Mediagazer: The meaning of Elizabeth Spiers at The New York Observer (Tom McGeveran/Capital New York)

7:40 PM ET, February 4, 2011

Top News:

2 Detained Reporters Saw Secret Police's Methods Firsthand — CAIRO — We had been detained by Egyptian authorities, handed over to the country's dreaded Mukhabarat, the secret police, and interrogated. They left us all night in a cold room, on hard orange plastic stools, under fluorescent lights.

Discussion: Guardian and Boing Boing

World News:

We've compiled a list of all the journalist who have been in some way threatened, attacked or detained while reporting in Egypt. When you put it all into one list, it is a rather large number in such a short period of time. (UPDATED as of 2/4 - send us more stories if you get them)

Sheila Carapico / Foreign Policy:

What Al Jazeera shows and doesn't show — The wide-angle aerial view from television cameras trained down on Tahrir Square in central Cairo is unprecedented in the history of world revolutions. We all have a ring-side seat. The satellite feed has become part of the story; the video frame is itself a site of contestation.

Discussion: Jillian C. York

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Network Anchors Leave Egypt Amid Crackdown — Two of the most prominent television news anchors covering the protests in Egypt this week, Brian Williams and Katie Couric, have exited the country. — The anchors' departures came on a day of increasing violence and intimidation directed at journalists in Egypt.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, New York Observer, The Wrap, mediabistro.com, Mediaite, Salon, The Wire, Company Town, Yahoo! News, New York Times, Speakeasy, Gawker, Broadcasting & Cable, Chickaboomer, On Media's Blog, Agence France Presse and The Huffington Post

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Cairo attacks continue; reporter dies from earlier shooting — Journalists in Cairo faced assaults, detentions, and threats again today as supporters of President Hosni Mubarak continued their efforts to obstruct news coverage of protests demanding the Egyptian leader's ouster.

Discussion: Associated Press, Guardian, Bloomberg, Yahoo! News, AOL News and Poynter

Alex Weprin / mediabistro.com:
Christiane Amanpour On Her Interview With Egyptian President Mubarak …

Discussion: TVNewser, New York Observer and Yahoo! News

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
Egyptian VP criticizes ‘unfriendly TV stations’

Discussion: Swampland, Poynter and The Daily Dish

New York Observer:

Elizabeth Spiers Taking Over As Editor In Chief of The New York Observer — Elizabeth Spiers is taking over as Editor-in-Chief of The Observer today, overseeing both the print and digital content. — “I am very excited to be working with Elizabeth to further build on the great progress we have made over the past few years.

Discussion: Latest from Crain's …, Speakeasy, The Wrap, @nicknotned, Media Decoder, @behrle, @rafat, @real_kaplan, @maura, @joepompeo, @weareyourfek, @rovzar, @zekeft, @timnyc, @lock, @romenesko, @dvnjr, @caro, @katierosman, @penenberg, FishbowlNY, The Wire, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Gawker and WWD Media Headlines

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

The meaning of Elizabeth Spiers at The New York Observer — So what does everyone think of the news that just broke, that Elizabeth Spiers is to be the editor of The New York Observer? — In some ways there is an inevitability here. From the mists of time, Nick Denton's original manifesto for Gawker:

Joe Coscarelli / Runnin' Scared: Elizabeth Spiers to Replace Kyle Pope as Editor-in-Chief of New York Observer

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post: EXCLUSIVE: New York Observer Editor Out After ‘Tension’ With Top Brass

Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:

Exclusive: Deborah Solomon Out at New York Times Magazine — Deborah Solomon will no longer interview, transcribe, condense and edit the “Questions For” page of The New York Times Magazine in its Hugo Lindgren incarnation. She wrote to The Observer:

Discussion: Gawker, FishbowlNY, Poynter and New York Magazine

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:
‘Ethicist’ Randy Cohen Out at New York Times Magazine

Discussion: @media_ink, @koblin and bookforum.com

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

NBC Fires Guy Who Posted The Bryant Gumbel/Katie Couric ‘What Is Internet’ Video — Like a bunch of sites, we posted about the amusing video that had been posted to YouTube, that showed Katie Couric and Bryant Gumbel, back in 1994, very confused about the internet. The video itself went viral pretty quickly.

