Mediagazer: Does journalism work? (Jonathan Stray)

1:30 AM ET, December 15, 2010

Top News:

Turning Gawker On Itself — It had been such a good week for Nick Denton. — Writers and editors from his network of sites had flown in from around the country and put up on Gawker's dime, in preparation for the 2011 relaunch of the site that launched the blogger age.

Daniel Kennedy / The Firewall:
Discussing Gawker's Breach With Founder Nick Denton

Discussion: Duo Security, Computerworld, Gizmodo and The Daily Beast, more at Techmeme »

New York Post:
Denton's disgrace — Tweet — A Manhattan woman's life …

Discussion: Mixed Media, All Things Digital, Coding Horror, TechCrunch, TUAW, CNET News, PC Magazine, Yahoo! News, ClickZ, FishbowlNY, Between the Lines Blog, Slate and Urlesque, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Air Force Blocks Sites With Leaked Cables — The U.S. Air Force is blocking its personnel from using work computers to view the websites of the New York Times and other major publications that have posted secret material obtained by Wikileaks, people familiar with the matter say.

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

Apple Launches First IAd for IPad, for Disney's ‘Tron Legacy’ — Initial IAd for Apple's Tablet Is a Preview of What's Coming Next Year — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The first iAd for iPad will launch this afternoon for the upcoming Disney blockbuster “Tron Legacy.”

Discussion: MediaPost, MediaMemo, The Next Web, TechCrunch, paidContent, MacRumors, TUAW, eMedia Vitals, Digital Media Wire and Geekosystem, more at Techmeme »

Jonathan Stray:

Does journalism work? — How do we know that the work that journalists do accomplishes anything at all? And what does journalism do, exactly, beyond vague statements like “supports democracy” and trivial ones like “gives me movie reviews”? — I made this image a couple months ago to introduce the question at a conference.

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

The Awl to start paying its writers in January — The Awl, Choire Sicha and Alex Balk's irreverent and idiosyncratic 2-year-old journalism start-up, will as of Jan. 1 start paying the writers who have helped turn the site into a culture and media must-read with half a million monthly visitors.

Discussion: The Awl, New York Observer, eMedia Vitals and WebNewser

Thomas Pardee / AdAge:

Finding the Sweet Spot for Journalism and Social Media — Times Dissolves Social Media Editor Post While USA Today Adds One — and Journal Plugs Ahead — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The country's biggest newspapers are taking different tacks on social media.

Nieman Reports:

Community Host: An Emerging Newsroom ‘Beat’ Without a Guide — TBD's community engagement team listens—and responds—in a city where everyone is talking: Washington, D.C. — By TBD's Community Engagement Team — The job of engaging with those formerly known as “the audience” …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and Poynter

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Exclusive: Ex-NBC Chief Resurfaces With Digital Venture — Fred Silverman, who ran each of the three broadcast networks over the course of the 1970s, is trying his hand at programming on the internet. His production company will launch Blip City, which is billed as “the world's biggest live-video get together,” next month.

Discussion: VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Smartphone growth, Murdoch's Daily, and journalism for the poor: Predictions for mobile news in 2011 — Editor's Note: We're wrapping up 2010 by asking some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year will bring. — One of the common threads through many of their predictions was mobile …

Jonathan Cooper / Journal Register Company:

Journal Register Company's Open Newsroom Launches New Era In Community Journalism — Yardley, PA - Marking a new era in community journalism, Journal Register Company, a leading local news and information company, opened the doors of The Register Citizen's new, community-focused newsroom.

Jeff Israely / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Speeding up a startup, but slowing down at the same time — Editor's Note: Jeff Israely, a Time magazine foreign correspondent in Europe, is in the early stages of a news startup called Worldcrunch. He occasionally describes the startup process here at the Lab. Read his past installments here.

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Better curation on Twitter, pushback against anonymity, and more new startups: Predictions for 2011 — Editor's Note: We're wrapping up 2010 by asking some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year will bring. — Below are predictions from Bob Giles, Alan Murray, David Beard …

Eriq Gardner / Reuters:

Online vendor of 25-cent Beatles songs loses case — NEW YORK (Hollywood Reporter) - A federal judge has ruled on summary judgment that BlueBeat.com is liable for violating copyrights in thousands of songs. In making the decision, the judge had swatted away one of the stranger defenses to infringement of sound recordings.

Discussion: paidContent

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

Cohen Upped To EVP At Bravo — Exec will continue to host ‘WWHL’ in elevated role — Andy Cohen has been promoted to executive vice president, original programming and development at Bravo, the network announced Tuesday. He will continue to be based in New York, reporting to Frances Berwick, president of Bravo Media.

Discussion: MediaPost

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

France Says Google Is Main Cause Of News Publishers' Woes — French authorities have finally got some kind of ruling against Google (NSDQ: GOOG) - but it turns out to be rather toothless. — The competition watchdog, L'Autorité de la Concurrence, in an opinion expressed to the finance minister …

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Givhan, Gopnik leaving the Washington Post — There's big news out of the Washington Post's Style section Tuesday! Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion writer Robin Givhan and art critic are Blake Gopnik are both leaving the paper. — Gopnik, according to a staff memo, will be embarking on a …

Discussion: Media Decoder and Poynter

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

More Signs Pointing Towards Hearst Buying Hachette — Sources say Hearst and Hachette execs are scheduled to meet in coming weeks — More signs are pointing to a possible sale of Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S., publisher of Elle and Woman's Day, to Hearst Corp.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and FishbowlNY

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

By securing Howard Stern, Sirius XM Radio avoids static — The satellite radio company's new five-year deal with the talk show host gives Wall Street a strong signal that it will remain competitive with over-the-air stations. — Talk radio host Howard Stern agreed to a new five-year contract with Sirius XM Radio last week.

Discussion: MediaPost, Media Buyer Planner, Company Town and MediaFreak

Ari Samsky / splicetoday.com:

A Subject of Astonishingly Small Importance — The New York Times, out of touch and incoherent. — ReservasdeCoches.com — I always enjoy reading Arthur Brisbane, the recently appointed public editor of The New York Times. Brisbane supposedly acts as a representative of the Times' readership …

Jason Fry / Nieman Reports:

The Sportswriter as Fan: Me and My Blog — ‘Our blog made no bones about its utter subjectivity, but we were seen as more objective than those for whom objectivity was a commandment.’ — In early 2005 as a technology columnist for The Wall Street Journal Online, I returned repeatedly to blogging as a subject.

Discussion: National Sports … and Nieman Storyboard

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Reuters America Gets News Service Deep Into Aggregating — As part of Thomson Reuters (NYSE: TRI) expansion into more general news service in addition to its financial reports, the company has launched Reuters America, it's most direct challenge to the Associated Press position as a supplier of articles and photos to newspapers.