Mediagazer: Google News is “The Most Efficient System” (Lauren Kirchner/CJR)

5:40 PM ET, January 21, 2011

Top News:

Google search and search engine spam — January brought a spate of stories about Google's search quality. Reading through some of these recent articles, you might ask whether our search quality has gotten worse. The short answer is that according to the evaluation metrics that we've refined …

Discussion: Mixed Media, TechCrunch, SAI, Search Engine Land, WebNewser, GigaOM, Fortune, Trends in the Living Networks, Neowin.net, Technologizer, broadstuff, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, The Atlantic Online, @jayrosen_nyu, Digits, FT tech hub and 901am, more at Techmeme »

Tom Krazit / CNET News:

Google ready for action against content farms — Google is ready to fire a shot across the bow of the so-called content farms, willing to acknowledge recent criticism of the quality of its search results but still not quite ready to detail specific remedies.

Discussion: New York Magazine, paidContent and New York Observer

Joe Coscarelli / Runnin' Scared:

Nick Summers Out at New York Observer, Returning to Newsweek For Tina Brown — Just one big, local item on this slushy Friday for the reincarnated Press Clips column: New York Observer media reporter Nick Summers, on the job less than three months after the departure of John Koblin …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, @mlcalderone, The Awl, On Media's Blog and The Wire

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Seeking “Influence,” Bloomberg Beats, AOL, CNN, MSN, Forbes, Reuters, CNBC in Site Traffic — Bloomberg, which had long offered a small amount of the company's deep proprietary content online, keeping most content on its professional trading terminal, is now a popular business and finance site …

Discussion: WebNewser

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Bloomberg's New D.C. Operation Gets Showcase — Insert in Businessweek debuts Friday — Bloomberg LP has big plans for BGOV, the government reporting arm it quietly started last year in an effort to compete with established Beltway players. Now the extent of those plans is becoming a little clearer.

New York Post:

Newsmax Media finds its Coz — Former American Media Ed itorial Director Steve Coz has landed at the fast-growing Newsmax Media as editorial director. — The company, which lost out in the bidding for Newsweek last year in part because of its conservative leanings, is among the few media companies …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, New York Observer, Mediaite, Poynter, FishbowlNY and On Media's Blog

Matt Wells / Guardian:

Andy Coulson resigns over phone-hack claims — Andy Coulson, David Cameron's director of communications, has quit in the wake of the latest phone-hacking revelations. — Read a summary of events so far — 3.38pm: While you've been busy reading this live blog, my colleagues have been hard at work on background pieces.

Discussion: Media Week, Press Gazette, BBC, New York Times, Journalism.co.uk, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Guardian, Guardian, openDemocracy, The Lede, New York Magazine, The Wire, Yahoo! News and Gawker

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian: Rupert Murdoch set to arrive in UK with News Corp mired in crisis

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“There's a lot of pressure to play for the short term”: The Bay Citizen's editor on its $15 million future — Seven months into its bid to reinvent the metro newspaper, The Bay Citizen has built a staff of nearly 30 people, built a strong traffic base (200,000 uniques in November) …

Amy Gahran / Knight Digital Media Center All-Site Feed:

How missing links hurt online news, part 1 — For nearly 15 years, the internet has been popular with the general public. So it amazes me that so many online news stories still routinely lack the kind of links that online and mobile users find helpful—and that also enhance the transparency, credibility, and shareability of news.

Discussion: newsplexer

Casey Ross / Boston Globe:

Taylors back local bid to buy Globe — Former executives offer funds, advice — A Wellesley businessman who wants to buy The Boston Globe has gained financial backing from two members of the Taylor family, which owned and published the newspaper for generations.

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker and Media Nation

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

This Article Explains “This Article Is A Must Read.” — Many of you have asked for a post revealing the story behind this post. (Warning: Don't click if you're easily angered. And please don't read any further if you hate inside baseball stories). — This morning Mike wrote something called …

Discussion: AdAge

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

Google News is “The Most Efficient System” — Krishna Bharat on how Google helps journalists stay focused — On Wednesday, Google News product manager Krishna Bharat spoke to Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism students about how Google News can help journalists to do what they do best …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Are Harper's Directors on Board with Publisher's Feuds? — Eric Foner. Image via Wikipedia — Harper's publisher John “Rick” MacArthur may want to check with his board next time he's about to pick a public fight to see if they have his back. MacArthur is currently at odds with his staff …

Daniel Bachhuber / Daniel Bachhuber's weblog:

Universities as hubs of journalistic activity — In the first Carnival of Journalism of the new year, David Cohn asks: How do we increase the role of higher education as hubs of journalistic activity? — First, the why. Educational institutions often have long-standing ties to a local community …

Discussion: Dr.Rosenberry's.Page and Future of Journalism

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Backstage at the Onion's New TV Show — One day, maybe not that far off, we won't distinguish between video we watch on the Web and the stuff we see on TV. But for now, TV is still the big leagues-the place you go if you want the biggest stage, and the most money.

Discussion: Time, AintItCool and New York Times

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

How Radio Vets Rebooted As Podcast Pioneers — Ustream is betting on Adam Carolla to be the live-video streaming service's first pay-per-view partnership. Lucky for them there's another act coming out of Los Angeles radio that is already proving there's a viable subscription business to be had online.

Discussion: LA Observed and Future of Journalism