Mediagazer: A royal letdown — Tweet — K ate Middleton and Prince … (Keith J. Kelly/New York Post)

6:15 PM ET, December 1, 2010

Top News:

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: TVNewser, The Daily Caller, Gothamist, New York Times, Inside Cable News, The TV Guy, NewsBusters.org blogs, Politics Daily, Company Town, New York Magazine, Mediaite, TVbytheNumbers and ClickZ

Wall Street Journal:

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 …

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Google Says Its E-Books Store Will Launch By Year-End

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: Anil Dash, The Wrap, New York Magazine, The Wire, Bits, eMedia Vitals, The Awl, Romenesko, Soup, Yahoo! News, SAI and Lifehacker

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: Gawker, msnbc.com, Yahoo! News and New York Observer

Time:

TIME Exclusive: Full Transcript/Audio of Julian Assange Interview — RICHARD STENGEL: Hi, Mr. Assange, it's Rick Stengel. I'm the editor of TIME magazine, and thank you for joining us this evening. — JULIAN ASSANGE: You're welcome. — So sorry about the technical difficulties, but I'm sure it's something you're used to.

Discussion: Guardian, Yahoo! News, Vanity Fair, newsfeed.time.com, News: News blog, Swampland and Aljazeera, more at Techmeme »

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, Celebritology 2.0, ArtsBeat, New York Magazine, New York Observer, Movieline, Gawker and TVbytheNumbers

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: New York Observer, On Media's Blog, CJR, Yahoo! News, Gothamist and Capital Tonight

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

A royal letdown — Tweet — K ate Middleton and Prince William ended up snagging four celebrity magazine covers this weekend — People, Us Weekly, Star and OK! — but with the exception of People, the engagement isn't translating into booming sales for the weeklies.

Discussion: New York Observer and The Fix

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.

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 …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, New York Observer and The Wire, Thanks:taylorbuley

Wall Street Journal:

Hulu Open to New Investors for Global Expansion — Hulu LLC wants to expand its online video service internationally and would be willing to take on new investors to help it do so, Jason Kilar, its chief executive, said in an interview Wednesday. — Mr. Kilar said there is an “unmet need” …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb

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: WebNewser, Epicenter, GigaOM, Post Tech, The Huffington Post, CNET News, New York Magazine, savetheinternet.com/blog, Tech Daily Dose, The Rural Blog and The Atlantic Online

Steve Buttry / TBD All News:

TBD halting ad sales in network — TBD told members of its community network late Tuesday that it will stop serving ads on member blogs and websites, effective today. — In an email message to network members who had agreed to accept advertising sold by TBD, we said:

Discussion: paidContent and Lost Remote

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, mediabistro.com, New York Observer, Pressthink, Studio 20 and Poynter

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 Corsair, Poynter and The Awl

New York Times:

Agency Proposes ‘Do Not Track’ Option for Web Users — WASHINGTON — The Federal Trade Commission advocated a plan on Wednesday that lets consumers on the Internet choose whether they want information about their browsing habits to be collected, an option known as “do not track.”

Discussion: GigaOM, Federal Trade Commission, paidContent, energycommerce.house.gov and The Consumerist, more at Techmeme »

Ben Klayman / Reuters:

New York Times in talks to sell Red Sox stake — (Reuters) - New York Times Co (NYT.N) is talking with a variety of potential buyers for its stake in the Boston Red Sox and expects to turn a profit on the baseball team's sale, the media company's chief executive said on Tuesday.

Discussion: The Wrap

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

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Forget Murdoch and Branson, could TRVL's gorgeous iPad magazine transform publishing? — It looks like iPad-only publications might be a trend to look out for in 2011. Rupert Murdoch has a team busy preparing ‘The Daily’ newspaper app, while Richard Branson yesterday launched his flash 'Project magazine.

Thanks:bradtnw

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

Laura McGann / Nieman Journalism Lab:

State-run papers from China and Russia buy convincing advertorial sections on the WaPo's website — Clicking around the Washington Post, you stumble onto the types of stories you'd expect a national newspaper to cover, like “Judges free homeowners from foreclosure mess” or “Obama reaches out in Indonesia.”

Dana Lacey / j-source.ca:

In SEO writing, algorithms replace journalists

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

MediaShift:

Suu Kyi Set Free But Media Still Held Captive in Burma — Burma has in recent weeks been one of the top world news stories. The country's November 7 general election was followed less than a week later by the release of Aung San Suu Kyi, one of the world's best-known political dissidents …