Mediagazer: Gawker's Gulp Moment: Big Redesign Is Driving People Away (Erick Schonfeld/TechCrunch)

8:35 PM ET, February 18, 2011

Top News:

Time Inc.: The Anatomy of a Fiasco — Like most bad news, the departure of Jack Griffin — the chief executive of Time Inc. for less than six months — dropped at the end of the day, leaving the publishing community scratching its head and wondering how things had gone so wrong.

Mike Shields / Adweek:

Sources: IAB Considering Rehiring Rothenberg — Held president/CEO post from 2007 to last December — Does Randall Rothenberg want his old job back? — He may soon get the chance. Given Time Inc.'s ouster of Jack Griffin yesterday (Feb. 17), The Interactive Advertising Bureau …

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Time Inc. Chief Executive Jack Griffin Out — The chief executive of Time Inc., Jack Griffin, is leaving the company after less than six months on the job — forced out over what company executives said was a widespread sense that his management style was brusque and did not fit the corporate culture there.

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Ousted Time Inc CEO Griffin fires back about reason for departure — Jack Griffin, the ousted CEO of Time Inc. has fired back at Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes who blamed yesterday's firing on a clash of management styles. — Said Griffin in his first public response, “I was recruited and hired …

Discussion: Runnin' Scared

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Insiders: Bewkes Fired Griffin Over Poor Communication, Talent-Drain Fears

Discussion: Deal Journal, The Wrap, MediaPost, Mixed Media and AdAge

Abbey Klaassen / AdAge: Jack Griffin: ‘My Exit Was Clearly Not About Management Style or Results’

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Gawker's Gulp Moment: Big Redesign Is Driving People Away — About ten days ago, gossip blog Gawker and its sister sites Gizmodo, Lifehacker and others switched over to a drastic redesign which was met with plenty of jeers. People always complain about design changes …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Poynter and The Raw Feed, more at Techmeme »

Terry Heaton / Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog: Pick one: Gawker takes a hit/Gawker is coming back

Pascal-Emmanuel Gobry / The Wire: After Its Big Redesign, Gawker Media Pageviews Seem To Be Coming Back

New York Times:

Security Forces in Bahrain Open Fire on Mourners — MANAMA, Bahrain — Government forces opened fire on hundreds of mourners marching toward Pearl Square Friday, sending people running away in panic amid the boom of concussion grenades. But even as the people fled, at least one helicopter sprayed fire …

Discussion: BBC, Guardian, News Desk, ProPublica, CNN, Time, AOL News, Salon, The New Yorker Blog, The Daily Beast, New York Magazine, Indecision Forever, Washington Post, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, The Daily Dish, Soup and Yahoo! News

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Violence against journalists escalating in the Middle East

Discussion: The Lede, Committee to Protect … and AOL News

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

ESPN Gives Web Star Bill Simmons His Own Site — Here's Bill Simmons' reward for sticking with ESPN: His own piece of turf, where the star columnist/multimedia experimenter can cultivate a new sports/pop culture site. — Simmons already has his own page on ESPN.com, but this is something …

Discussion: Lost Remote, SportsBusiness Daily, New York Magazine, The Wire, ESPN, New York Observer and mediabistro.com

Dan Shanoff / Quickish: Why Bill Simmons' New Sports Media Project Is Going To Thrive

Felix Salmon / CJR:

Business Insider's Barcelona Junket — Victoria Barret reports on the nice little deal that Dan Frommer has going on in Barcelona: “Samsung was generous enough to sponsor our trip”, in the words of Frommer himself. — Barret is reasonably sympathetic, and likes the fact that Frommer inserts …

Victoria Barret / Upside Potential:
Is Pure Journalism Unaffordable?

Discussion: @eldon, Crikey and Poynter

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

What Bob Iger Values Most In TV's Digital Future — If there was any doubt as to how Disney (NYSE: DIS) CEO Bob Iger sees the changing TV world, it became abundantly clear in the closing hours of Disney's investors conference on Thursday in Anaheim. — In short, for all the emphasis he puts …

Discussion: VideoNuze, PR Newswire and Future of Journalism

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:
Disney Interactive Media Group: The Turnaround Plan

Discussion: Media Money …

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

NY Times reinventing ‘Week in Review’ section — The New York Times is overhauling the paper's Sunday “Week in Review” section, a “reinvention project that will involve staff from both the newsroom and the editorial department.” — Times editor's aren't just tinkering with the existing “Week in Review.”

Discussion: Poynter

David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik:
NYT announces overhaul of Week in Review - will draw upon journalists from both the news and editorial sections.

Discussion: @mlcalderone and @davidakaplan

Mark Joyella / Mediaite:

BBC Plans To Boost News Coverage In The U.S.: “Never Been A Greater Need For Impartial News” — The BBC has announced changes in its American news efforts, including changes for the network's flagship U.S. newscast, BBC World News America, expanded ties to PBS stations …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Multichannel, TVNewser and New York Magazine

Wall Street Journal:

Regulators Eye Apple Anew — Enforcers Interested in Whether Digital-Subscription Rules Stifle Competition — WASHINGTON—U.S. antitrust enforcers have begun looking at the terms Apple Inc. set this week for media companies who want to sell their content on its popular iPad and other devices …

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The Newsonomics of Apple/Press+/Google's pay-for-all

Discussion: PadGadget, Canadian Magazines, PC World and blogs.chron.com

Chris Ariens / mediabistro.com:

Paul Friedman out at CBS News — TVNewser has learned another CBS News executive is out the door today. Executive VP for news Paul Friedman is leaving the company. Incoming chairman of the news division Jeff Fager made the announcement in a memo to staff a short time ago:

Discussion: MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable and TVNewser

Bill Barol / Buzz, Boom & Sizzle:

The Atavist: Building a home for longform in the digital landscape — I don't understand some of the specific grievances registered against The Atavist, an intriguing new news product out of Brooklyn. “I thought journalism was about news and not an avenue for someone to sell their non-fiction to the public …

Futurepaul / paul j. miller:

Leaving AOL — Today was my last day at Engadget. — I've been writing for Engadget for more than five years. What an insane thing to be able to say! In my time as Contributing Editor / Associate Editor / Senior Associate Editor / Pixel Density Enthusiast, I've written 1.5 million words on roughly 5,500 posts.

Discussion: The Next Web

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

How Word of Mubarak's Resignation Spread on Social Media — On February 11, the world watched as Hosni Mubarak was tossed from power after 30 years running Egypt at about 11:00 a.m. Eastern. Naturally, the legions glued to their computers wanted to share the news.

Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:

Margaret Brennan: Bloomberg TV's force — Commentary: Anchor aims to boost her employer's profile — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — When people start talking about cable news, invariably they launch into deep discussions about the fortunes of Fox, CNN, MSNBC and CNBC.

Discussion: Inside Cable News and Talking Biz News