Mediagazer: What's Your Hypothesis? — Why my news startup went the for-profit route (Josh Kalven/CJR)

3:00 PM ET, February 18, 2011

Top News:

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.

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Insiders: Bewkes Fired Griffin Over Poor Communication, Talent-Drain Fears — My first thought when I heard that Jeff Bewkes fired Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin was a sentence I can't print here. The second one: maybe he learned something from AOL (NYSE: AOL) after all.

Discussion: Deal Journal, FishbowlNY, The Wrap, MediaPost and AdAge

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post: Ousted Time Inc CEO Griffin fires back about reason for departure

Keith J. Kelly / @media_ink: Time Inc. CEO Jack Griffin fired after only five months on the job. Stunning development

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 — Editor's Note: Each week, Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of news for the Lab. — We could call this week a paid content free-for-all, but that's self-contradictory.

Discussion: PadGadget, Canadian Magazines and PC World

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: Poynter and The Raw Feed

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: Guardian, BBC, CNN, ProPublica, New York Magazine, Yahoo! News, Indecision Forever, AOL News, The Daily Dish and Soup

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 …

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: New York Observer, mediabistro.com, Quickish, New York Magazine, SportsBusiness Daily, The Wire and ESPN

Victoria Barret / Upside Potential:

Is Pure Journalism Unaffordable? — Dan Frommer of Silicon Alley Insider is in Barcelona this week covering the Mobile World Conference. In a post about the event, he mentions this aside: … Woah. Let's be clear, here. Samsung is buying influence. If they didn't think they were …

Discussion: CJR and Crikey

Jim Romenesko / Poynter: Tech firms help news sites with Mobile World Congress expenses

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

BBC Finally Turns iPlayer In To A VOD TV Aggregator — Commercial public TV broadcasters are about to get a big boost to their web-based VOD services from the BBC. — Nine months after it first announced it, the BBC has finally started including in BBC iPlayer linked VOD listings for counterpart sites.

Discussion: GigaOM

Claude Brodesser-Akner / New York Magazine:

YouTube Offering Millions for Celebrity-Created Content — In a move designed to vastly improve the quality of its content, Google's YouTube is undertaking what's understood to be a massive bid to attract Hollywood talent — one that has agents practically leaping out of their John Lobbs …

Discussion: GigaOM

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: Broadcasting & Cable and TVNewser

Hollywood Reporter:

How the Kardashians Made $65 Million Last Year … Sitting cross-legged on her black-sheeted bed amid stacks of papers and photos, Kris Jenner — matriarch of reality TV's juggernaut family— is trying to explain the unexplainable: Why the Kardashians? Why are her children's squabbles …

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, Celebritology 2.0 and Gawker

David Marsh / Guardian:

Yes, we do know what day it is (but we probably won't say so) | Mind your language — For an online readership, words such as ‘tonight’ and ‘yesterday’ can be confusing and misleading - so we have dropped them — I am writing this at 5pm on Thursday in London.

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Thanks:martinsfp

HuffPost TV / The Huffington Post:

WATCH: Arianna Discusses Her Editorial Vision On Charlie Rose — Arianna and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong sat down with Charlie Rose on Thursday to discuss the recent merger of The Huffington Post with AOL. — Arianna explained to Charlie her larger vision for the future of the company.

Discussion: The Daily Caller

Josh Kalven / CJR:

What's Your Hypothesis? — Why my news startup went the for-profit route … A year ago, I had a full-time job running a political news website in Chicago and an entrepreneurial venture bouncing around in my head. At the time, I referred to it as the “backstory project” …

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.