Mediagazer: AOL Bets on Hyperlocal News, Finding Progress Where Many Have Failed (Verne G. Kopytoff/New York Times)

7:05 PM ET, January 17, 2011

Top News:

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

For Magazines, a Bitter Pill in iPad — The frustration that the country's magazine and newspaper publishers feel toward Apple can sound a lot like a variation on the old relationship gripe, “can't live with 'em, may get left behind without 'em.” — Since Apple introduced the iPad last year …

Discussion: The Business Insider, AppleInsider, 606 Tech Forums, MacRumors, SlashGear, RazorianFly and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, more at Techmeme »

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Media World Awaits The Daily to Forge Model for iPad Content — Macy's, Verizon, Pepsi, Land Rover and Virgin Sponsor News Corp./Apple Project — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In the coming weeks, News Corp. is set to unveil one of its more audacious content bets in recent years: The Daily …

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, everythingiCafe, MacDailyNews and SAI

Edmund Lee / AdAge:
IPad Users Prefer Advertising to Pay Model for Content

Discussion: MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
iPad is Driving 10 Percent of New Digital Subscriptions for the Financial Times

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Apple:

Apple Media Advisory — Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: — Team, — At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:

Leave Steve Alone! — With the Apple founder taking a new medical leave, his alter ego, Dan Lyons, says he's retiring “Fake Steve Jobs” and urges the world to similarly honor the visionary's privacy wish. — I've spent the past few years impersonating Steve Jobs online …

Discussion: The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb and blogs.telegraph.co.uk, more at Techmeme »

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:

AOL Bets on Hyperlocal News, Finding Progress Where Many Have Failed — SAN FRANCISCO — City council meetings, high school football games and store openings may seem like small town news, but they are critical to AOL's revival effort. — Over the last year and a half, AOL …

Discussion: Inman News and BrauBlog

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
New Yorker's Auletta: ‘Much Of What AOL Publishes Is Piffle’

Discussion: New York Observer and New Yorker

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Blog Fight Rules Of Engagement — Blog fights happen. Sometimes for attention, but most of the time because someone is really pissed off about something. And don't count out big media, they jump right in too when they feel it. — No one's ever written down any rules for blog fights that I know of.

Discussion: Joshua Topolsky, Pluggd.in and SAI

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:
2 AOL Tech Blogs Face Off in a War of Insults

Discussion: Talking Biz News, SAI, Stowe Boyd and Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Piers Morgan Sets Himself as Larry King's Opposite — Fifteen minutes into the taping of his interview for “Piers Morgan Tonight,” the radio personality Howard Stern has already talked about his “King of All Media” bluster, his search for approval from his father, and whether he is …

Discussion: Mediaite, Mashable, New York Observer, NPR, Hollywood Reporter, On Media's Blog, Guardian, Yahoo! News, The Wire, Chickaboomer, TVNewser, The Huffington Post and All Things CNN

Thomas Umstead / Multichannel:

Discovery Health Lives On, Combining With FitTV — Network Had Ceded Channel Space To OWN — Discovery Health, thought to be defunct after it was replaced by OWN: The Oprah Winfrey Network on New Year's Day, will live on as part of a joint network collaboration with Discovery's 50 million-subscriber, exercise-themed network FitTV.

Discussion: The Wrap

Nancy Franklin / New Yorker:
OWNING IT Oprah Winfrey's new cable channel.

Discussion: Media Decoder, rbr.com, MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable and Company Town

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Exclusive: Comcast-NBCU Merger Expected to Close Jan. 28 — The Comcast-NBCU merger is poised to go to the FCC for final approval this week, with a final close of the deal to create a new cable and programming giant planned for Jan. 28, TheWrap has learned.

Discussion: Company Town, Gawker, rbr.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel and TVWeek.com

James Robinson / Guardian:

News of the World ‘rogue reporter’ defence unravels — Glenn Mulcaire tells high court that News of the World's head of news asked him to hack voicemail messages — News Corporation's defence that phone hacking at the News of the World was the work of a single “rogue reporter” …

Guardian:
News Corp braces for new hacking lawsuits

Discussion: Crikey

Craig Silverman / Regret the Error:

What would a Twitter correction function look like? — I dedicated my most recent Columbia Journalism Review column to the current debate about whether or not a news organization or journalist should delete an incorrect tweet. I also outlined how a Twitter correction function might work:

Reuters:

Why is Seeking Alpha paying its contributors? — Seeking Alpha has finally started paying its contributors — but I'm not convinced that this is a welcome development. — CEO David Jackson announced “three new initiatives” this morning: revenue sharing, a new leaderboard system, and access to statistics.

Discussion: IR Web Report, paidContent, VentureBeat and MediaMemo

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:
Why Two Sites Decided To Start Paying Their Writers

Discussion: Talking Biz News

New York Times:

Ex-Swiss Banker Gives Data to WikiLeaks — LONDON — A former Swiss bank executive said on Monday that he had given the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, details of more than 2,000 prominent individuals and companies that he contends engaged in tax evasion and other possible criminal activity.

Discussion: The Next Web and Guardian, more at Techmeme »

Tarmo Virki / Reuters:

Nokia pulls plug on free music in most markets — (Reuters) - The world's top cellphone maker, Nokia, is ending its bundling of free music downloads with cellphones in 27 countries, where it has gained little traction since its 2008 launch. — Nokia will continue to sell phones …

Discussion: e's PhoneBlog, MediaNama, Techland, Electronista, Pulse2, Gizmodo, paidContent:UK, ReadWriteWeb, Electricpig.co.uk, PhoneArena, Engadget and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

New York Times:

After Tucson, Blanket Accusations Leave Much to Interpretation — FOR every action in politics today, there's an overwhelming and opposite reaction. — Last week, the reaction came from conservative politicians who bridled at suggestions in the media that Jared L. Loughner may have been influenced …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Yahoo! News, Media Research Center and Runnin' Scared

Ashley Parker / New York Times:

Where News Is Power, Aides Fight to Be Well-Armed — WASHINGTON — Bobby Maldonado has the morning routine of a well-trained marathoner. — With the help of three alarm clocks, he gets up at 4 a.m., is showered and out the door in less than an hour, and scans his BlackBerry almost constantly …