Mediagazer: How former liberal operative Josh Isay became the default paid-media guy to the New York establishment (Dana Rubinstein/Capital New York)

3:40 PM ET, February 22, 2011

Top News:

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Journalists start arriving in Libya — With foreign journalists banned in Libya, it's been very difficult to confirm the reports emerging by phone and social media that the government is brutally cracking down on protesters demanding the ouster of the country's staongman leader Muammar Gaddafi.

Discussion: Poynter, Guardian, Future of Journalism, TVNewser, BBC and On Media's Blog

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Al Jazeera English in talks with US cable providers — Al Anstey, managing director of Al Jazeera English, is holding talks with US cable providers about carrying the network in the US for the first time. — According to a release from Al Jazeera, the first meeting is scheduled for today in New York with Comcast.

Discussion: TVNewser, Al Jazeera Blogs, Time, This Just In, The Atlantic Wire, Mother Jones and Big Journalism

Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog: Syrian blogger jailed as social media helps protestors in Middle East

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Rothenberg Leaves Time Inc., Returns To IAB Following Griffin's Ouster — Despite a concerted effort by Time Warner (NYSE: TWX), Randall Rothenberg is leaving his new job as chief digital officer to return to his job heading the Interactive Advertising Bureau, paidContent has learned.

Discussion: MediaMemo, AdAge, Poynter, MediaPost, Media Decoder, mediabistro.com, Folio, @srabil and @koblin

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Next Question: What's A Publishing App? … There's been so much confusion in the wake of Apple's new subscription billing policy for apps that Steve Jobs felt the need to issue the proclamation above via his preferred method, a personal email. (It's his version of the burning bush).

Discussion: Marco.org, MacRumors, Techland, Daring Fireball, GigaOM, NewsGrange and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Steve Jobs: Only publishers are bound by new in-app subscription rules

Discussion: VentureBeat, Ars Technica and paidContent

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Telegraph plans some digital content charges from September — Payment system described as ‘very light touch’, with a ‘very generous allowance’ before users forced to pay — Telegraph Media Group is understood to be planning to introduce charging for some of its digital content from September.

Discussion: Jon Slattery, Editors Weblog and Press Gazette

Tim Stevens / Engadget:

Amazon launches Prime Instant Video, unlimited streaming for Prime subscribers — We heard it was coming and now here it is. Amazon has flipped the switch on its “free” video streaming for Prime members, the service we've been hearing about for the past month or so.

Discussion: MediaMemo, The Next Web, VentureBeat, /Film, ReadWriteWeb, SAI, New York Magazine, Techland and Neowin.net, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

No More Mr. (Or Ms.) Nice Guy — As The Journal Drops ‘Courtesy Titles’ From the Sports Pages, It's Modernity Over Gentility — Joe Torre (left) and Derek Jeter after a 2001 playoff game. — Athletes get called many things, fairly and not. Great ones are often described as “amazing …

Discussion: Gawker, Poynter and FishbowlNY

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver adjusts to New York Times as a blogger, 6 months after joining the newsroom — Until six months ago, Nate Silver had never worked in a newsroom. Now he's at The New York Times, building his brand, strengthening his writing skills and developing new audiences for his FiveThirtyEight blog.

Long Island University:

LONG ISLAND UNIVERSITY ANNOUNCES WINNERS OF 2010 GEORGE POLK AWARDS IN JOURNALISM — Rolling Stone honored for its history-making dispatch on the war in Afghanistan; — Associated Press wins for its extraordinary coverage of the Gulf oil spill — Long Island University has announced …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Big News Network.com, Journalism.co.uk, The Wire, On Media's Blog, New York Times and LA Observed

Dana Rubinstein / Capital New York:

How former liberal operative Josh Isay became the default paid-media guy to the New York establishment — On February 16, Josh Isay's current and former clients dominated the local news. New York governor and former client Andrew Cuomo was threatening to usurp the duties of Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, a more recent client.

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Blockbuster to be sold; opening bid set at $290 million — Home video chain Blockbuster Inc., in bankruptcy, has opted to put itself up for sale after creditors were unable to agree on a recapitalization plan. — The Dallas-based company said Monday that it has submitted a plan …

Discussion: paidContent, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, CNET News, The Wrap, parislemon and LAist

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Why The Big Music Labels Won't Burn All Of Spotify's New Money (Right Away) — Spotify is set to cash a very big check. What it's going to do with that money? — The streaming music service is going to raise something like $100 million, at a valuation of $1 billion or more, very shortly …

Discussion: Kleinman, Guardian and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

Dirk Johnson / New York Times:

Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins — CHICAGO — Locked in a climate-controlled vault at the Newberry Library here, a volume titled “The Pen and the Book” can be studied only under the watch of security cameras. — The book, about making a profit in publishing, scarcely qualifies as a literary masterpiece.

Discussion: Joe Wikert's Publishing …, The Atlantic Wire, Personanondata and Latest Open Salon Blog

Deborah Potter / NewsLab:

Why journalists should learn to love data — Journalists are notorious for hating anything to do with math. If we'd been any good with numbers, I often joke, we might have chosen a different career. But it's essential for today's journalists to get comfortable working with data, and the good news is that more and more of them are.

Stefan Meeuws / The Next Web:

When will Google put the ‘You’ back in YouTube? — YouTube is one of the biggest websites in the world, according to Alexa. Every hour, another 35 hours are added to the website. This is common knowledge, but you wouldn't guess it from YouTube's homepage.