Mediagazer: There may be a January surprise bidder for Elle (New York Post)

12:25 PM ET, December 29, 2010

Top News:

Memo Pad: iPad Magazine Sales Drop — Remember when Wired's debut issue for the iPad sold more than 100,000 times in June? It looks like it will be a while before that type of performance is seen again. Digital sales dropped toward the end of 2010 for all the magazines that make those figures available …

Discussion: Zombie Journalism, Yahoo! News, Choire Sicha, ReadWriteWeb, Poynter, TechEye, Electronista, eMedia Vitals, New York Magazine and Strange Attractor

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

The Good, Bad and Ugly of Media iPad Apps — I know that year-end “best of” lists are everywhere this week and the next, but since I've been downloading and trying out almost every media-related iPad app I can get my hands on since the tablet was first released, I thought the end of 2010 …

Threat Level:

Putting the Record Straight on the Lamo-Manning Chat Logs — Editor's note: This is a two-part article, in which Wired.com editor-in-chief Evan Hansen and senior editor Kevin Poulsen respond separately to criticisms of the site's WikiLeaks coverage. — The Case for Privacy

Discussion: Salon, The Nation, Scripting News, mediabistro.com, p2pnet, TechEye, GMSV, Boing Boing, WL Central and Firedoglake

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Response to Wired's accusations — As noted above, the principal tactic of Wired.com Editor-in-Chief Evan Hansen and Senior Editor Kevin Poulsen in responding to my criticisms is to hurl a variety of accusations at me as a means of distracting attention from the issue that matters.

Floyd Abrams / Wall Street Journal:

Why WikiLeaks Is Unlike the Pentagon Papers — Everyone knows that Daniel Ellsberg leaked top-secret government documents about the Vietnam War. How many remember the ones he kept secret, or why? — In 1971, Daniel Ellsberg decided to make available to the New York Times …

Discussion: Poynter

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Sinclair and Time Warner in Fight Over Fees — The new year seemingly can't come without a fight over the fees paid for television programming. — Last year there was an end-of-the-year dispute between Time Warner Cable and News Corporation. This year Time Warner Cable is fighting again …

Discussion: TVWeek.com and Wall Street Journal

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Q: What Does Quora Mean For The Future Of Blogging? A: Business As Usual — As many of you have noticed, we (and by “we”, I mainly mean “me") have been using Quora a lot as a source of inspiration for story ideas. Some people seem to think this is a great idea.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

Mac Slocum / O'Reilly Radar:

What lies ahead: Publishing — Tim O'Reilly recently offered his thoughts and predictions for a variety of topics we cover regularly on Radar. I'll be posting highlights from our conversation throughout the week. — Mac — How will ebooks change publishing?

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Sears, Kmart launch Alphaline Entertainment movie download service — After Wal-mart, Best Buy and Amazon jumped on the digital delivery bandwagon it's clearly evident that just offering discs for sale isn't enough, and right on schedule Sears and Kmart are launching Alphaline Entertainment …

Discussion: MediaPost, The Consumerist, Wall Street Journal, WatchingTV Online and Inside Movies

Amy Gahran / Knight Digital Media Center:

“Show me the document!” should be the newsroom rule — On Dec. 20, the FCC passed its Open Internet Order—a high-profile rulemaking that tackles the highly controversial issue of net neutrality. The day before this vote, I began researching my mobile blog post for CNN.com about the rule.

New York Post:

There may be a January surprise bidder for Elle — There may be a sleeper in the hunt for Elle, Woman's Day and other magazines that Paris-based Lagardére Group is auctioning off to the highest bidder as it divests all of its magazines outside of France.

Steve Smith / minonline.com:

Guns & Ammo Targets New Mobile Revenue Model — When it comes to mobilizing their brands, magazines have had their hands full in recent years just getting editorial onto phones and tablets. Few publishers have even ventured into one of the most lucrative and popular mobile genres—gaming.