Mediagazer: Content Farming: Is Online Media Just a Digital Sweatshop? (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

8:40 AM ET, February 15, 2011

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Content Farming: Is Online Media Just a Digital Sweatshop? — The recent sale of Huffington Post to AOL for $315 million has focused a lot of attention on the economics of online media. Many seem concerned that the sale of Arianna Huffington's creation — along with other recent developments …

Discussion: Online Journalism Blog, paidContent, Free Press, Newspaper Death Watch, The Daily Dish, Stowe Boyd, Scripting News and MediaPost, Thanks:mathewi

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

First AOL Q1 Luge Update Since HuffPo Acquisition: We've Got Work To Do (No Kidding) — It's rare that we get access to insider information as AOL employees here at TechCrunch HQ, so we have to rely on our mad reporting skills and the strength of our inboxes in order to figure out the goings on over in Dulles and at 770 Broadway.

Discussion: Guardian, LA Observed and On Media's Blog

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

AOL's HuffPo Premium Doesn't Mean Much For the NYT — Frederic Filloux has some harsh criticism of The Huffington Post's business model, calling it “a digital sandcastle.” — But what caught my eye was this at the bottom of his piece: … If only this were true. — Alas, his numbers are off there.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Daniel D'Addario / New York Observer:
Come Work for Me, Darling!: Arianna Huffington Sings Siren Song to Journo-Kids

Discussion: Future of Journalism and New York Times

ETHAN BAULEY / Data Central:

HP research shows mainstream media drive Twitter ‘trends’ to a surprising degree — Who gets to determine the big topics of conversation on social media? And how do they do it? Looking to find out, HP researchers recently examined how popular subjects get to be listed among the top ‘trending’ topics on Twitter.

Discussion: Depth Reporting, eMedia Vitals, VentureBeat, MarketingVOX, Mashable!, ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company and SAI, more at Techmeme », Thanks:hpnews

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

How the AP Vetted a Citizen Video of a Death in Cairo.....and the Arduous Task of Verifying UGC — WASHINGTON — During the unrest in Egypt, CNN iReporters uploaded 1600 videos and photos,of which 44 were vetted for use on CNN. — While there is value having citizen reporting out on the streets …

Wall Street Journal:

Online, Small Voices Become Sparks of Revolution — For most of the last century, the world operated on the big-man theory of politics: Towering personalities were required to drive big changes. — We now seem to have moved into the small-person era of history, in which seemingly insignificant people …

Patrick Smith / TheMediaBriefing:

Weasel words and journalism: It's either true or it isn't — The problems with the use of anonymous sources in the UK media - GrabMore — The CBS journalist Serene Branson has become world-famous, but not in the way she would have liked. — The twice-Emmy nominee was presenting from LA …

Discussion: Telegraph, CBS Los Angeles, Dave Lee, The Wire and Online Journalism Blog, Thanks:rorybrown

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Eight trends for journalism in 2011: A Nieman Lab talk in Toronto — A couple weeks ago, I had the pleasure of being asked to speak at the Canadian Journalism Foundation's speaker series at the University of Toronto. (I also had the pleasure of being introduced by Nora Young, host of the CBC's excellent program/podcast/site Spark.)

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:

Condé Nast Newsstand Tries Convergence of Technologies — LONDON — A newsstand set to open here next week will sell more than a dozen international editions of Vogue magazine, in languages including English, Russian and Chinese. More than 100 other titles from around the world …

Discussion: MediaPost and Noted

John C Abell / Epicenter:
Wired and The New Yorker for Android Coming This Spring

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Ian Hunter / BBC:

BBC Online and “deleting” websites — There's been a lively discussion on the issues around archiving websites this week that kicked off with an initial post from Adactio blogger Jeremy Keith. He suggested that the BBC's plans to halve its top level directories were cultural vandalism.

Discussion: currybetdotnet

Alex Moore / Death and Taxes:

Radiohead's New Album Addressing Plight of Newspapers? — Radiohead has announced that their new album “The King of Limbs” will be the first ever “newspaper album.” What, exactly, is a newspaper album? — Radiohead became the first truly post-modern band with “OK Computer” …

Discussion: Rolling Stone, PC Magazine and Time Out Chicago Blogs

Caspar Llewellyn Smith / Guardian:
Will Radiohead's The King of Limbs save the music industry?

Discussion: The Register, The Wrap, paidContent:UK, Guardian and hypebot

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Reuters staffers unhappy with union letter likening contract dispute to Egypt uprising — Did the Newspaper Guild of New York go too far in likening a Thomson Reuters contract dispute to the recent social uprising that toppled Egypt's authoritarian government?

Discussion: Poynter

Time Out Chicago:

Can the News Licensing Group save journalism? An interview with AP CEO Tom Curley — Earlier this month, those following journalism news heard that this year global news network the Associated Press would launch a new agency to allow publishers to license digital news content.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

Guardian:

Who are the investment bankers at the heart of the biggest media deals? — Top five can earn up to £25m in fees each year for their banks — They are the investment bankers at the heart of the biggest British media deals of the past decade, from the sale of the Telegraph newspapers …