Discussion: @robpegoraro, MediaMemo, paidContent, The Wire, The Wrap, Computerworld, Switched, Mediaite, Gizmodo, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Gawker and Chickaboomer, more at Techmeme »

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Magazines' Newsstand Struggles Continue, but Not Without Bright Spots — An Average of 27,000 iPad Edition Sales Helped Wired Improve ‘Newsstand’ 28% — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Rolling Stone increased newsstand sales nearly 19% in the second half of last year as its story on Gen. Stanley McChrystal …

Discussion: Poynter

Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:
Why Did Hearst Let Go of the Magazine Industry's Only Winner?

Discussion: Media & Entertainment

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

DemandAlJazeera: How Al Jazeera is using social media to cover Egypt—and distribute its content in the US — Mark noted in today's This Week in Review that “the organization that has shined the brightest over the past 10 days is unquestionably Al Jazeera.”

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel, Mashable!, Media Matters for America, Lost Remote, BlogPost, ReadWriteWeb and MediaShift

Christopher Heine / ClickZ:
Al Jazeera Aims to Harness Twitter Momentum

Discussion: The Huffington Post and ReadWriteWeb

Nick Bilton / Bits:

A Race Between Digital and Print Magazines — This morning I decide to try a little experiment: I opened up my iPad, clicked on the little Wired icon and purchased the magazine's latest digital issue. After I agreed to fork over $4, it began downloading. For the next phase of the experiment …

Discussion: MacStories, NewsGrange and eMedia Vitals

Matt Kinsman / Folio:

Media Dealmakers Summit: “The Web Is Dead” — Panelists say torch has passed to the “app Internet.” — New York—There was a question during the morning session today at the DeSilva + Phillips Media Dealmakers Summit that crystallized what a lot of people are thinking about the future.

Discussion: NYConvergence.com

Kevin Anderson / Journalism.co.uk:

Newsroom integration: the past taking over the future? — Are print executives still running the show when it comes to integrating with the digital side? The New York Times newsroom, 1942. Image: US Library of Congress — Last October, I was at the Online News Association conference …

Discussion: Strange Attractor

Wall Street Journal:

Billboards Get Wired — Billboards and posters are one of world's oldest forms of advertising. Now, some marketers and start-ups say wireless technology could revamp outdoor advertising by bringing interactivity and pay-for-performance models. — Super Bowl Fans Sing Same Song

Discussion: THINQ.co.uk, MarketingVOX and All Things Digital

Zeke Turner / WWD Media Headlines:

Debating Wikileaks and the Law — New York Times executive editor Bill Keller and Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger — partners in crime, perhaps, with Julian Assange — sat together on a panel at Columbia University's Low Library last night. Former assistant attorney general Jack Goldsmith joined …

Discussion: The Wire

Sam Gustin / Threat Level:
Times Editor Alarmed By Prospect of WikiLeaks Prosecution

Discussion: Guardian, Yahoo! News, Poynter, The Huffington Post, GigaOM, Techdirt, Future of Journalism and News: News blog

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Users Rate The Daily: Better than NY Times App, Worse Than WSJ — The early reviews on The Daily are in, with most critics agreeing the new iPad-based publication looks snappy but isn't quite the revolutionary leap forward Rupert Murdoch and co. had made it out to be. But what really matters is how consumers respond to it.

Discussion: Notebooks.com, Zatz Not Funny! and App Advice

Choire Sicha / The Awl:
‘The Daily’ Really Is the “New York Post Goes to College”

Discussion: Story Lab, The Daily, New York Magazine and Eater National

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Exclusive: Tremor Media Acquires Mobile Video Ad Platform Transpera — Tremor Media is making another acquisition today—mobile ad platform Transpera. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. — Transpera's ad platform enables the distribution and monetization of web videos on mobile phones.

Discussion: paidContent, Beet.TV, New York Observer and VideoNuze, more at Techmeme »

Scott Rosenberg / Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard:

Murdoch's Daily: post-Web innovation or CD-ROM flashback? — A decade ago, if you were a “digital” person — if you were interested in how computer technology was changing our culture and economy — then you were a Web person. The Web, built on top of the Internet and ultimately eclipsing its source …

Discussion: AdAge and Poynter