Mediagazer: From the Fringe to the Mainstream (Paul Farhi/American Journalism Review)

1:30 PM ET, December 1, 2010

Top News:

Google Set to Launch E-Book Venture — Google Inc. is in the final stages of launching its long-awaited e-book retailing venture, Google Editions, a move that could shake up the way digital books are sold. — The long-delayed venture—Google executives had said they hoped to launch this summer …

Discussion: Ars Technica, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Fortune, Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb, Kindle Review, theBookseller.com, the Econsultancy blog, SlashGear, TeleRead, Electronista, Faster Forward, Engadget, The Next Web, ResourceShelf and Crikey, more at Techmeme »

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Google Says Its E-Books Store Will Launch By Year-End — Google's forthcoming e-books store now has an official launch date: The end of the year. Company executives had initially promised in June 2009 that the store, which will let consumers buy digital versions of current and older titles, would launch by the end of 2009.

Discussion: Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and The Next Web

Felix Salmon:

The new Gawker Media — Gawker Media's big company-wide redesign, a year in the making, will finally come out of beta on January 3. It will the biggest event in Gawker Media history, for all three arms of the company—editorial, sales, and technology. It's a concerted attempt for Gawker Media …

Discussion: The Awl, eMedia Vitals, Romenesko, Yahoo! News and New York Observer

Lifehacker:
Why Gawker is moving beyond the blog

Discussion: Guardian, The Atlantic Online, Epicenter, Lost Remote and CNET News

Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Gawker's Sales Boss Chris Batty Leaving After Serious Disagreement …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Poynter, Runnin' Scared and Gawker

Tara Palmeri / New York Post:

Co-host spittin' mad over Spitzer — Tweet — Eliot Spitzer's TV sidekick is so fed up with playing second fiddle to the hooker-loving ex-gov that she's threatening to walk, sources told The Post yesterday. — Washington Post columnist Kathleen Parker actually stormed off the set of the …

Discussion: Mediaite, Company Town, Inside Cable News, On Media's Blog, New York Magazine, TVbytheNumbers, NewsBusters.org blogs and ClickZ

Reuters:

New York Times looks to WeightWatchers for Internet tips — (Reuters) - New York Times Co is completing plans to charge readers for online news after spending a year studying websites such as Consumer Reports and WeightWatchers. — The New York Times, which in 2007 abandoned its first big effort …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and New York Observer

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

‘The Walking Dead’ Lets Go Of Writers; Considers No Writing Staff For Season 2 — EXCLUSIVE: I hear The Walking Dead writer/ executive producer/ director Frank Darabont has let go of the writers on the hot freshman AMC series, which has already renewed for a second season.

Discussion: Tuned In, New York Observer, Celebritology 2.0, Gawker, New York Magazine, Mediaweek and TVbytheNumbers

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

The Great Murdoch iPad Debate — The Daily is the most exciting news media start-up of the millennium! … On the sleek iPad, it is indescribably magical to touch the news. — Apple is a fascist censor with onerous terms. — News Corp. is paying journalists, and paying them well!

Discussion: Yahoo! News, The Awl, Poynter and The Corsair

Edward Wyatt / New York Times:

F.C.C. Chairman Outlines Broadband Framework — WASHINGTON — Thwarted by the courts, by lawmakers on Capitol Hill and by some of his fellow commissioners, the Federal Communications Commission chairman will try again on Wednesday to devise a new strategy for regulating broadband Internet service providers.

Discussion: Post Tech, Tech Daily Dose, The Huffington Post, GigaOM, New York Magazine, The Rural Blog and The Atlantic Online, more at Techmeme »

Mark Briggs / Poynter:

What journalists need to know about starting a nonprofit business — There is a misconception among many would-be entrepreneurs, especially in journalism, that starting a nonprofit business will mean relief from the pressure of making money. Not so. Any business, whether nonprofit or not, must bring money in to survive.

Paul Farhi / American Journalism Review:

From the Fringe to the Mainstream — How “scandals” of dubious validity or relevance end up attracting so much media attention. Posted: Wed, Dec. 1 2010 — Senior Contributing Writer Paul Farhi (farhip@washpost.com), a Washington Post reporter, wrote about the National Enquirer in AJR's Summer issue.

Wall Street Journal:

Web-Traffic Tension Rises — U.S. regulators are looking into a dispute between two large companies that shuttle traffic around the Internet, a business invisible to most consumers but increasingly fraught with tension. — The issue gets to the heart of a longstanding argument: Who should pay for the Internet?

