Mediagazer: ‘Street Papers’ Sold By Homeless Are Thriving (Blake Farmer/NPR)

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Is What WikiLeaks Does Journalism? Good Question — While the U.S. government tries to determine whether what WikiLeaks and front-man Julian Assange have done qualifies as espionage, media theorists and critics alike continue to debate whether releasing those classified diplomatic cables qualifies as journalism.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Does the FCC Want to Kill Hulu? — One of Washington's proposed conditions on the Comcast-NBC U deal will force the merged company to offer NBC's shows to any Web competitor. — So what does that mean for Hulu, which has already locked up exclusive rights to NBC's Web video?

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Company Town, Electronista, Media Decoder, DailyFinance, MediaPost, SAI, Los Angeles Times, MediaPost, New York Magazine, The Wire and The Consumerist, more at Techmeme »

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Google Woos Local Advertisers — Google Inc., which helped popularize the idea of automated ad sales on the Web, has been quietly turning to an old-fashioned tool—phone calls—to compete in the hot market for local business advertising. — The Internet-search giant this year …

Discussion: SAI, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Gannett Blog and Search Engine Land

scienceblog.com:

Ben-Gurion U researcher reveals newspapers' historic resistance to granting reporters' bylines — A new study by Dr. Zvi Reich, a researcher at Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beer-Sheva, Israel, documents the process through which journalists at major newspapers fought …

Discussion: International Business Times

Irina Slutsky / AdAge:

Why Google Dropped Groupon and Local Just Doesn't Scale — Ad Age Talks to Infectious Greed Blogger and Tech Investor Paul Kedrosky — SAN FRANCISCO (AdAge.com) — Prolific tech business analyst Paul Kedrosky made a name for himself as the founder of longtime blog Infectious Greed …

Discussion: MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Los Angeles Times:

Theater operators fight studios' plan to release movies in homes earlier — The chains are trying to build support for preserving ‘theatrical windows.’ — Theater operators are mounting a challenge to plans by Hollywood studios to release movies in the home when they are still in theaters.

Discussion: The Wrap, Media Maverick and Company Town

Kimberly Turner / Regator:

Why Blogs (Still) Aren't Dead...No Matter What You've Heard — Stan Schroeder of Mashable recently published a post based on research from the Pew Internet & American Life Project. The post was originally titled: “Everyone Uses E-mail, But Hardly Anyone Blogs Anymore.”

Blake Farmer / NPR:

‘Street Papers’ Sold By Homeless Are Thriving … Homeless newspapers around the country have grown by double digits over the past few years, even while most printed publications struggle to keep their paying customers. The so-called street papers create jobs for homeless people, who buy the papers at cost and sell them for a dollar.

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Anyone Notice That Sites Don't Have To Rely On Google So Much For Traffic Any More? — One of the driving forces behind some of the legal attacks on Google is that Google is the defacto monopoly on being found online. We've heard over and over again a claim along the lines of “if you're not in Google, you're not online.”

Gary Levin / USA Today:

In 2010, cable TV's ratings put networks on notice — Cable networks have been challenging broadcasters' hold on TV viewers for years, but the big networks' lackluster fall is proof of a new parity. — Nielsen figures show the Big 4 and basic cable gained 1% in 2010 as overall viewing continues to rise to a record 34 hours a week.

Discussion: TVWeek.com

Jackie Cohen / All Facebook:

Facebook Drives More Video Traffic Than All But Google — Facebook has surpassed Yahoo in the amount of traffic sent to video destinations, although Google still has the lead in this regard. — This comes from a report by Brightcove and TubeMogul based on data what the two call aggregate media sites …

Discussion: Fast Company and MediaPost

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Should names of Julian Assange accusers be published? — Should news outlets print the names of the two women who have lodged rape allegations against WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, considering that their identities have already been widely publicized? Washington City Paper doesn't think so.

Discussion: Das Krapital, New York Magazine, New York Observer and FishbowlDC