Mediagazer: You, Too, Can Own a Piece of The Onion (Lauren Kirchner/CJR)

7:25 AM ET, December 8, 2010

Top News:

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

Brett Pulley / Bloomberg:
New York Times Says Smaller Print-Ad Drop to Help Increase 2010 Earnings

Discussion: Gawker

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Google ‘cooperating’ with New York Times to prevent paywall abuse

Discussion: Poynter, Mixed Media, The Wall Blog and The Wrap

Emily Bell:

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: Memex 1.1, Guardian, National Review, Salon, Wall Street Journal, The Nation and Associated Press

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

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

Dan Gillmor / Salon:
Defend WikiLeaks or lose free speech

Discussion: News: News blog, Guardian, CNBC, http://www.Stinkyjournalism …, The Daily Beast, Mark Follman, The Wire, Yahoo! News, BBC, Washington Post and New York Observer

Chris Ariens / mediabistro.com:

Tony Harris Leaving CNN; John Roberts Heading to Atlanta — TVNewser has learned Tony Harris is leaving CNN after six years with the network. Harris anchors the 11am-1pmET hours of CNN Newsroom and will depart at the end of the year. Harris joined CNN in Sept. 2004 from Atlanta's CBS station, WGCL.

Discussion: TVWeek.com, B&C, Chickaboomer and New York Magazine

Josh Kosman / New York Post:
Tribune lenders targeting Zell

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

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, Gawker, Crikey, Gizmodo, Crikey, New York Times, Vanity Fair, Techdirt, Wonkette, BlogPost and FleetStreetBlues

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]

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

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

You, Too, Can Own a Piece of The Onion — “America's Finest News Source” is now franchising out its printing biz — After twenty-two years, The Onion has decided to both get out of the print business and double down on print at the same time. — The popular satirical newspaper and website …

Discussion: AdPulp

Lauren A. E. Schuker / Wall Street Journal:

Movies at Home, for $20,000 — A proposed service aims to bring movies to homes the same day they hit theaters, a milestone that Hollywood has long anticipated with a mixture of fear and fascination. — But there's a catch: At the prices currently being discussed by Prima Cinema Inc. …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Yahoo CEO: Don't Judge Me Until 2012 — Carol Bartz has been CEO of Yahoo for almost two years now. That's long enough for some people to declare her ineffective and call for her to be replaced. But to hear Bartz tell it, not only is it premature to demand her resignation now — it will still be premature 12 months from now.

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.

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 …

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

Salvation! Newsweek May Ditch Dingy Digs This Spring — Newsweek staffers are rejoicing this evening, as a memo from owner Sidney Harman tells them that they may not have to work out of their new, but deeply unliked, offices at 7 Hanover Square for long. — As recently as March 30 …

Discussion: New York Magazine

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

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