Mediagazer: WPP to Roll Up Digital Agencies Into New Unit (Kunur Patel/AdAge)

4:00 PM ET, February 15, 2011

Top News:

Trudy Muller / Apple:

Apple Launches Subscriptions on the App Store — Apple® today announced a new subscription service available to all publishers of content-based apps on the App Store℠, including magazines, newspapers, video, music, etc. This is the same innovative digital subscription billing service …

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Apple Launches Subscriptions For Content-Publishers On The App Store — As we heard at the Daily's launch a few weeks ago, Apple was planning to launch a new subscriptions model for content-publishers on the App Store. And today, Apple is officially announcing the new service for magazines …

Discussion: MediaMemo, CNET News, AdAge, New York Observer, Noted, Engadget and The Next Web

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Popular Science Accepts Apple's Terms, Starts Selling iPad Subscriptions — Apple Asks In-App Subscribers: ‘Share Your Information?’ — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Popular Science has become apparently the first magazine to accept the iPad subscription plan that Apple detailed Tuesday morning.

Discussion: MacStories

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What Apple's new subscription policy means for news: new rules, new incentives, new complaints — Apple has announced its long-awaited subscription policy for newspapers, magazines, and other outlets who want to sell content for the iPhone, iPad, and iPod touch. The high points:

Discussion: paidContent, Computerworld and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK: Apple's Subs Rules Would Suck $1 Million From Financial Times

Adam Pasick / New York Magazine:

Daily Editor Rallies the Troops — Jesse Angelo, editor-in-chief of Rupert Murdoch's iPad-only tabloid, The Daily, sent out a memo to his editorial team this week, urging them to go beyond “scraping the web and the wires” and do some actual reporting: … The memo continues:

Discussion: CJR, Runnin' Scared, Vanity Fair, MediaPost, On Media's Blog, FishbowlNY, The Daily Caller, ThinkProgress and Gawker

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

72 Hours: Inside Arianna's Mission To Change AOL — Late Monday afternoon, Arianna Huffington tweeted a picture from AOL (NYSE: AOL) headquarters with the note “Valentine's Day transition meeting with ice cream sundaes afterward.” She's already sent one from the AOL gym.

Discussion: MediaPost and L.A. Times Tech Blog

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

Discussion: BuzzMachine, Guardian, Online Journalism Blog, Burst Media Company Blog, paidContent, Poynter, The Daily Dish, Stowe Boyd and FiveThirtyEight, Thanks:mathewi

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
First AOL Q1 Luge Update Since HuffPo Acquisition: We've Got Work To Do (No Kidding)

Discussion: SAI, LA Observed, Guardian and The Daily Beast

Ryan Chittum / CJR:
AOL's HuffPo Premium Doesn't Mean Much For the NYT

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Mandy / Zombie Journalism:

First try at using Xtranormal for news at TBD — In a wjchat a few weeks ago, we were brainstorming ways to use non-traditional new media tools for news. One of those tools was Xtranormal, an animation site that allows you to make cartoon videos with no offsite tools or experience.

Discussion: TBD All News

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: Lost Remote, Depth Reporting, Mashable!, Noted, eMedia Vitals, VentureBeat, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Epicenter, MarketingVOX, Reportr.net, AOL News, SAI, ReadWriteWeb and Fast Company, Thanks:hpnews

Kunur Patel / AdAge:

WPP to Roll Up Digital Agencies Into New Unit — Schematic, Bridge and Others Combine to Create Top 20 Digital Network — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — WPP will roll up multiple digital agencies into a new agency with a yet-to-be-released name, according to multiple people familiar with the plans.

Discussion: AdScam/The Horror!

Nat Worden / Wall Street Journal:

Web-Video Viewing Jumps — Internet-video viewing data for January show Netflix Inc. building substantial momentum with its paid streaming video service, which has become a disruptive force in the TV and film industry as consumers migrate online. — Netflix was No. 1 by a wide margin …

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, Online Video News and Shelly Palmer Digital Living

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 …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Hulu Plus Gets an Art House Upgrade With Criterion Collection — Hulu's primary appeal is for people who want to watch TV shows on the Web, but the joint video venture does offer a selection of movies, too. Now that selection just got a bit bigger, and more appealing to cinephiles …

Discussion: Hulu Blog, The Criterion Current, /Film and GigaOM

Josh Levin / Slate:

The TV Guide — Alan Sepinwall started writing about television in 1993, as a sophomore at the University of Pennsylvania. He stank at it. In 2004, Sepinwall characterized his early work thusly: “Misspellings, bad grammar and, even worse, observations that make me cringe and wonder exactly when …

Discussion: Poynter and Tuned In

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

How ‘Morning Joe’ picks its music & uses it to capture the show's vibe, connect with audience — When you watch “Morning Joe,” you can't help but notice the music. Every commercial break is book-ended with tunes from a mix of bands — the Rolling Stones, Smashing Pumpkins, Rilo Kiley, The Grateful Dead and Arcade Fire, to name a few.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Alex Alvarez / Mediaite:

Michael Wolff Vs. Elizabeth Spiers: The Anatomy Of A Media Feud — From the “What New York Media Types are Fighting About This Week” file comes a(n ongoing) feud between Rupert Murdoch biographer and Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff and Elizabeth Spiers, Gawker founding editor and current editor in chief of The New York Observer.

Discussion: The Wire, New York Magazine, Michael Gross and New York Observer