Mediagazer: Book Lovers Fear Dim Future for Notes in the Margins (Dirk Johnson/New York Times)

12:25 PM ET, February 22, 2011

Top News:

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: Al Jazeera Blogs, This Just In, The Atlantic Wire, Time and Big Journalism

Nathan Olivarez-Giles / L.A. Times Tech Blog:

Syrian blogger jailed as social media helps protestors in Middle East — A veteran blogger in Syria was jailed Sunday — yet another example of just how important to demonstrators, and threatening to government regimes, the Internet can be. — The blogger, Ahmad Abu Khair …

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: FishbowlNY and Poynter

Mschuler / Marx Layne:

If blogging is dead, then it's living a healthy afterlife — As long as people enjoy writing more than a few sentences at a time, blogging will never die. — I'd contend that if blogging is dead, as this New York Times article suggests, then it's living a healthy afterlife.

Discussion: newsplexer, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, Stowe Boyd and Adotas, Thanks:mattschuler

Matt Mullenweg:
Blogging Drift — The New York Times has a pretty prominent …

Discussion: Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, Trends in the Living Networks, AdExchanger.com, Twist Image, Gatekeeper, TechCrunch, parislemon, Gothamist, toni.org and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

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, CNET News, Associated Press, The Wrap, parislemon and LAist

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

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 »

Judy Battista / New York Times:

N.F.L. Labor Dispute Plays Out on Twitter — A few hours after N.F.L. owners filed a complaint against the players union last week alleging that it was not bargaining in good faith, Houston Texans right tackle Eric Winston took to his keyboard to react. — “The NFL has reached that point …

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, more at Techmeme »

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.

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, On Media's Blog, The Wire, New York Times and LA Observed

Megan Carpentier / Guardian:

Why women hit the media glass ceiling | Megan Carpentier — Anne Hays's complaint to the New Yorker about the lack of female bylines has brought to the fore a wider media debate — The writer and editor Anne Hays recently penned an open letter to the New Yorker on Facebook, demanding her money back for the most recent issue.

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Ooyala And Yahoo Collaborate On Capturing Japan's Online Video Market — Ooyala has struck a deal with Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) Japan as the online video platform and the portal looks to add more broadcasters, publishers, advertisers to their respective broadband offerings.

Discussion: Online Video News, Beet.TV and VideoNuze

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

Echo:

[VIDEO] TV Industry Taps Echo to Keep Viewers' Attention — Over on the NYtimes yesterday, Brian Stelter writes about the TV industry's push to build real-time two screen experiences for audiences using Social Media content. — He writes: … He couldn't be more correct.

Discussion: New York Times, Thanks:chrissaad

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Steve Jobs: Only publishers are bound by new in-app subscription rules — No more than a week has passed since Apple announced it was going to introduce App Store Subscriptions and analysts, publishers and app developers are already up in arms. — Apple has stated that for each …

Discussion: Marco.org, TechCrunch and MacRumors, more at Techmeme »

Anthony Ha / VentureBeat:

Philo: Star power is the key to social TV — Social TV startup Philo tells me user numbers are “through the roof” right now, thanks in large part to copying a strategy from traditional TV — bring in the stars. — What kind of stars? Well, basketball star Shaquille O'Neal, for one.