Mediagazer: Glam Media Is Picking Bankers For An IPO (Henry Blodget/SAI)

9:45 AM ET, February 25, 2011

Top News:

Finding more high-quality sites in search — Our goal is simple: to give people the most relevant answers to their queries as quickly as possible. This requires constant tuning of our algorithms, as new content—both good and bad—comes online all the time.

Danny Sullivan / Search Engine Land:

Google Forecloses On Content Farms With “Farmer” Algorithm Update — In January, Google promised that it would take action against content farms that were gaining top listings with “shallow” or “low-quality” content. Now the company is delivering, announcing a change to its ranking algorithm designed take out such material.

Discussion: Fortune and Digital Trends, more at Techmeme »

Demand Media:

A Statement About Search Engine Algorithm Changes — How our content reaches the consumer - whether it's through direct visits, social media referrals, apps or search - has always been important to and monitored closely by us. We also recognize that major search engines like Google have and will continue to make frequent changes.

Discussion: Mashable!, BoomTown, eMedia Vitals, paidContent, TechCrunch and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

TBD's course raises questions about failure and success on the way to journalism's future — Many journalists in traditional newsrooms have left their jobs in recent years to work for online news startups and help shape the future of journalism. The sacrifices they've made, though, haven't always worked out as planned.

Discussion: Digital Man and The Buttry Diary

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Hyperlocals like TBD: More hype than hope — The rapid implosion of the high-profile TBD news site is further evidence that hyperlocal journalism is more hype than hope for the news business. — Launched with considerable fanfare and generous funding only six months ago by Allbritton Communications …

Discussion: Poynter, The Politico and On Media's Blog

Jxpaton / Digital First:

Hyperlocal News Can't Be Monetized And Other Lies You Heard This Week About TBD.com — Success has many fathers but failure is always an orphan. — And I would add to that old saw - failure is always something the experts predicted as they revel in their “I told you so” moments.

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Six business lessons from TBD's early demise

Discussion: LocalNewser, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog and eMedia Vitals

Russ Buettner / New York Times:

Affidavits Say Fox News Chief Told Employee to Lie — It was an incendiary allegation — and a mystery of great intrigue in the media world: After the publishing powerhouse Judith Regan was fired by HarperCollins in 2006, she claimed that a senior executive at its parent company, News Corporation …

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Roger Ailes Caught on Tape Urging Ex-Employee to Lie to Federal Investigators

Discussion: Guardian

Breaking News:

Libyan gov't: Unauthorized journalists are considered to be al-Qaeda collaborators — WASHINGTON, D.C./TRIPOLI (BNO NEWS) — Libyan government officials have warned U.S. diplomats that journalists who have entered the country illegally to cover anti-government protests are being considered …

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Guardian and The Independent, Thanks:joshhalliday

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
Libyan government likens journalists to Al Qaida

Discussion: Agence France Presse

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Pre-HuffPo Merger Changes At AOL; Eun Leaving, Brod To Be Arianna's COO — Regulatory approval of AOL's $315 million acquisition of the Huffington Post is still pending but CEO Tim Armstrong already has a new structure for the evolving company. The changes were set off by the plan …

Discussion: Epicenter, TechCrunch, SAI, MediaPost, Wall Street Journal, @rafat, SAI, SAI, AdAge, SAI, NetNewsCheck Latest, Mixed Media and The Wrap

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Post-Huffpo, an AOL Reorg; Here's the Internal Memo

Discussion: BoomTown, SAI, Editors Weblog and Adotas

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
AOL Exec David Eun Out - Here's His Email To Staff

Discussion: NYConvergence.com, Mediaite, WebNewser, GigaOM, @rafat, MediaFile, Digital Trends and SAI

Edmund Lee / AdAge:
AOL's First Big Change for Huffington Post: Bigger Ads

Discussion: Poynter

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Rockville Central: set to become a Facebook-only outlet — Say you run a community news site. In your spare time. And Patch has moved into your neighborhood. How do you, with limited resources but a desire to keep contributing to your community, stay competitive?

Discussion: Rockville Patch, The Huffington Post and WebNewser

Eric Spiegelman / The Awl:

How to Watch Al Jazeera on Your Television — Al Jazeera is putting every American news channel to shame with its amazing coverage of the revolutions across the Middle East. But most cable systems in this country won't carry it! If you live in Toledo, Ohio, or Burlington, Vermont, or Washington D.C., you might have it.

Discussion: The Next Web

Mark Joyella / Mediaite:
Pushing For U.S. Cable, Al Jazeera English Exec Claims They Are ‘Anti-Nothing And Pro-Nothing’

Discussion: Media Buyer Planner

ESPN MediaZone:

The Poynter Review Project to Launch With ESPN — ESPN and The Poynter Institute today announced a new step in media transparency—The Poynter Review Project—in which a panel of Poynter faculty will review ESPN content across all platforms and publicly comment on ESPN's efforts.

Discussion: The Wire, Company Town, New York Times, The Wrap, Poynter and Broadcasting & Cable

Henry Blodget / SAI:

Glam Media Is Picking Bankers For An IPO — Glam Media is listening to the sales pitches of about 14 Wall Street banks in preparation for an IPO, a source familiar with the situation says. — Bank of America, JP Morgan, Citi, Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, and others are vying for the coveted “book-running” lead position.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

You Can't Play a New Media Game By Old Media Rules — If there's one aspect of the media business that has been disrupted more completely than any other, it's the whole idea of “breaking news.” Just as television devalued the old front-page newspaper scoop, the web has turned breaking news …

Thanks:mathewi

Joe Mullin / paidContent:
‘Hot News’ Has MMC Steaming At TheWrap In Cease-And-Desist Letter

Discussion: Mediaweek, The Wire, Mediaite and Deadline.com

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Journal Register's Localized Video News Strategy is Driving Profitability, CEO John Paton — After considerable anticipation and disappointment around the value of video for newspapers, one big publisher has found profitability by utilizing low cost cameras, a decentralized workflow approach and an effective sales strategy.

Discussion: WebNewser

MediaShift:

How to Integrate Social Tools into the Journalism Classroom — Education content on MediaShift is sponsored by the USC Annenberg nine-month M.A. in Specialized Journalism. USC's highly customized degree programs are tailored to the experienced journalist and gifted amateur.

Discussion: J-Source

Bob Tedeschi / New York Times:

Enjoying the Oscar Awards on Several Small Screens — Sports fans make high art of the multiscreen experience, with TV broadcasts, laptop news feeds and a wide range of mobile apps for trivia, fantasy contests and kitchen runs. — For others, though, the biggest spectator sport comes with the Academy Awards.

Discussion: CNET News, SocialTimes.com and MinOnline