Mediagazer: Exclusive: Comcast-NBCU Merger Expected to Close Jan. 28 (Sharon Waxman/The Wrap)

5:20 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: SlashGear, The Business Insider, AppleInsider, MacRumors, 606 Tech Forums, 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: everythingiCafe, 9 to 5 Mac, Electronista, MacDailyNews and SAI, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: MediaPost

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, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, TechCrunch and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

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 — SAN FRANCISCO — Anyone who expected Michael Arrington, the pugnacious founder of the technology blog TechCrunch, to mellow after his site was acquired by AOL last year was wrong. In fact, the acquisition provided a new target for his frequent …

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, On Media's Blog, NPR, Hollywood Reporter, Guardian, New York Observer, The Wire, Yahoo! News, Chickaboomer, TVNewser and The Huffington Post

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’ — In a scene from Casino Jack, when a partner complains about a negative story in Newsweek, Kevin Spacey as Jack Abramoff has that week's Time ready with a different take. The Jan. 24 issue of The New Yorker is a bit …

Discussion: New Yorker and New York Observer

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

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

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, Pulse2, Electronista, Gizmodo, paidContent:UK, ReadWriteWeb, Electricpig.co.uk, PhoneArena, Engadget and Mashable, more at Techmeme »

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:

Nancy Franklin / New Yorker:

OWNING IT Oprah Winfrey's new cable channel. — Who is Oprah Winfrey and what does she want? What does she want that she doesn't already have? And what does she want for us that we don't already have? None of these questions are new, but, with Winfrey having embarked on an extraordinary venture …

Discussion: Multichannel, rbr.com, MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable, Company Town and The Wrap

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

David Carr / New York Times:

Publishing, Without Publishers — In the not-so-distant past, a luxury brand like Richemont, the Swiss company that owns Piaget, Dunhill and Montblanc, would have killed for even the slightest attention from Jeremy Langmead, the editor of British Esquire. — Now, he works for them, building a menswear e-commerce site.

Discussion: Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com

Paul Carr / TechCrunch:

The Boy With The Unsold U.S. Rights: Ideas for Disrupting a Publishing Pain Point — On the face of things, I don't have a huge amount in common with Stieg Larsson. For a start I'm not Swedish; and I'm not dead. Also, in the time it took you to read those last two sentences …

Discussion: TeleRead

Peter Sciretta / /Film:

2011 Golden Globe Award Winners — Here is a full listing of award winners from the 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards. Please feel free to leave your thoughts below. — Winners: — Best Motion Picture - Drama — The Social Network — Black Swan — The Fighter — Inception