Mediagazer: ‘The Walking Dead’ Lets Go Of Writers; Considers No Writing Staff For Season 2 (Nellie Andreeva/Deadline.com)

4:40 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 …

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

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

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, New York Times, The TV Guy, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Gothamist, Politics Daily, Inside Cable News, NewsBusters.org blogs, Company Town, New York Magazine, TVbytheNumbers, On Media's Blog 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: Gawker, Yahoo! News and New York Observer

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: SAI, Bits, The Awl, eMedia Vitals, Romenesko, Yahoo! News, Runnin' Scared, Lifehacker 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, ArtsBeat, Celebritology 2.0, New York Observer, New York Magazine, Movieline, Gawker and TVbytheNumbers

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: Yahoo! News, Vanity Fair, newsfeed.time.com, Swampland, Guardian, News: News blog and Aljazeera

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

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

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.

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

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: New York Observer and The Wire, 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: MediaPost, NetNewsCheck Latest and Media Buyer Planner

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, paidContent, Federal Trade Commission, 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

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: Yahoo! News, CJR and Capital Tonight

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

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

Clare O'Connor / Filthy Rich:

Want Access To Richard Branson's Billions? Ask His Daughter — Richard and Holly Branson at today's launch. — Back in March, right before the official U.S. launch of the iPad, Giovanni Donaldson had an idea. The London-based manager at Richard Branson's Virgin Group saw …

Discussion: Mixed Media, Virgin.com, New York Magazine and MediaMemo

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.

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: Broadcasting & Cable, Media Decoder, TVNewser, Romenesko, The Huffington Post, MediaPost, Associated Press and On Media's Blog

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.”

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