Mediagazer: The Rise And Fall Of Content Farms (Eric Enge/Search Engine Land)

8:10 AM ET, February 1, 2011

Top News:

Vadim Lavrusik / Mashable!:

How Journalists Are Using Social Media to Report on the Egyptian Demonstrations — With the Internet still inaccessible for the majority of people in Egypt, much of the international community is relying on journalists with satellite phones for real-time updates on the violent protests calling …

Discussion: The News About The News

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

How Al Jazeera is putting audio updates from Egypt online fast — Just because it may not be easy to get online from Egypt at the moment doesn't mean you can't get timely online updates from correspondents there covering the unrest. Flexible, adaptable content management tools …

Discussion: contentious.com

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

With Egypt in Crisis, Anchors Head to Cairo — As the uprising in Egypt approaches the one-week mark, television networks based in the United States continue to send reporters to the region. Now it appears some of the big network anchors are arriving there, as well.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, On Media's Blog, TVNewser and Yahoo! News

Julie Moos / Poynter:

How Obama, Clinton legitimized Twitter & Facebook as tools of democracy in Egypt — As the American people and U.S. government struggle to understand the uprising in Egypt and how it may transform the Middle East, President Barack Obama and his administration have explicitly requested protections for certain media.

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, MediaFile, The Atlantic Online and Mediaite

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

YouTube Steps Up to Shine Light on Egypt — Video sharing website YouTube has been highlighting video from the protests in Egypt for days, but tonight the official YouTube blog put up a post describing a number of steps it's taking to make sure the world knows what's going on in Cairo …

Discussion: YouTube Blog, more at Techmeme »

Aljazeera:
Al Jazeera camera equipment seized

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Nick Kristof turns to Facebook to report from Egypt

Discussion: Boston Globe, Yahoo! News, Journalism.co.uk, Nicholas D. Kristof, TechCrunch and The Huffington Post

Eric Enge / Search Engine Land:

The Rise And Fall Of Content Farms — With Demand Media having gone public last week, it is worth taking some time to discuss the future of content farms. Clearly, lots of people are seeing value in the business model, as shown by the street's willingness to accept the IPO, and the acquistion of Associated Content by Yahoo! last May.

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Blekko Bans Content Farms Like Demand Media's eHow From Its Search Results — Blekko, the perky little search engine startup that lets you customize your search results, is taking the fight against web spam to a new level. It already allows searchers to mark results as spam and keeps …

Discussion: Search Engine Land

David Card / GigaOM:
Demand Media: Search Spam or the Future of Content?

Discussion: (Re)Structuring Journalism

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Hey iTunes, here comes Google Music, Spotify — Google is getting closer to debuting a music service, according to multiple music industry sources who spoke to CNET on condition of anonymity. — Google Music could launch as soon as next month, wrote Brad Stone of BusinessWeek in a story last week.

Discussion: Guardian and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Alexandra Topping / Guardian:
Music industry struggles to make digital leap of faith

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac, Telegraph and hypebot

Joe Coscarelli / Runnin' Scared:

Gabriel Snyder to The Atlantic Wire: On Growing Up an Aggregator — Gabriel Snyder, who was fired by Nick Denton as the editor-in-chief of Gawker in February 2010, will be joining The Atlantic as the editor of the magazine's Atlantic Wire aggregation website, according to an Observer report today.

Discussion: TechCrunch and Snarkmarket, more at Techmeme »

Nick Summers / New York Observer:
Exclusive: Ex-Gawker Guy Snyder to Head Atlantic Wire, New Manhattan Staff

Discussion: The Wrap, Poynter, @gabrielsnyder, On Media's Blog, Mediaite, Yahoo! News, New York Magazine, @annaholmes and FishbowlNY

Caroline McCarthy / The Social:

Facebook's next big media move: Comments — Facebook is planning to launch a third-party commenting system in a matter of weeks, according to multiple sources familiar with the new product. This new technology could see Facebook as the engine behind the comments system on many high-profile blogs …

Discussion: MediaMemo, Mashable!, eMedia Vitals, TechCrunch, @pkafka, ReadWriteWeb, @pkafka, paidContent, @sjcobrien, SAI, New York Observer and Erictric, more at Techmeme »

