Mediagazer: Music by Numbers (Virginia Heffernan/New York Times)

10:25 PM ET, December 3, 2010

Top News:

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

Guardian:

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 …

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

Discussion: The Firewall, Guardian, Mashable!, VatorNews, The Nation, Threat Level, Tableau Software blogs, Boing Boing, Journalism.co.uk, paidContent, Techdirt, The Daily Caller and THINQ.co.uk

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

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: Mixed Media, Pulse2, Search Engine Watch, WebNewser and Search Engine Roundtable

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Three Questions to Ask About Barry Diller's Move

Discussion: Gawker, NetNewsCheck Latest, BtoB Magazine, TechCrunch and New York Observer

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 …

Discussion: New York Observer, Electronista and Tech Trader Daily, more at Techmeme »

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 …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Ben Sherwood Named President of ABC News — 7:34 p.m. | Updated ABC announced on Friday that it had appointed Ben Sherwood, a former executive producer of its “Good Morning America” program, as the next president of its news division. — He will succeed David Westin …

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Company Town, mediabistro.com, National Media, Gawker, Mediaite, New York Observer, The Daily Beast, The Wire, paidContent, MediaPost, The Wrap, On Media's Blog, GalleyCat, mediabistro.com and Inside TV

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Times of London Paywall Paying Off Already! * — News Corp.'s Jon Miller. Image by Getty Images Europe via @daylife — The Times of London has lost a huge volume of its web traffic since erecting a restrictive paywall around its site in July, and converted only 14 percent of its web readers …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Mashable!

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

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

INMA Transformation of Media Summit: Bundling, or how and when to get readers to pay for content — It was early in the morning when John Paton, CEO of of the Journal Register Company, had a curious statement for the assembled audience at the INMA Transformation of Media Summit Thursday here in Cambridge.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and Digital First

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 …

Discussion: MediaPost

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: The Wire and Talking Biz News

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

David Saleh Rauf / American Journalism Review:

Dispatches from the Last Frontier — An aggressive Web site covers Alaska and searches for profitability. — David Saleh Rauf (drauf@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant — As the Deepwater Horizon rig began gushing oil into the Gulf of Mexico in late April …

Virginia Heffernan / New York Times:

Music by Numbers — In 1997, when Garry Kasparov, the great Russian chess champion, resigned the sixth and final game of his match with Deep Blue, the I.B.M. computer, he crumpled. He couldn't conceal his despair. No opponent had ever beaten him in a match before, and this one didn't even have a heartbeat.

via:gillianmae

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

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: Yahoo! News

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

Discussion: VentureBeat

Dan Mangan / New York Post:

Famed restaurateur Elaine Kaufman of Elaine's Restaurant dies at 81 — Tweet — Elaine Kaufman, the brassy, legendary Upper East Side saloon-keeper whose self-named watering hole became a eclectic meeting place for top New York authors, journalists, cops and celebrities, died today.

Discussion: GalleyCat, New York Times, Mediaite and The Wrap, Thanks:hornokplease

Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Yahoo IS Focused: “We're A Content Company” — News Corp.'s Jon Miller took a potshot at Yahoo this morning at IGNITION, saying that the company is caught between being a media company and a technology company, and that it has to “get religion” about something.