Mediagazer: The Web Is a Customer Service Medium (Paul Ford/Ftrain.com)

12:40 PM ET, January 7, 2011

Top News:

Paul Ford / Ftrain.com:

The Web Is a Customer Service Medium — I look forward to your feedback. — I sometimes chat with people in the book- and magazine-publishing industries. They complain to me about the web. They worry about what is being lost. They can sound like this bookseller in Buffalo, New York:

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

Newspaper removes ‘homeless voice’ YouTube clip — The YouTube video of the homeless man with the golden voice has to be one of the biggest social media hits in local media history. Earlier this week, a Columbus Dispatch videographer saw a homeless man holding a sign that promised a …

Discussion: Poynter, The Huffington Post, msnbc.com, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog and newsfeed.time.com

Jim Rainey / The Big Picture:

Ellen Weiss' first comments on her NPR resignation — Ellen Weiss called her decision to step down Thursday as the top news executive at National Public Radio “extremely hard” but declined to criticize NPR or back away from her decision to fire Juan Williams, the action that led to her downfall.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, NPR, Speakeasy, Media Matters for America, Mediaite, Poynter, NewsBusters.org blogs and Gawker

Mark Memmott / NPR:
Review Of Juan Williams' Firing Done; NPR News Exec Resigns

Rob Wong / Hulu Blog:

Hulu Plus Coming Soon to Android Mobile Phones, Live on Vizio HDTVs — Since we launched Hulu Plus, it's been our goal to continue to add more platforms and devices to the subscription service to offer you as many ways as possible to stream the shows you want, whenever you want.

Discussion: GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb, PC Magazine, Fast Company, The Next Web, paidContent, SlashGear and Android Community, more at Techmeme »

Emily Bell / Guardian:

Views-led news sparks identity crisis — From Oprah Winfrey to Glenn Beck, left and right are exploiting opinionated output - and now Piers Morgan enters the fray — There has always been a market for opinionated performance in the US that goes beyond what the temperate would describe as rational.

Discussion: TVNewser

Brian Stelter / Gadgetwise:

In Its First Deal With a Network, Boxee to Sell CBS Content — LAS VEGAS — In a step forward for television episode sales, Boxee said Thursday that CBS would allow it to begin selling episodes through its software platform later in the year. — The arrangement, announced …

Discussion: Engadget, NYConvergence.com and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Joe Mullin / paidContent:

The ‘Lost’ Paradox: Why Some Free Shows On The Web Are So Heavily Pirated — Earlier this week, the popular BitTorrent news blog TorrentFreak published a list of the most pirated TV shows of 2010. The No. 1 most-pirated show—that would be ABC's Lost, which was illegally downloaded nearly six million times …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

IMG Sells The Daily to Founder; Name Dispute Still Unresolved — Whatever Rupert Murdoch decides to call the fancy new iPad-only news product he's launching in a few weeks, it's no longer IMG's problem. The talent agency and media conglomerate has agreed to sell The Daily …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, PAPERMAG, The Fix and Fashionista

Matt Kinsman / Folio:

The Atlantic Posts Profit for First Time In Years — Claims double digit increases in digital, events and print. — The Atlantic says it turned its first profit in decades in the fourth quarter of 2010, driven by double-digit revenue increases year-over-year in digital (up 70 percent) …

Discussion: New York Observer and The Wrap

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

Breaking: Bill O'Reilly To Sit Down With Barack Obama In Pre-Super Bowl Interview — Sources tell Mediaite that Bill O'Reilly has landed an exclusive pre-game interview with President Barack Obama scheduled to air on the Fox Broadcasting Channel before the Super Bowl.

Discussion: The Politico, The Huffington Post, Gawker, On Media's Blog, Inside Cable News, Yahoo! News, The Daily Caller, The Wrap, The Wire, Media Decoder and Politics Daily

James Poniewozik / Tuned In:

The Case Against Chasing Scoops — William M. Daley is reportedly going to become the next White House chief of staff. I know that because I just read the report in the New York Times, and have seen “BREAKING” announcements from various outlets on Twitter, and have seen numerous reports to that effect for the last few days.

Discussion: The Caucus, Vanity Fair, TVNewser and Online NewsHour

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Village Voice says writer fabricated characters for for-profit colleges story — Voice editor Tony Ortega says freelancer and Columbia journalism student Rob Sgobbo made up a character, “Tamicka Bourges,” who claimed she'd amassed a large debt at Berkeley College without obtaining a degree.

Discussion: New York Observer, Gawker, mediabistro.com, Mediaite and Regret the Error

Media Decoder:

Barnes & Noble Up, Borders Down — Unlike its struggling rival Borders, Barnes & Noble, the nation's largest book chain, said on Thursday that it finished the holiday season with stronger sales than expected, reporting its highest comparable store sales increase since 1997.

Discussion: theBookseller.com

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

Many Huffington Post Readers Hate Site's New Facebook-Powered Recommendation Engine — The giant online publisher and aggregator Huffington Post began experimenting with a new content recommendation engine today, powered by Facebook and built by AdaptiveSemantics, the startup the company acquired last June.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Poynter

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Helen Thomas returns to journalism — After a seven-month retirement, Helen Thomas has a new journalism gig: columnist for the Falls Church News-Press in Virginia, as the ARLnow blog in Arlington, Va., reports. — The 90-year-old retired from Hearst newspapers in June after a media uproar …

Discussion: FCNP, Poynter, Chickaboomer and The Wrap

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Will Hollywood's ‘UltraViolet’ plan replace the DVD? — A group of stakeholders in the entertainment industry are poised to make a important sales pitch to consumers concerning the way they buy and watch movies and TV shows. — Warner Bros. Entertainment, Netflix, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard …

Discussion: paidContent, PR Newswire, WebNewser, The Wrap and Online Video News