Mediagazer: What “engagement” means to Lauren McCullough at the Associated Press (Joy Mayer/RJI)

Aaron Wiener / The Washington Independent:

The Washington Independent, signing off — Nearly three years ago, The Washington Independent was launched as a bold experiment in online journalism. The idea was to combine hard-nosed investigative reporting with all the web had to offer: the nimbleness of real-time coverage …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Romenesko, CJR, Weigel, Oliver Willis and BrauBlog

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

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: Hollywood Elsewhere, New York Magazine 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 and Yahoo! News

Michelle Lodge / CNBC:
A year from now, the marriage Newsweek magazine with the Daily …

Discussion: Romenesko

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Roger Ailes Lets Rip — UPDATE: White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters Wednesday that he was not surprised by Fox News Chairman Roger Ailes quotes about President Obama to The Daily Beast's Howard Kurtz. “I think if you watch most of the programming on the channel …

Discussion: CJR, Media Decoder, New York Magazine, Mediaite, Mixed Media, Romenesko, Guardian, ThinkProgress, The Huffington Post, CNN, Salon, TVNewser and Peter Daou

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 …

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: New York Observer and Romenesko

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Bewkes: Era Of ‘Media Mogul’ Is Over — After trying to determine which seat was the power seat on stage at The Paley Center's International Council conference, the NYT's David Carr asked Jeff Bewkes, Time (NYSE: TWX) Warner's chairman and CEO, about where power resides in the media business today.

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

A shift at Shape — Tweet — Shape Editor-in-Chief Valerie Latona, who was criticized for putting country singer LeAnn Rimes on the October cover, is out at the American Media-owned monthly after five years. — Tara Kraft, a one-time p.r. consultant for Clinique who has spent …

Discussion: Gawker, Folio, mediabistro.com, New York Observer, Journalism.co.uk and Pitchfork

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Sen. Rockefeller rips media industry at hearing on recent distribution fights — Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) blasted the media industry at a hearing Wednesday afternoon. — Although the topic of the hearing being held by the Senate Commerce Committee's subcommittee on Communications …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and The Hill

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, SAI, Gizmodo, /Film and Media Decoder, more at Techmeme »

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: Media Decoder, MediaMemo, digitalmedia.strategyeye.com and paidContent:UK

Joy Mayer / RJI:

What “engagement” means to Lauren McCullough at the Associated Press — How do you build a relationship with a global audience, personalizing a brand and involving users in your coverage? The Associated Press is going for it, with aggressive social media strategies and a reliance on its 3,000 journalists.

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.

Discussion: National Review

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

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, Media Decoder, PC World, Faster Forward, GigaOM and Broadcasting & Cable, more at Techmeme »

Dan Duray / New York Observer:

Scrawl of Duty: Novelists and Journos Defect to Video Game Industry — Attendance was low for a recent showcase at concert promoter Todd “P” Patrick's pop-up video games gallery near Grand Central. The event felt like a transplanted loft party, decorated with papier-mâché furniture …

Discussion: GalleyCat

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.

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, ReadWriteWeb and Google News Blog

DigiDave:

How I turned 20k into 48k — There are many things that excite me about Spot.Us. One in particular, which I believe is part of our pathway to sustainability is “community-focused sponsorship” (CFS). It is the main thrust of my fellowship at the Reynolds Journalism Institute.

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

The Independent's i lines up paid-for iPad application — Subscribers to i's iPad app, which launches on Friday, will be charged £1.79 for 10 issues of the daily and get five issues free — The Independent's 20p spinoff i is launching a paid-for iPad application on Friday …

Discussion: Poynter Online

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

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Comcast Joins Sporting News For Electronic Publications — Electronic magazines will feature regional sports content — Comcast Sports Group has entered into an electronic publishing deal with the Sporting News to create regional editions of Sporting News Today in the markets where Comcast has regional sports networks.

Discussion: paidContent

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?

Discussion: GigaOM

Brian Morrissey / Adweek:

The Dawn of Like-vertising — Social nets are quickly changing the online ad dynamic — Two truths of the online media world: brands want to develop social connections with consumers and there are tons of cheap ad inventory thanks largely to the explosion of social networking.

Thanks:rawmeet

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 …