Mediagazer: News Corp's Christmas Day Strategy: Catch iPad Gift Recipients (Robert Andrews/paidContent)

11:10 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: Poynter, New York Observer, The Wire, Company Town, The New Yorker Blog and Media Myth Alert

Jon Kalish / New York Times:

Talking Tech and Building an Empire From Podcasts — Balancing on a giant rubber ball in a broadcast studio and control room carved out of a cottage in Petaluma, Calif., Leo Laporte is an unlikely media mogul. — From that little town in California wine country, he runs his empire, a podcasting network, TWIT.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

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

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

(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.

Discussion: NYConvergence.com

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

Wall Street Journal:

While on Cellphone, a Rival's Ad — Mobile-phone companies are experimenting with a new way to steal their rivals' customers: the mobile insult to the device in hand. — Their new tactic involves mobile ads that appear when a person using a competitor's phone or network launches an application or browses the Web on their phone.

Benjamin Wallace-Wells / New York Magazine:

Peretz in Exile — For decades, Martin Peretz taught at Harvard and presided over The New Republic—a fierce, if controversial, lion among American intellectuals and Zionists. Now, having been labeled a bigot, taunted at his alma mater, and stripped of his magazine, he has found peace in a place where there is little: Israel.

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.

Discussion: SAI

(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.

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 …

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

“Incredible Appetite for Financial Journalism” Will Drive Expansion of New York Times Dealbook in 2011 — Despite many well established sources for financial journalism, The New York Times will expand its newly revamped Dealbook property with more data features, video and reporter hires …

Discussion: WebNewser