Mediagazer: Exclusive: The New York Times iPad App Nearing 1.5 Million Downloads (Andy Plesser/Beet.TV)

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

How Media Will Relate to Facebook in the Future — All media will be personalized in three to five years, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg said in September. One of the ways that's likely to happen everywhere just appeared on the UK Independent. — The site announced last night that it now offers granular subscriptions by Facebook.

Discussion: blogs.independent.co.uk, Poynter and Editors Weblog

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

The Independent's Facebook innovation — The Independent newspaper has introduced 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 …

Discussion: Future of Media

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

The first look at The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's iPad newspaper — An official introduction to The Daily, Rupert Murdoch's new iPad newspaper, is expected on Jan. 19, possibly at an event with Apple's Steve Jobs. — But peeking inside the source code of its recently-launched companion website …

Discussion: New York Observer, FishbowlNY, Yahoo! News, Flavorwire and The Huffington Post

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: Yahoo! News, CNNMoney Tech Tumblr, NBC Bay Area, Darren Herman and TechCrunch

Discussion: SAI

Read It Later Blog:

Is Mobile Affecting When We Read? — Printed media used to allow us to read in the places we found most comfortable. When you imagine yourself reading the newspaper it's probably in your favorite chair, at the breakfast table, or at the cafe with an orange mocha frappuccino in your hand.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Media Decoder, TeleRead, eMedia Vitals, paidContent, Yahoo! News, The Next Web and Poynter, more at Techmeme »

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: Softpedia News, PC World, Electricpig.co.uk, eMedia Vitals, SlashGear, ReadWriteWeb and eBookNewser, more at Techmeme »

Nick Summers / New York Observer:

Heffernan Out at New York Times Magazine — Slowly but surely, Hugo Lindgren is making The New York Times Magazine his own. And just as important as the big names he's bringing into the building are the voices he's letting go. — In December, the magazine's deputy editor, Alex Star …

Stuart Elliott / New York Times:

2 New Publishers Named at Condé Nast — Every January, speculation sweeps the halls of the Condé Nast Building that a “January surprise” is in the works, with major changes coming at the Condé Nast Publications magazines. — On Thursday, changes were made …

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: MediaFile, Yahoo! News, Poynter, FishbowlNY, mediabistro.com and WebNewser

Discussion: Folio and Poynter

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Exclusive: Google, Weinstein Co. Strike Film Deal — Given the pressure Google (NSDQ: GOOG) is under to land premium content deals for YouTube, you would think they would shout from the rooftops about securing its largest top-shelf film haul yet, from Weinstein Co. But a closer inspection reveals …

Peter Daboll / AdAge:

Celebrities in Advertising Are Almost Always a Big Waste of Money — Study Finds That Big Names Don't Pay Big Dividends — As the most significant event in advertising grows nearer, it will be interesting to see how many brands enlist the endorsement services of celebrities during the Super Bowl.

Discussion: PAPERMAG, AdScam/The Horror! and Gawker

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Bye-bye, physical media? Sony closes CD plant — Sony Corp., the company that brought us the Walkman and the parent company of music label Sony Music Entertainment, plans to shut down a CD-manufacturing plant in South New Jersey in March. — About 300 employees will be laid off once …

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: paidContent, GigaOM and TechCrunch

/ 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: CNN and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Why Is Mayor Bloomberg Mixing Business and Philanthropy? — Billionaire Michael Bloomberg has a lot on his plate: He's mayor of America's largest city, owner of one of the world's largest and fastest-growing news organizations and patron of a $1.75 billion charitable foundation.

Discussion: Poynter, mediabistro.com, FishbowlNY and Talking Biz News

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, the WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange talks to John Pilger about Bradley Manning, his “insurance” files on Rupert Murdoch and News Corp …

Discussion: New York Magazine, New York Observer, Poynter, AOL News, News: News blog, The First Post, Gawker, Yahoo! News, Runnin' Scared, Press Gazette, The Daily Caller, The Wire and The Huffington Post

Discussion: Future Perfect Publishing, The Staggers, Crikey and News: News blog

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Newsonomics of 2011 news metrics to watch — [Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.] — In the digital business, the old aphorism …

Peter Osnos / The Atlantic Online:

What Went Wrong at Borders — Let me start with an unequivocal declaration: I hope Borders finds the means to avoid bankruptcy, or worse, liquidation. The immediate consequence of a Borders default on what it owes publishers would be a cash short-fall of millions of dollars.

Kirk Cheyfitz / The Huffington Post:

The Next Big Media Battle: Publishers vs. Ad Agencies — The media business has been in chaos for a decade, and there's more coming. The next big media revolution will be an escalating and increasingly bitter competition between the content creators — especially newspaper and magazine publishers …

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Discovery Promotes Three Top Programmers — O'Neill put in charge of Discovery Channel, TLC — In a management restructuring at Discovery Communications, three top programmers are being given additional responsibilities. — Eileen O'Neill, who had led TLC, was named Group President …

Discussion: The Wrap, Media Decoder, Mediaweek, Multichannel and Company Town

Ethan / ...My heart's in Accra:

What if Tunisia had a revolution, but nobody watched? — On December 17, a 26 year old Tunisian man named Mohamed Bouazizi reached the end of his rope. An unemployed university graduate, Bouazizi had become a seller of fruits and vegetables in the southern Tunisian town of Sidi Bouzid.

Discussion: Global Voices in English, ReadWriteWeb and New York Times

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Like Web Video, but With a Budget and People You've Heard of-Kiefer Sutherland Jumps From “24″ to “The Confession” — Remember when Internet video was going to be like TV and movies, only on a smaller screen? During the first tech boom, a lot of folks thought Web video would look …

Andrew Martin / New York Times:

As the Web Turns — Hey, fellas, want to spice things up with your lady? Procter & Gamble, the consumer products giant, has some ideas. — A Web site created by the company for husbands and fathers offers articles with titles like “Conquering Sex Problems.”

Tim Carmody / Snarkmarket:

Multiple intelligences (or Why smart TVs should be more like PCs) — Like Robin, I love the counter-conventional wisdom John Herrman brings to “I Just Want A Dumb TV.” And I really like Frank Chimero's distinction between “steadfast,” long-enduring, simple tools and “hot-swap” components of a system that you can change on the fly.

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

‘Promotion’ Plus ‘Commercial’ Equals ‘Promercial’? — By now, it is common for television viewers to watch a segment of a show in which a brand or product is integrated into the plot. The goal among marketers for such branded entertainment, as it is known, is to replace commercials …

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:

Piers Morgan Debuts on the New York Cocktail Scene With Jabs at O'Reilly, Fox — Last week, new CNN host Piers Morgan e-mailed his old boss Rupert Murdoch, who'd helped him get his start as an editor at the London Sun and then the News of the World. “You made me an editor at 28 and gave …

Discussion: New York Observer, The Huffington Post, Media Decoder, The Awl, WWD, Mediaite, Gretawire, Inside Cable News and FishbowlDC