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Hearst Leaps to New Level With Deal for Lagardère Magazine Portfolio — Gets Rights to Elle and Outright Ownership of Titles Including Woman's Day, Car and Driver in 15 Countries — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Hearst has reached a deal to buy 102 magazines and the right to publish Elle in 15 countries …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment and Publishing Executive News

Eric Pfanner / DealBook:
Hearst to Buy Lagardere's Magazine Unit for $889 Million

Discussion: The Wrap, The Fix, Media News International, MinOnline, Press Gazette, Folio, DealBook, Gawker and Reuters

Guardian:

Lionel Barber's Hugh Cudlipp lecture: the full text — Speech by the Financial Times editor at London College of Communication — The Business of Journalism: a View from the Frontline — Thank you Lady Cudlipp, trustees, and students of the London College of Communication for inviting me here tonight ...

Discussion: Press Gazette, paidContent, Future of Journalism and Talking Biz News

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Rendell, Bissinger added as Philly Daily News columnists — The owners of Philly's dailies announced today: — * The Inquirer's A section will have more local and original content; — * Buzz Bissinger will serve as Daily News editorial advisor and occasional guest columnist;

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Washington Post ombudsman departs (The Cutline) — Andy Alexander, who recently wrote his last column as the Washington Post's ombudsman, thanked staff Monday as he wrapped up a two-year term in the position of reader's representative. — “When I was being recruited for the job several years ago …

Discussion: On Media's Blog

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Center for Public Integrity, NewsBeast sign content deal — Romenesko Misc. — Under the agreement, Newsweek/Daily Beast will pay the Center for Public Integrity for exclusive stories. It's the Center's first pay-for-content deal in more than two decades, says a release.

Discussion: Editors Weblog, @mathewi and @jayrosen_nyu

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:
NewsBeast and CPI: A mutualization made in heaven

Discussion: WebNewser

Kat Aaron / PBS:

News Organizations Should Stop Being Neutral on Net Neutrality — Many news organizations have a love-hate relationship with the Internet. While the abundance of free, online news has helped wreak havoc on the industry, the Internet itself has created incredible possibilities for news outlets …

Felix Salmon:

Paywalls and cannibalization — I'm surprised, but pleased, to see this coming from FT editor Lionel Barber, in his Hugh Cudlipp lecture today: … This is the first time that I've seen an advocate of online paywalls admit that they don't boost offline subscriptions, and that newspapers …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Business Wire:

AOL Elects Alberto Ibargüen to Board of Directors — Media and Internet Executive Brings Over 30 Years Experience to AOL — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)—AOL Inc. (NYSE:AOL) today announced that Alberto Ibargüen has been elected to its Board of Directors.

Discussion: SAI

Elizabeth Jensen / Media Decoder:

PBS Show's Future in Doubt — When the PBS newsmagazine “Need to Know” started last May it had big shoes to fill, replacing “Bill Moyers Journal” and “Now on PBS.” But even as angry e-mails from disappointed viewers have subsided, the producers acknowledge that the show remains a work in progress …

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser and Free Press

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Newsweek and Daily Beast Hire Two More — Tina Brown's Newsweek-Daily Beast hybrid continues to add to its roster of writers as it prepares to start a completely reconfigured magazine this year. — Wayne Barrett, a former Village Voice investigative reporter, and Peter J. Boyer …

Discussion: Poynter, WWD Media Headlines, The Daily Beast, NetNewsCheck Latest, LA Observed, Yahoo! News, MediaPost, FishbowlNY, On Media's Blog, New York Magazine and Gawker

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Independent's i ‘has hit 170,000 sales’ — Publisher says circulation of cut-price daily is ‘continuing to climb’ as multimillion-pound campaign kicks in — Circulation of the Independent's 20p spin-off i hit an average of more than 170,000 a day last week, according to the first sales figures revealed by the publisher.

Gavin O'Malley / MediaPost:

AOL, Burnett To Produce CliffsNotes Shorts — We'll try to keep this short. AOL and TV producer Mark Burnett have entered into a production agreement to co-develop a series of comedic video shorts based on CliffsNotes Literature Guides. — Together with Coalition Films …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Niel / Explainer.Net:

Explain yourself: George Lakoff, cognitive linguist — As part of our research on explanatory journalism, we're interviewing experts in fields outside journalism about their approaches to explaining complex systems to non-specialtists. — Our first expert is cognitive linguist George Lakoff …