Mediagazer: Clay Shirky's right that syndication's getting disrupted … (Scott Karp/Nieman Journalism Lab)

3:05 PM ET, December 21, 2010

Top News:

The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time — What's Your Reaction: — This Tuesday is an important day in the fight to save the Internet. — As a source of innovation, an engine of our economy, and a forum for our political discourse, the Internet can only work if it's a truly level playing field.

Discussion: The Wrap, Business Wire, IntoMobile, Reuters, Techland, Guardian, BBC, The Daily Caller, BetaNews, Free Press, Electronista, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Wall Street Journal and Technology Liberation Front, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

F.C.C. Is Set to Regulate Net Access — The Federal Communications Commission appears poised to pass a controversial set of rules that broadly create two classes of Internet access, one for fixed-line providers and the other for the wireless Net. — The proposed rules of the online road …

Wall Street Journal:

Hulu Mulls More Pay Plans, Not an IPO — Online Video Site Considers Broadening Menu of Offerings for Viewers Who Pay — Online video site Hulu LLC has taken off the table the idea of going public, at least for now, and may consider other financing options, people familiar with the matter said.

Discussion: Mediaweek, VideoNuze, Online Video News, Techland, Company Town, GigaOM, Digital Trends, Show Me The Money, TVbytheNumbers, DailyFinance and SAI

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:
The End Of Hulu As We Know It (And Comcast Feels Fine)

Discussion: Free Press and Company Town

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
No Hulu Plus for Your Cable DVR

Discussion: SlashGear and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

EditorandPublisher.com:

Editor & Publisher Partners with MediaSpan to Improve Its Website — Visitors to E&P's website (www.editorandpublisher.com) in the coming months will find it much easier to navigate and jam-packed with a database of articles and exclusive content now that the magazine has partnered …

Discussion: Big News Network.com and FishbowlNY

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

News Of The World Pricier On iPad Than On Paper — Rupert Murdoch is clearly looking to tablets as a post-print, post-web model for salvation. But, if the new News Of The World iPad edition is anything to go by, he may need several iterations before that happens...

Discussion: News of the World

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

The Myth of Fast-Forwarding Past the Ads — ZOMBIES attacked during a commercial break on the AMC zombie drama “The Walking Dead” last month. The flesh eaters were just about to feast on a man and woman when rescue came in the form of the Toyota Corolla, the subject of the 30-second spot.

Discussion: Nielsen Wire, TVbytheNumbers and AdPulp

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Law Professor Explains How Even When A Site Copies An Entire Article, It May Still Be Fair Use — Berkeley law professor Jason Schultz has filed an excellent amicus brief in one of the many Righthaven lawsuits, pointing out that using an entire article does not preclude fair use (pdf) …

The Smoking Gun:

FBI Probe IDs Conde Nast “Hacker” — Fashion-obsessed student, 22, had Ohio home raided by feds … An FBI investigation has identified a fashion-obsessed Ohio man as the person who last year illegally gained access to a Conde Nast computer system and downloaded photos and pages …

Discussion: The Wrap, Yahoo! News, Fashionista and Jezebel

Josh / Groundswell:

Searching for Sustainable Habits in Journalism — Is the search for a sustainable business model for journalism unsustainable in and of itself? Our media system has gone through a number of fundamental shifts and changes in the last decade alone, but I think to some extent we are still just at the beginning.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Not a Hobby Anymore: New Apple TV Sales Hit One Million — Apple says sales of its new, cheaper Apple TVs will hit one million this week, less than four months after Steve Jobs introduced the new version. — I don't think that qualifies as a surprise, given that Apple knocked the price of the gadget down to $99.

Discussion: TechCrunch and Multichannel, more at Techmeme »

Donald Jeffrey / Bloomberg:

National Enquirer Publisher American Media's Bankruptcy Plan Wins Approval — American Media Inc., the publisher of the National Enquirer, won approval of a restructuring plan to exit bankruptcy. — U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Martin Glenn said at a hearing today in New York that he will confirm the plan …

Nieman Journalism Lab:

Jennifer 8. Lee on raw data, APIs, and the growth of “Little Brother” — Editor's Note: We're wrapping up 2010 by asking some of the smartest people in journalism what the new year will bring. — Here, Jennifer 8. Lee gives us predictions, about the growing role of raw data …

Discussion: 10,000 Words

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Groupon Hires Writers, But Don't Call It Journalism — Group-buying service Groupon continues to get a lot of attention, in part because it recently turned down a staggering $6-billion acquisition offer from Google. But while the popularity of group-powered buying accounts for a large part …

Discussion: SAI, broadstuff and The Atlantic, Thanks:mathewi

Lee Siegel / New York Observer:

A Power Parable — The Observer's slogan is “Money, Power and the City.” That is exactly as it should be. Because of the uniqueness of this city, money and power do not always add up to the same thing. — For example. — I was once invited by a woman friend to accompany …

Troy Wolverton / Mercury News:

A look at Internet TV on the Boxee Box — Consumers are watching more videos online, and tech companies are rolling out more devices to let them watch those videos on their big-screen TVs instead of their PCs. — One of the more anticipated of these new gadgets — at least among the technorati — is the Boxee Box from D-Link.

Scott Karp / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Clay Shirky's right that syndication's getting disrupted — but not in the ways he thinks it is — Editor's Note: For our year-end series of predictions for 2011, we started out with a piece by Clay Shirky in which he predicted “widespread disruption” for the traditional syndication model in journalism.