hit that Newsweek's new owner is combining the publication with Tina Brown's web-based media outlet The Daily Beast, there has been a frenzy of criticism over the decision to kill Newsweek's website and redirect readers to The Daily Beast site instead.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, AdAge, BlogPost, CJR and Yahoo! News

Michelle Lodge / CNBC:

A year from now, the marriage Newsweek magazine with the Daily Beast website will bear a “very strong bottom line,” Stephen Colvin, CEO of the newly formed Newsweek Daily Beast Company, told CNBC Tuesday. — “Two great franchises and two great cross-platforms mark the opportunities to reach …

Discussion: Romenesko

Matthew Creamer / AdAge: Why Tina Brown Might Not Be Crazy to Kill Newsweek.com

Lauren Rabaino / 10,000 Words:

Six must-have WordPress plugins for newsrooms — Last year, the Online Journalism Blog brought you 85 plugins for blogging journalists. I've narrowed my own selection down to six plugins, not necessarily for individual journo-bloggers, but for any newsroom with an active WordPress install …

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Roger Ailes Lets Rip — In an exclusive interview with The Daily Beast, the Fox News chief says Obama thinks differently from most Americans, defends Murdoch's GOP donations, and admits Beck sometimes goes too far. — In the media world, as in politics, having a high-profile target can be a very good thing.

Discussion: Romenesko, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, ThinkProgress and Fox News Watchdog

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Up for audit: ‘Checkbook journalism’ and the news groups that buy big stories — At first it was only supermarket tabloids like the National Enquirer that did it. While the “respectable” media shunned the practice, the Enquirer developed a long and proud tradition of “checkbook journalism …

Discussion: mediabistro.com and Romenesko

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Google News experiments with metatags for publishers to give “credit where credit is due” — One of the biggest challenges Google News faces is one that seems navel-gazingly philosophical, but is in fact completely practical: how to determine authorship. In the glut of information on the web …

Discussion: BlogPost, Journalism.co.uk and ReadWriteWeb

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Amazon.com going into movie producing with new website, first look deal with Warner Bros. — Hollywood has seen some unusual entrants to the business of film producing over the years, but the world's largest online retailer might just be one of the least likely.

Discussion: Thompson on Hollywood, Gizmodo, /Film and Media Decoder, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Hulu Plus Cuts Its Price, After All-By $2 — Hulu, which had considered cutting the fee for its premium service in half, then launched out of beta at full price, has gone ahead and cut it after all-by 20 percent. — In a blog post announcing the move, Hulu CEO Jason Kilar doesn't explain …

Discussion: Hulu Blog, New York Times, /Film, Broadcasting & Cable, TUAW and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Joe Mullin / paidContent:

Why The Music Industry Isn't Suing Mashup Star ‘Girl Talk’ — DJ Greg Gillis, aka Girl Talk, is arguably the most famous “mash up” musician around, filling up sizable venues with his high-energy live performances. While plenty of musicians sample from other artists, they also pay those artists …

Discussion: The Awl, Underwire and Christian Science Monitor

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Buzz Bissigner's double-barreled tweets — The author of ‘Friday Night Lights’ takes on politicians, journalists and even friends in 140-character blasts. — It was just after 7:30 last Saturday morning when anyone following Buzz Bissinger's Twitter feed might have sensed …

Discussion: Romenesko

MediaShift:

Crowdsourced Fact-Checking? What We Learned from Truthsquad — In June, Senator U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch made the statement that “87 million Americans will be forced out of their coverage” by President Obama's health care plan. — It was quite a claim. But was it true?

David Freedlander / New York Observer:

Forever Bloomberg: The Mayor Is on the Hunt for a Successor. Could Cathie Black Be It? — Mayor Michael Bloomberg keeps a countdown clock on the wall in the City Hall bullpen. Whenever asked about his future plans—which is often, especially now that the Bloomberg for President rumor mill is churning …

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Magic 8 Ball of News: The Future-Jobs-O-Matic — American Public Media has built a better Magic 8 Ball. Okay, not exactly, but it's just as fun to shake things up on the Future-Jobs-O-Matic game and find out your destiny. And better than the 8 Ball, it'll tell you what your salary will be.

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

WMG Renews Spotify For Europe, Still Talking In U.S. — If analysts on Warner Music Group's Q4 earnings call were hoping for news of a Spotify deal, they got exactly what they wanted. Edgar Bronfman Jr said WMG has signed a new deal with the unlimited-music service - but it's only a renewed deal …

Discussion: MediaMemo, digitalmedia.strategyeye.com and paidContent:UK

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

Using Yahoo! Clues to target your headlines by demographic — Tony Hirst points my attention (again) to Yahoo! Clues, a tool that, like Google's Insights For Search, allows you to see what search terms are most popular. However, unlike Insights, Yahoo! Clues gives much deeper demographic information …

Discussion: OUseful.Info, the blog and Yahoo! Search Blog

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

The British are Coming: BBC Readies Global Launch of the iPlayer — MONACO — With the approval of its governing body, the BBC is readying the global introduction of the iPlayer, the highly successful video on-demand platform which registered 139 million video program views in October.

Discussion: GigaOM

Hillary Busis / Mediaite:

Plum TV Targets Influential Audience, Announces Multi-Million Dollar Expansion — Upscale consumers, take note—Plum TV, a lifestyle network that targets “the most active, influential, and educated audience in the world,” is planning a major expansion. The company has also installed …

The Huffington Post:

CBS Anchor Erica Hill On Covering The Royal Engagement — Erica Hill, the news anchor for CBS' “The Early Show,” doesn't jump on a plane and rush to another country for just any story. But the news of Prince William's impending marriage to Kate Middleton was irresistible — to Hill's boss, at least.

NPR:

Should Objectivity Still Be The Standard In News? — After MSNBC host Keith Olbermann was suspended for making political contributions, journalist Ted Koppel criticized the lack of objectivity in the news, and looked backward toward the halcyon days of Murrow. But media critic Jeff Jarvis believes the old model is outdated.

Joel Meares / CJR:

Jim VandeHei Talks Politico Pro — “We're going to dig really deep... really cover what's happening.” — Politico has just announced it will be launching a subscriber service, Politico Pro, next February. According to a press release, Politico Pro's expected staff of forty journalists will provide …

Discussion: Romenesko, via:romenesko

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Sasha Frere-Jones, New Yorker's Music Critic, Will Be Editor at News Corp.'s iPad Newspaper — Sasha Frere-Jones, a music critic at The New Yorker, will become the culture editor of The Daily, News Corporation's so-called iPad newspaper which is currently in development …

Discussion: paidContent, New York Observer, Romenesko, Gawker and New York Magazine

Discussion: New York Observer and Romenesko