Mediagazer: Conan Talks About Ratings, Leno and NBC (Bill Carter/Media Decoder)

3:08 AM ET, January 13, 2011

Top News:

Duncan Robinson / The Staggers:

Exclusive Interview: Julian Assange on Murdoch, Manning and the threat from China — The WikiLeaks founder talks to John Pilger. — In this week's New Statesman, WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks to John Pilger about Bradley Manning, his “insurance” files on Rupert Murdoch and Newscorp …

Discussion: Gawker, Yahoo! News, The Daily Caller, Press Gazette, Runnin' Scared, News: News blog, The Wire and The Huffington Post

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

WikiLeaks: Julian Assange has Rupert Murdoch ‘insurance files’ — Founder claims WikiLeaks has more than 500 US diplomatic cables on one broadcasting organisation — Julian Assange, the founder of WikiLeaks, claimed today he was in possession of “insurance” files on Rupert Murdoch and his global media company, News Corporation.

Discussion: Media News International

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Correction on My Darrell Issa Story — I'd like to set the record straight on one of my stories. — In late November, I asked Rep. Darrell Issa's spokesman, Kurt Bardella, for an interview with the congressman. He said he would see what he could do. — That afternoon my phone rang …

Discussion: On Media's Blog, TPM LiveWire, Poynter, Salon and The Huffington Post

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Why Did Howard Kurtz Sit on an Embarrassing Correction for Six Weeks?

Discussion: FishbowlDC, The Huffington Post and Chickaboomer

C.W. Anderson / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“Blood libel”: How language evolves and spreads within online worlds — When Sarah Palin used the term “blood libel” to describe purported attacks on her and the Tea Party movement in the wake of Saturday's tragic shooting in Tucson, some were left wondering why the former governor would use …

Discussion: National Review, Poynter, Mediaite, Human Events, The Caucus, The Wire, Guardian, AOL News and Media Matters for America

Garance Franke-Ruta / The Atlantic Online:
Sarah Palin Accuses Press of ‘Blood Libel’

Discussion: PostPartisan, Taegan Goddard's …, The Plum Line, Gawker, TPMMuckraker, TPMDC, Michelle Malkin, On Media's Blog, Washington Post, Swampland, Runnin' Scared, The Daily Caller, NPR Topics, CNN and The Wire

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Conan Talks About Ratings, Leno and NBC — Pasadena, Ca.— Conan O'Brien had a brief message Wednesday about his relocation from NBC to the cable channel TBS: “Everything has worked out great for me.” — To reinforce that point - and perhaps to attempt to pre-empt any analysis from competitors …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Speakeasy, Moraes on TV, The Wrap, Mediaite, The Wire and Flavorwire

Paul Colford / ap.org:

AP and Shepard Fairey announce agreement in Obama poster case — The Associated Press, Shepard Fairey and Mr. Fairey's companies Obey Giant Art, Inc., Obey Giant LLC, and Studio Number One, Inc., have agreed in principle to settle their pending copyright infringement lawsuit over rights in the Obama Hope poster and related merchandise.

Discussion: Associated Press, paidContent, Nieman Journalism Lab, Techdirt, The Wrap, LA Observed, MediaMemo, Threat Level, Runnin' Scared, New York Observer, SAI, TBD All News and Copyrights & Campaigns

/ Paul Kedrosky's Infectious Greed:

Curation is the New Search is the New Curation — In the beginning there was curation, and it was good. People found interesting things on the web, created directories of those things, and then you found what you were looking for inside those curated lists.

Discussion: VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Felix Salmon: Algo-powered curation — Paul Kedrosky has a great little essay today …

Tracy Samantha Schmidt / Chicago Online Marketing:

Social Media Icon: @JayRosen_NYU explains how he tweets — Jay Rosen teaches journalism at NYU and is a leading media critic. He blogs at Press Think and produces a weekly podcast on news and technology called Rebooting The News. He has almost 50,000 followers on Twitter.

Discussion: Poynter

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Google Acquires eBook Technologies — Google has just acquired eBook Technologies, according to a notice that is currently appearing on the company's homepage. — Google confirmed the acquisition, with a spokesperson giving us this statement: … So what exactly is eBook Technologies?