Discussion: Comcast Voices, Free Press and Between the Lines Blog, more at Techmeme »

Michael Donohoe / First Look:

Swiping, Linking and Highlighting: A Few New Features — On a site as big as NYTimes.com, changes and updates occur on a daily basis. Here's a look at some of the features we've added in the past six months. — Inside NYTimes — You've probably noticed the “Inside NYTimes.com” module …

Thanks:taylorbuley

Natalie Zmuda / AdAge:

Print Still Reigns, but More Retailers Turn to TV, Online Ads for Holidays — BDO Survey: Flat Holiday Budgets Mean a Little Less for Print as Marketers Spread Resources — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Faced with flat budgets, marketers are experimenting with new media mixes this holiday season.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaPost and Media Buyer Planner

ProPublica:

NYU and ProPublica Team Up to Experiment With Explanatory Journalism — At ProPublica, we often cover topics that are not only critically important but also mind-bendingly complex. (CDOs, anyone?) To help readers follow along, we frequently back up a step and offer primers, FAQs, and backgrounders.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Pressthink, Studio 20 and Poynter

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Google Cuts Off AppNexus, and the Ad Tech World Shudders — AppNexus, a high-flying ad technology start-up, just had a bad few days. The next few weeks could be rough, too. — That's because over the weekend, Google suspended the company's access to the ad giant's “real time” ad exchange.

Discussion: AdExchanger.com, TechCrunch and Wall Street Journal, more at Techmeme »

John Cook / Gawker:

Inside the David Paterson Rumor Mill — A while back, we filed a Freedom of Information Law request looking for e-mails between New York Gov. David Paterson's flacks and a bunch of reporters. The governor's office tried hard to keep them secret, but we finally got them. — And there's not much there!

Discussion: CJR and Capital Tonight

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Behind CBS' Morning Show Shakeup — Harry Smith and Maggie Rodriguez got axed from the Early Show Tuesday. Howard Kurtz talks to Smith and CBS News President Sean McManus about the perennial challenges of the low-rated show. — Harry Smith is sounding remarkably upbeat for a man who just got pushed out of his job.

Discussion: Media Decoder, TVNewser, mediabistro.com, Romenesko, MediaPost, Associated Press, The Huffington Post and On Media's Blog

Ellie Behling / eMedia Vitals:

Online advertising in strange places — A number of creative online display ad formats have surfaced to shake consumers out of our banner-induced slumbers. In fact, a new study published this week by AdweekMedia/Harris reconfirms that banner ads are the Internet ads most likely to be ignored.

Discussion: Adweek and MediaPost

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

Why the Kindle Is Losing Me — I really loved my Kindle when I first got it. I love writing books, and I'm for anything that helps people consume and purchase more of them- I don't care if I make a fraction of the royalties off electronic sales. — I was especially struck by how much I wished I'd had a Kindle in college.

Discussion: Guardian and TeleRead

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

The WikiLeaks Cables: Small Revelations That May Cause a Big Idea to Take Hold — What's Your Reaction: — Let's start with what the U.S. embassy cables released by WikiLeaks this weekend are not. — They are not, as Hillary Clinton claimed, “an attack on America's foreign policy interests” that have endangered “innocent people.”

Discussion: Slate, Salon and WL Central

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

Call It the Year of the Mobile Traveler — Travel-Related Searches Dominate All Other Sectors in 2010 — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Whether 2010 finally shapes up to be the year for mobile, it already has a huge head start in one sector: travel. As a result, marketers with apps are raking in profits.

Alexander Chee / The Morning News:

I, Reader — You are what you read. For some people, that means 22 boxes of books. Facing a storage crisis of bibliolatry proportions, ALEXANDER CHEE surveys e-readers and a life spent reading. — When I recently moved to New York to live with my partner, Dustin …

Discussion: TeleRead

Business Wire:

The Dolan Company Acquires DataStream Content Solutions — The Dolan Company (DM 13.70, +.08, +.59%) , a leading provider of services and business information to professionals in law, finance and real estate, said today it acquired DataStream Content Solutions, LLC, a leading provider …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Madhu Rajaraman / American Journalism Review:

Beltway Buzz(bee) — Sally Buzbee brings her global savvy to Washington as the AP's bureau chief. Posted: Tue, Nov. 30 2010 — Madhu Rajaraman (mrajaraman@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — Los Angeles. Topeka. San Diego. Saudi Arabia. Tunisia. Egypt. Iraq. Iran.