Mediagazer: AOL tries a do-it-yourself reinvention (Crain's New York)

2:40 PM ET, December 13, 2010

Top News:

WikiLeaks Taps Power of the Press — Has WikiLeaks changed journalism forever? — Perhaps. Or maybe it was the other way around. — Think back to 2008, when WikiLeaks simply released documents that suggested the government of Kenya had looted its country. The follow-up in the mainstream media was decidedly muted.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Reuters and The Wire

Gautham Nagesh / Hillicon Valley:
Judiciary panel to take up Espionage Act, legal options against WikiLeaks

Thanks:gnagesh

Tim Arango / New York Times:

Time Warner Views Netflix as a Fading Star — For the past year, executives at big media companies have watched Netflix with growing resentment — for its success in delivering movies and television shows via the Internet, for its stock price nearly quadrupling, for its chief executive …

Discussion: Company Town, New York Observer, Electronista, VentureBeat, Fast Company, The Consumerist, Techland, GMSV, Engadget, MediaPost Raw and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Exclusive: ‘Gnosis’ Explains The Method And Reasoning Behind Gawker Media Hack — Over the last 24 hours Gawker Media's network of sites have been under attack from a group who have identified themselves “Gnosis,” a seemingly mysterious collective of hackers who has been falsely considered part …

Discussion: MediaMemo, Urlesque, Reuters, New York Observer, Lifehacker, The Not-So Private Parts, Techland, On Media's Blog, BlogPost, Wonkette and The Atlantic Online, more at Techmeme »

Daniel Kennedy / The Firewall:
The Real Lessons Of Gawker's Security Mess

Discussion: Media Decoder, New York Magazine, Lifehacker, New York Observer, The Next Web, PC Magazine and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Gawker:
Commenting Accounts Compromised — Change Your Passwords

Colby Hall / Mediaite:
Far Worse Than Previously Thought: Gawker Content Management System Hacked

Discussion: SAI, Gawker, Runnin' Scared, Techland, Yahoo! News, Gothamist and The Wire

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Web Focus Helps Revitalize The Atlantic — WASHINGTON — How did a 153-year-old magazine — one that first published the “Battle Hymn of the Republic” and gave voice to the abolitionist and transcendentalist movements — reinvent itself for the 21st century?

Discussion: Mediaite, Noted, On Media's Blog, New York Observer, Screenwerk, Fast Company, The Wire, Tech Report, NetNewsCheck Latest, Magazines Online and The Daily Dish

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Rivals Say Google Plays Favorites — Search Giant Displays Its Own Health, Shopping, Local Content Ahead of Links to Competing Sites — Google Inc. increasingly is promoting some of its own content over that of rival websites when users perform an online search, prompting competing sites to cry foul.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Google Public Policy Blog, CJR, Financial Times, Tech Report, SAI, Screenwerk, Between the Lines Blog, broadstuff, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim and MediaPost Raw, more at Techmeme »

Clay Shirky / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What will 2011 bring for journalism? Clay Shirky predicts widespread disruptions for syndication — Editor's Note: To mark the end of the year, we at the Lab decided to ask some of the smartest people we know what they thought 2011 would bring for journalism.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:

Public Broadcaster Is to Sell Current, a Trade Publication — Current, the newspaper that has covered the public broadcasting business every two weeks for three decades, is leaving the hands of its longtime owner, WNET.org, the New York City public broadcaster.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, On Media's Blog and Poynter

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Condé Nast Gets Ready to Go Shopping, Adds $500 Million and an Ex-Yahoo — Anyone have anything they want to sell to Condé Nast? The publisher is officially in shopping mode: It has hired an M&A guy and raised $500 million in cash to get him started.

Discussion: Mediaweek, paidContent, PR Newswire, New York Magazine, Noted, New York Observer, bizjournals and SAI

Wall Street Journal:

News Corp. Crams for Classes — Media Giant Faces Task of Honing Education Strategy — With two moves over two weeks, News Corp. has become one of the biggest players in the increasingly crowded field of corporate investors chasing the next technology to transform American education.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and New York Observer

Crain's New York:

AOL tries a do-it-yourself reinvention — Two months after reports first appeared that AOL was looking to merge with Yahoo in a bold bid to speed up its turnaround, the Manhattan-based Web veteran has abandoned its quest, according to an industry insider with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: Noted and SAI

Sean Macaulay / The Daily Beast:

The Man Behind Piers Morgan — A year ago, agent John Ferriter was almost dead (his heart stopped for three minutes) and figuratively dead (he was fired). Getting Morgan into King's seat was Ferriter's road back. — This January, Piers Morgan will take over from Larry King as CNN's prime …

Discussion: TVNewser

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Former AOL Media Boss Bill Wilson Rounds Up the Old Gang — Former AOL content boss Bill Wilson, who left the company early this year and landed in September at radio-station owner Townsquare Media, has been a busy guy. — High up on his to-do list, apparently: Hire a whole lot of people who worked at his old company.

Discussion: rbr.com, NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaFile, paidContent and TechCrunch

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Washington Examiner Helps Capture Fugitives — The Washington Examiner is known around the nation's capital for its conservative bent, bite-size news reports and price that cannot be beat: it is given away on the Metro. — But in law enforcement circles, The Examiner has also become …

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Video will be the online advertising engine — Last week, Akamai quietly rerouted loads of its client's traffic to deflect Wikileaks related attacks. The company, based in Cambridge (Massachusetts), had a surfeit of busy days fighting massive DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) attacks.