Mediagazer: Forbes editor leaving for PR (Chris Roush/Talking Biz News)

8:25 AM ET, December 27, 2010

Top News:

In ‘Daily Show’ Role on 9/11 Bill, Echoes of Murrow — Did the bill pledging federal funds for the health care of 9/11 responders become law in the waning hours of the 111th Congress only because a comedian took it up as a personal cause? — And does that make that comedian, Jon Stewart …

Discussion: Media Myth Alert and Soup

Karen Dionne / DailyFinance:

How E-Books Are Changing the Economics of Writing — In November, The New York Times reported that approximately 9 million electronic reading devices are in use in the U.S. When holiday purchases are tallied, that number will most certainly go up. While there are many different kinds of e-readers …

Discussion: TeleRead

Julie Bosman / New York Times:
Christmas Gifts May Help E-Books Take Root

Discussion: TeleRead

(Re)Structuring Journalism:

The Molecules of News — We've talked about the atomic unit of news before - what's the basic building block of what we do. For many journalists, it's the story, because in many ways that's what they produce each day, and what they offer to the world as a finished product.

Los Angeles Times:

Why KCET never became a major player in the PBS network — Critics say the station lacked ambition and failed to tap Hollywood resources. Station officials say they were kept down by a network that catered to three powerful East Coast entities. — KCET building on Sunset Blvd. in Los Angeles.

Discussion: New York Times

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

News Corp's Christmas Day Strategy: Catch iPad Gift Recipients — With News Corp.'s belief in the tablet opportunity ongoing, its UK newspapers tried snagging what it expected would be an army of new iPad owners on Christmas Day. — The Times and The Sun each said they were using iPad …

Discussion: TeleRead

Arthur S. Brisbane / New York Times:

Glimpses of Online Journalism, From Inside and Out — Views from readers, responses from the staff and thoughts from Arthur S. Brisbane, the public editor. — • — I am writing to ask why The Times ran a picture of former President Bill Clinton on the front page on Saturday …

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:

Is Quora the biggest blogging innovation in 10 years? — I've now been blogging for 10 years. Looking back we haven't seen all that much innovation for bloggers. You have a box. You type in it. Put an image into it. And hit publish. That's much the same as the tools I had 10 years ago.

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

UWall.Tv Turns YouTube Into Your Own MTV — Frustrated with how difficult it is to search YouTube for music videos, Argentinian web developer and Taggify.net co-founder Sebastian Vaggi has created UWall.tv. UWall.tv allows you to search YouTube by artist, song or by music category like Vevo …

(Re)Structuring Journalism:

It's Not Me, It's You — In the middle of reading Cognitive Surplus, Clay Shirky's smart look at the blurring of lines between professional and amateur in a world of new opportunities for people to organize and participate. It's well-written, with enough real-world examples to move the book along briskly, and I highly recommend it.

MediaShift:

iPads, Print-on-Demand Slowly Transform Magazines in 2010 — This revolution is going to take its time. — It's been a year of high expectations but little fulfillment for those who thought 2010 might forever change the way we read magazines. We've seen that disappointing uses of new tools …

Discussion: TeleRead and chrisbrogan.com

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.

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Forbes editor leaving for PR — Melanie Wells, a Forbes Media executive editor who covered marketing and advertising, is leaving the magazine to become a managing director and chief content officer of a public relations firm. — Wells will join DiGennaro Communications on Jan. 10.