Mediagazer: Our Critics Will Not Be With Us Forever (James McAuley/The Awl)

1:20 PM ET, January 28, 2011

Top News:

Seizing a Moment, Al Jazeera Galvanizes Arab Frustration — By ROBERT F. WORTH and DAVID D. KIRKPATRICK — The protests rocking the Arab world this week have one thread uniting them: Al Jazeera, the Qatar-based satellite channel whose aggressive coverage has helped propel insurgent emotions from one capital to the next.

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

NYT interviews Egyptian blogger via Skype — It looks like much of Egypt is without internet access at this hour, but earlier the NY Times interviewed Gigi Ibrahim (@Gsquare86), an Egyptian blogger and activist, who's been sending out a steady stream of tweets from Cairo. And they did it via Skype:

Discussion: The Lede and NYConvergence.com

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

New York Times, ProPublica explain how e-books help monetize old news, grow audience — New e-books from The New York Times and ProPublica highlight the potential for journalists to find new audiences, and possibly new revenue, for long-form reporting. — The two e-books launched this week …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Epicenter and bookforum.com

Brett Pulley / Bloomberg:

New York Times Fixes Paywall Glitches to Balance Free vs Paid — New York Times Co. has been working to fix about 200 glitches in the technology for charging online readers of its namesake newspaper, just weeks before the project is scheduled to debut, said a person familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Poynter, Yahoo! News, Talking Biz News and Cision

Brad Stone / Business Week:

Larry Page's Google 3.0 — The company co-founder and his star deputies are trying to root out bureaucracy and rediscover the nimble moves of youth — Every Monday afternoon at the Googleplex in Mountain View, Calif., more than a dozen of Google's (GOOG) top executives gather in the company's boardroom.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Fortune, Engadget, Search Engine Land, broadstuff, GigaOM, Gizmodo Australia, TiPb, New York Magazine, Electronista and 9 to 5 Mac

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Is Demand Media Doing Enough to Prevent Plagiarism? — My post from yesterday on the staggering dumbness of so much of the how-to content produced by Demand Media generated a lot of response, much of it positive, but some from readers who thought I was unfair.

Discussion: AdAge, MediaMemo, Plagiarism Blog and News, The Informer, B2B Memes, The Social and paidContent, more at Techmeme »

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:
The New York Times, Demand Media Edition

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Poynter, TechCrunch and Future of Journalism

Felix Gillette / Business Week:
Demand Media's Planet of the Algorithms

Discussion: virtualeconomics, paidContent:UK, Folio, SAI and Poynter

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Zucker-Katie redux — Former NBC Universal CEO Jeff Zucker, expected to set up shop Monday on Park Avenue, is already lining up his next gig — he's talking about starting a syndicated talk show featuring CBS News anchor Katie Couric, according to three separate sources.

Discussion: rbr.com, Company Town, New York Magazine and Chickaboomer

Keach Hagey / On Media's Blog:

NBC News's Mark Whitaker to CNN — Another big post-Comcast shakeup at NBC News. Mark Whitaker, the Washington bureau chief, is out. — Here's the memo from NBC News President Steve Capus: … UPDATE: He's been named managing editor of CNN Worldwide.

Discussion: Poynter, Media Decoder, The Wrap, Broadcasting & Cable and TVNewser

Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:

Will Olbermann replace Parker-Spitzer? — Commentary: CNN may decide to re-recruit Olbermann — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Keith Olbermann, who on Jan. 21 exited his “Countdown” show on MSNBC without warning, needs a job. — And CNN needs a spark at the 8 p.m. hour. — So, is it a matter of supply and demand?

Greg Sterling / Search Engine Land:

Google Testing Display Ads In Gmail — Google appears to be testing display ads in Gmail. I discovered the following image ad in my own Gmail account this morning, and Google has since confirmed a test. — Image ads have made their way into paid search on Google.com and various other properties on Google.

Discussion: Computerworld, AdExchanger.com, MediaMemo, Bits, Nieman Journalism Lab, Erictric, The Next Web and The Atlantic Online

Media Week:

Thousands downloading the i app, says digital exec — The iPad app for the new national newspaper i is introducing new features says Zach Leonard, the digital executive overseeing the project, adding that “thousands” of customers have downloaded it since launch. — New features: the iPad app for the i newspaper

James McAuley / The Awl:

Our Critics Will Not Be With Us Forever — “The age of evaluation, of the Olympian critic as cultural arbiter, is over,” wrote Stephen Burn recently in the New York Times Book Review. The sun may be setting on the “Olympian” stature the critic formerly enjoyed, while the age of everyman-as-critic is on the rise.

Joseph Berger / New York Times:

Near City's Old Newspaper Row, the Media Are Returning — In the late 19th century, a cluster of buildings along or near Park Row, close to those busy news engines, City Hall and the city's courts, housed almost every daily newspaper in town — The Herald, The Sun, The Tribune, The World, The Journal and The Times.

Sharon Feder / Mashable!:

Introducing Mashable's First San Francisco Bureau Chief: Chris Taylor — We are thrilled to announce that Chris Taylor, formerly of FastCompany.com, will be joining Mashable as our first-ever San Francisco bureau chief. — As bureau chief, Taylor will manage Mashable's San Francisco team and oversee our reporting there.

Discussion: Cision

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Guild, Newsweek pact clears way for Daily Beast merger — Romenesko Misc. — Under the agreement, non-supervisory editorial employees who produce the Daily Beast will be covered by the same contract that now covers many of Newsweek's journalists. — The Newspaper Guild of New York today announced …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

The Fix:

White House picks Jay Carney as new press secretary — President Obama has chosen Jay Carney to serve as his new press secretary, replacing longtime loyalist Robert Gibbs who is leaving his post in mid February, according to a senior Administration official.