Mediagazer: Tina Brown Taps Talent for Newsweek (Russell Adams/Speakeasy)

11:40 PM ET, December 7, 2010

Top News:

How Wikileaks has woken up journalism. — If you follow the latest cache of diplomatic cables leaked by Wikileaks and reported by the Guardian, The New York Times and others it is impossible not to conclude that this is a pivotal moment for journalism, its teaching and its practice.

Discussion: Salon, National Review, Wall Street Journal, The Nation, The Lede and The Atlantic Online

Dan Gillmor / Salon:

Defend WikiLeaks or lose free speech — Journalists should wake up and realize that the attacks on the whistle-blower are attacks on them, too — Journalists cover wars by not taking sides. But when the war is on free speech itself, neutrality is no longer an option.

Discussion: Guardian, http://www.Stinkyjournalism …, The Daily Beast, CNBC, Mark Follman, The Wire, Jon Slattery and Yahoo! News

BBC:
Wikileaks founder Julian Assange arrested in London

Discussion: TheAustralian, Feministe, CNN, New York Times, The New Yorker Blog, Guardian, Politics Daily, The Daily Dish, News: News blog, Press Gazette, Gawker and Tom Watson, more at Techmeme »

Gautham Nagesh / Hillicon Valley:
Lieberman: NYT may have committed crime by printing WikiLeaks docs

Discussion: Guardian, The Wire and NBC Connecticut, Thanks:stiffjab

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:
One ambassador's embarrassment is a tragedy, 15,000 civilian deaths is a statistic

Discussion: Media Diary and The Wire

Richard Cohen / Washington Post:
WikiLeaks and the trouble with transparency

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Gawker, msnbc.com, Slate, New York Observer and Threat Level

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Google ‘cooperating’ with New York Times to prevent paywall abuse — At a UBS media conference Tuesday morning, New York Times Co. executives discussed the online metered pay model that the Times website will adopt in 2011. But when pressed about when the paywall will launch and how much it will cost, they offered no new details.

Discussion: Poynter, Mixed Media and The Wrap

Brett Pulley / Bloomberg:

New York Times Says Smaller Print-Ad Drop to Help Increase 2010 Earnings — New York Times Co., publisher of the namesake newspaper, said it expects fourth-quarter print advertising revenue to decline at a slowing pace, helping 2010 earnings top those last year.

Discussion: Gawker

Felix Salmon:

The NYT toughens up its paywall — Martin Niesenholtz, the head of digital at the NYT, clearly hasn't been taking my advice when it comes to how to build a paywall. Instead, he's pre-emptively cracking down on a tiny and financially meaningless minority of hypothetical readers who might want to find ways around his wall:

Discussion: Poynter Online and paidContent

New York Post:

John Roberts to leave ‘American Morning’ in the new year — Tweet — Shake-ups at CNN under new boss Ken Jautz will begin as early as the start of the new year, insiders say. John Roberts is finalizing a contract to leave “American Morning” and start a new life as a CNN national correspondent …

Discussion: Mediaite, B&C, mediabistro.com, TVWeek.com, All Things CNN, The Wire, Chickaboomer, Inside Cable News, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post and The Page

Josh Kosman / New York Post:

Tribune lenders targeting Zell — Tweet — Tribune lenders are expected to file a lawsuit by midnight against real estate mogul Sam Zell alleging the leveraged buyout he engineered caused the business to quickly collapse, The Post has learned. — Lawyers for the lenders …

Discussion: Gawker, The Wrap, FishbowlLA and New York Magazine

Russell Adams / Speakeasy:

Tina Brown Taps Talent for Newsweek … Tina Brown is keeping her plans for Newsweek close to the vest, for now. But the magazine queen is starting to put her stamp on its staff. — Tuesday, Brown named Tunku Varadarajan, a writer-at-large for the Daily Beast and a veteran of Forbes …

Discussion: New York Observer and FishbowlNY

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Spotify's Daniel Ek Explains Why the Music Business Needs Him, and You Do, Too (Video) — Spotify CEO Daniel Ek used to be confident that his buzzy music service would launch in the U.S. this year. That's no longer the case, but Ek maintains that he's going to get to the States sometime, and that people will love it when he does.

more at Techmeme »

Arik Hesseldahl / All Things Digital: Spotify's Daniel Ek: We'll Launch in the U.S., Just Not Sure When [NewEnterprise]

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Shirky joins NYU as full-time faculty member — Romenesko Misc. — New media expert Clay Shirky will hold the title Distinguished Writer in Residence at NYU's Carter Journalism Institute. He'll also be Assistant Arts Professor at NYU's Tisch School of the Arts.

Philip J. Crowley / US Department of State:

U.S. to Host World Press Freedom Day in 2011 — Press Statement — Assistant Secretary, Bureau of Public Affairs — Washington, DC — The United States is pleased to announce that it will host UNESCO's World Press Freedom Day event in 2011, from May 1 - May 3 in Washington …

Discussion: Boing Boing, The Atlantic Online, Gizmodo, Crikey, Vanity Fair, Wonkette, Techdirt and BlogPost

Dave Lee:

Five reasons why Facebook Credits will save newspapers — First things first, I hate seeing the phrase “can save newspapers” thrown around all over the shop whenever a new techy idea comes out. — But, chances are you've found this via Twitter and, if you're anything like me …

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

News Foo Camp: where TBD is ‘mainstream’ — In another context, I might have protested being labeled part of the “mainstream media.” — We launched our website in August. We're trying to be innovative and edgy in our mobile apps, use of social media, breaking-news coverage, blog network and other respects.

Henry Blodget / The Wire:

You're Not Going To Believe This But The Future Of The New York Times (NYT) May Now Actually Be Bright — The New York Times (NYT) almost went bust two years ago. — If not for emergency asset sales, cost cuts, debt-restructuring, and an 11th-hour bailout by Mexican billionaire Carlos Slim …

Discussion: MediaPost

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Graham: Washington Post not ‘going to be a pioneer’ in charging for online news — Washington Post Company CEO Don Graham's candid take on trends in the news business has been a staple of the 10 media conferences I've attended each December in New York City.

Discussion: MediaPost

Agence France Presse:
Washington Post watching online pay experiments

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Cision, Shaping the Future … and The Huffington Post

Christina Warren / Mashable!:

PostPost: A Facebook Newspaper With a Flipboard Feel — Data management and rapid application deployment solutions company TigerLogic has just launched PostPost, a real-time “social newspaper” that's created from the links, photos and videos your friends share on Facebook.

Discussion: The News About The News, WebNewser and TechCrunch Europe

Stuart Elliott / New York Times:

Still Counting on the Power of Television — TV or not TV? On Madison Avenue next year, leading forecasters say, that is not likely to be the question. — A major reason those forecasters are predicting that the advertising industry will recover faster from the recession than they had expected …

Discussion: Lost Remote

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

The Education of Luke Russert — Charges of nepotism flew after the NBC reporter stepped on stage following the death of his famous father. Howard Kurtz talks to Russert about stage fright, weight loss and his critics. — For Luke Russert, adolescence was more than a tutorial in Beltway politics …

Discussion: Vanity Fair, New York Observer and FishbowlDC

Nat Worden / Wall Street Journal:

HBO Could Be Offered Outside of Cable Packages — NEW YORK—Time Warner Inc. Chief Executive Jeff Bewkes said Monday that HBO, his company's leading premium cable network, could be offered outside traditional cable-channel packages if another model makes sense as the TV industry evolves.

Discussion: GigaOM