Mediagazer: open letter to newspaper photographers (Chip/Redlights and Redeyes)

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, Weigel, CJR, City Desk, Oliver Willis and BrauBlog

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: New York Magazine, Romenesko, CJR, Mixed Media, Media Decoder, Guardian, Mediaite, ThinkProgress, CNN, Fox News Watchdog, TVNewser, Salon and Peter Daou

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

Nick Summers / New York Observer:
The Tina Brown Turnaround

Discussion: Hollywood Elsewhere, New York Magazine and Felix Salmon

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

Discussion: Romenesko

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 …

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.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

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

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.

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: Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable, The Hill and TVNewser

Nick Davies / Guardian:

Court says News of the World staff who ordered phone hack must be named — Judge rules that private investigator Glenn Mulcaire must identify journalists who instructed him to intercept voicemail messages — The private investigator at the centre of the phone-hacking scandal has been ordered …

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: Romenesko and New York Observer

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

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

Alex Williams / ReadWriteWeb:

No Tweeting Allowed for President Bill Clinton's Keynote at Salesforce.com Event — No tweeting, live blogging, posting to Facebook or any other use of social media will be permitted when President Bill Clinton gives the keynote address at Dreamforce, the annual Salesforce.com event taking place Dec. 6-8 …

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog, Techdirt, SAI and WebNewser

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, MediaPost, Media Decoder, PC World, Faster Forward, /Film, Epicenter and Broadcasting & Cable, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Village Voice Media To Handle Portion Of Ad Sales For Gothamist — Village Voice Media is branching out into ad sales for sites outside its blog network. The free city weekly publisher has started selling some ad placements on Gothamist's site this week. In an interview with paidContent Bill Jensen …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Thanks:nitwitty

Chip / Redlights and Redeyes:

open letter to newspaper photographers — If you think you are safe in your job, you aren't. — I say that bluntly to make the point stick. You are a number. You are expendable. Your work will win awards. Your work will sell papers. In the end, if they don't sell that ugly ad around your photo, you don't have a job.

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

Jonathan Stray:

What's the point of social news? — According to Facebook, social news seems to be mostly about knowing what all my friends are reading. I'm not so sure. But I think there really is something to the idea of “social news” for journalism, and for journalism product design.

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.

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.

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

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