Discussion: SlashGear, ReadWriteWeb and eBookNewser

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

The Independent's Facebook innovation — a fascinating new feature on the site that allows users to follow — articles by individual writers and news about specific football — teams via Facebook. It's one of those ideas so simple you wonder — why no one else appears to have done it before: instead of just

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, blogs.independent.co.uk, Future of Media and Poynter

Kenneth P. Vogel / The Politico:

Jared Loughner's supremacists tie debunked — An Arizona law enforcement agency is backing away from a document it produced in the aftermath of Saturday's shootings in Tucson - and which was leaked to Fox News - that linked the man accused with carrying out the crimes to a white nationalist publication.

Discussion: The Plum Line and Hit & Run

Jay Yarow / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

AOL'S NEW PROBLEM: Mike Arrington — When AOL bought TechCrunch last September, the first question on everyone's lips was, “How long could Mike Arrington possibly last as an AOL employee?” — Yesterday, four months after the deal, we may have begun to learn the answer to that question.

Discussion: TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

ProPublica:

What Do 50 Cent, Carmen Electra & Shaquille O'Neal Have in Common? Touting Penny Stocks — Over the weekend, the popular rapper 50 Cent urged his 3.8 million Twitter followers to buy the stock of a microscopic company in Florida. The penny stock jumped 290 percent on Monday.

Discussion: DealBook, Gawker, Dealbreaker, PopEater, Billboard.com The Feed and New York Observer

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

First Amazon Took Down Booksellers...Are Publishers Next? — It's not that Amazon set out to destroy small book stores. They just offered a better option for a large number of people. Now, Amazon is increasingly offering small features here and there that taken together may start …

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

6 ways journalists can use Quora as a tool for reporting, sharing ideas — Quora, the fast-growing question and answer site, has become increasingly popular among journalists. — In a phone interview, Quora co-founder Adam D'Angelo attributed the site's recent growth to an increase …

Discussion: Metamedia, Editors Weblog and American Journalism Review

The Insider / Digital Music News:

Sorry, You're Still Married to MySpace Music... So what should your next move be with MySpace Music? The following is a guest post from Caren Kelleher, head of business development at Songkick, manager of unsigned band The Lighthouse and the Whaler, and an HBS grad to boot.

Discussion: SAI, MediaMemo and Bloomberg

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

YouTube Brings More Ads To Your Phone, Next To Justin Bieber and Lady GaGa — YouTube on your phone is popular, but until now it hasn't made Google much money. The search giant has only been able to slap ads on the home page of its mobile version, and on search results.

Discussion: TechCrunch and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

MacWorld Publisher IDG Launches Private Advertising Exchange — Tech Giant Set to Prove Publishers Can Launch Ad Exchanges, Too — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — More publishers are looking to claim ownership over digital advertising to combat the growing dominance of Wall Street-like trading desks …

Discussion: AdExchanger.com

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Demand Media Clears SEC and Prices IPO — Demand Media is set to go public, according to an amended filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, with shares priced from $14 to $16 each. — The online publisher could sell up to 8.625 million shares and, if it prices at the top of the range …

Discussion: paidContent, SAI, PE Hub Blog, MediaPost, WebNewser, DealBook and Beet.TV, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

AOL Partners With Reality Show Producer Endemol On Women's Programming — AOL (NYSE: AOL) is adding another production studio to its roster of partners, as it continues to reshape and expand its content. The company has tapped Endemol USA to collaborate on developing new, “reality-based” …

Discussion: The Wrap, MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable and WebNewser

Kevin / Strange Attractor:

Prioritisation: How do news organisations decide what they must do? — Since leaving The Guardian last April and striking out on my own, I joke that I've become an occupational therapist. I've had the chance to speak to journalists, editors and media executives around the world and hear the issues and challenges facing them.

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Exclusive: The New York Times iPad App Nearing 1.5 Million Downloads — LAS VEGAS — The iPad App for the New York Times has had 1.5 million downloads since it launched in April, says Ray Pearce, who heads circulation for the newspaper. — We interviewed him at CES last week.

Discussion: WebNewser