Mediagazer: Why Amazon Caved, and What It Means for the Rest of Us (Lauren Kirchner/CJR)

2:55 PM ET, December 3, 2010

Top News:

WikiLeaks fights to stay online after US company withdraws domain name — Everydns.net says attack against leaks site endangered other customers' service - effectively pushing site off the web — The US was today accused of opening up a dramatic new front against WikiLeaks, effectively …

Nikki Usher / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Why WikiLeaks' latest document dump makes everyone in journalism — and the public — a winner — For some, WikiLeaks' recent dump of diplomatic cables seems to make an excellent case for why traditional journalism still matters. Others, however, suggest that the widespread condemnation …

Discussion: Guardian and Explainer.Net, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:
Why Amazon Caved, and What It Means for the Rest of Us

Discussion: Guardian, The Firewall, Mashable!, McSweeney's, Threat Level, Tableau Software blogs, VatorNews, paidContent, Boing Boing, Journalism.co.uk, Techdirt, The Daily Caller and http://www.Stinkyjournalism …, more at Techmeme »

Andy Serwer / Fortune:

Diller on leaving the top spot at IAC: “The company wasn't being managed correctly” — FORTUNE — Barry Diller it seems has been pondering the future lately. Today he took action. — Every summer Diller takes some time off to do a deep think. “I call it my summer project,” he says in an interview with Fortune.

Discussion: New York Post, WebNewser, Pulse2 and Search Engine Roundtable, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Three Questions to Ask About Barry Diller's Move — So Barry Diller is out as CEO of IAC. This even though the company's share price is up more than 47 percent over the last 12 months. You don't have to be Grigory Perelman to realize there are some missing variables in this equation.

Discussion: Gawker, NetNewsCheck Latest, BtoB Magazine, IAC - Media Room, New York Observer and TechCrunch

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

A Very Special Announcement: Changes at The Village Voice — Hello Runnin' Scared readers! We have a special programming announcement for you all! Are you ready? You look ready. Here we go: — Effective, like, the first week in January, Joe Coscarelli - our indomitable …

Thanks:ceelew

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Oprah Winfrey Channel Gears Up for Its Debut — IN a one-minute ad that starts Friday in movie theaters across the country, the voice of the Black Eyed Peas frontman will.i.am calls out to dreamers, believers and “tomorrow leaders.” — Add to Portfolio — Then, looking positively radiant …

Discussion: MediaPost, New York Observer, Company Town, New York Magazine and Gawker

Media Decoder:

Ben Sherwood Named President of ABC News — 10:50 a.m. | Updated ABC announced on Friday that it had appointed Ben Sherwood, the former executive producer of its “Good Morning America” program, as president of its news division. — He will succeed David Westin, the long-time president …

Discussion: MediaPost, New York Observer, Company Town, ABCNEWS, mediabistro.com, Gawker, The Wrap, paidContent, Mediaite, On Media's Blog, The Huffington Post, GalleyCat, mediabistro.com, The Awl and Inside TV

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Tim Arango Is Next NYT Baghdad Bureau Chief — In your jobby Friday media column: Rebecca Dana to Newsweek, Foster Kamer to Esquire, Tim Arango to Baghdad, and Barry Diller to the easy life. And, Emily Brill. — We hear that veteran-but-still-young former media reporter Tim Arango …

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:

Rupert Murdoch's Tablet Tabloid: How He Can Pull It Off — With all the frantic hiring of young talent and established editors for The Daily, News Corp.'s new tablet-only newspaper, it's clear that Rupert Murdoch is trying to create the “tabloid for smart people” that he's never quite been able to pull off in print.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:
The Daily Kill Dossier, Part 2: Another Hit List of News Corp's Freshest Poaches

Discussion: VentureBeat

Ben Widdicombe / Financial Times:

The business of blogging — If anyone, anywhere had an opinion about Perez Hilton in 2004, it was that he would not be around for long. The young Cuban-American (real name Mario Armando Lavandeira), then 26, was doing yeoman work at his day job for Star magazine, a weekly gossip tabloid …

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Viacom Set to Appeal in YouTube Case — Viacom Inc. says a new wave of digital piracy could threaten the U.S. media business unless federal courts overturn its defeat in a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Google Inc.'s YouTube video-sharing site. — The New York-based owner of MTV …

Discussion: VideoNuze, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and Search Engine Land

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Robust ad recovery bypassed newspapers — Newspaper advertising revenues continued sinking in the third quarter of this year despite a robust recovery that has fueled healthy gains in all - not some, but all - of the other competing media. — While television, radio …

Discussion: Newspaper Association …, NetNewsCheck Latest, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and paidContent

Associated Press:

Foursquare TV Series In The Works — SAN FRANCISCO — Foursquare, a popular startup that lets people share their location with friends through a mobile app, is working with production company Endemol USA to create a television series. — The companies said Thursday that they signed …

Discussion: Gawker, Crikey and New York Magazine

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Outfoxed by Fox News? No way. — It takes only an instant for a visitor to Media Matters for America's headquarters in downtown Washington to sense its mission, if not its methods. A few steps into its modern offices, which resemble a newspaper newsroom, a pair of prominently displayed signs spell …

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Sarah Hartley / Guardian:

Hyperlocal and working with legacy brands: former TBD boss Jim Brady — When Jim Brady suddenly quit as general manager at the Washington local news empire just three months after launch, it surprised many in the media who were watching TBD.com's progress with interest.

Discussion: Sarah Hartley

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Local Media May Have Blown Another Online Ads Opportunity — For the first time in the internet's history, the hottest thing online today is local. Through daily coupon deals, place reviews and location sharing, local services is where it's at. — That should finally mean boom …

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

DealBook's Sorkin: Paywall details still being ‘ironed out’ — As The New York Times gears up to implement its metered online pay model in January, one of various remaining unanswered questions about the finer points of how it will work is whether or not The Times newly-revamped and expanded financial blog …

Discussion: SAI and Talking Biz News

Emily Brill / CJR:

Disclose This — The press should treat big tech companies like Big Pharma — On August 9, Google and Verizon announced an alliance in which Google, the champion of the free, open Internet, would partially bow to Verizon's long-held position that purveyors of certain types of content …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Apple, Publishers Still Miles Apart on iTunes Subscriptions — Magazine publishers used to salivate over the iPad. Now they're a lot more reserved. They make hopeful noises about Google's Android tablets instead. — That's because Apple and the publishing industry haven't been able …

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

Gossip Columnists George Rush & Joanna Molloy Suing MTV Over ‘Downtown Girls’ — George Rush and Joanna Molloy, who wrote their eponymous gossip column for the New York Daily News for 15 years, have filed a $30,000+ breach-of-contract lawsuit against MTV, VH1, their parent Viacom …

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Nelson tapped as editorial director of Time Inc. — Tweet — Martha Nelson, a group editor in charge of two of three divisions at Time Inc., is being named the new editorial director of all Time Inc. magazines. — The move makes her the second-highest editorial executive …

Discussion: Bloomberg

Reuters:

Time Warner's Bewkes skeptical of Netflix plan — (Reuters) - Time Warner Inc Chief Executive Jeffrey Bewkes questioned whether Netflix Inc's current business model of paying top dollar for rights to stream movies and TV shows over the Internet is sustainable in the long-term.

Discussion: paidContent, VentureBeat and Company Town