Mediagazer: ‘Organic’ SXSW Blogger Buzz? More Like Marketing Astroturf (Irina Slutsky/AdAge)

11:30 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: GigaOM, Fortune, Digital Trends and SAI, 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!, MediaMemo, eMedia Vitals, BoomTown, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, TechCrunch, paidContent and SAI, more at Techmeme »

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.

Discussion: mediabistro.com

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

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

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

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

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

Allan Sloan / Washington Post:

Shareholder money funds Murdoch family deals — The Murdoch family owns only about 12 percent of News Corp., but Rupert Murdoch sure runs the place like a wholly owned family candy store. The company, blurring the distinction between public and family business, makes deals with family members …

Discussion: New York Observer and 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

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

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

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

Joseph L. Flatley / Engadget:

Android Market adds e-books; movies and music soon to come? — The Android world's been a-buzz this last week over a few new Android Market URLS, including http://market.android.com/music/ and http://market.android.com/movies/. In case you thought there was nothing to this tip, guess again …

Discussion: VideoNuze and TeleRead, more at Techmeme »

Mark Joyella / Mediaite:

Pushing For U.S. Cable, Al Jazeera English Exec Claims They Are ‘Anti-Nothing And Pro-Nothing’ — Al Jazeera English, buoyed by critical acclaim for its coverage of the uprising in Egypt, hopes to convert good reviews for its Middle East coverage into a permanent place on American cable.

Discussion: Media Buyer Planner

Eric Spiegelman / The Awl:
How to Watch Al Jazeera on Your Television

Discussion: The Next Web

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.

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Roger Ailes Caught on Tape Urging Ex-Employee to Lie to Federal Investigators — Think back five long years ago, when hot shot publisher-to-the-stars Judith Regan was embroiled in a huge scandal that was the talk of the media world: after HarperCollins fired her, Regan sued them.

Discussion: The Awl and Guardian

Russ Buettner / New York Times:
Affidavits Say Fox News Chief Told Employee to Lie

Irina Slutsky / AdAge:

‘Organic’ SXSW Blogger Buzz? More Like Marketing Astroturf — Failure to Comply With FTC Rules Could Put Some on Wrong Side of Law — A lot of the buzz that has turned the South by Southwest festival into a media monster has been paid for and delivered by the big brands that sponsor it.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Post-Huffpo, an AOL Reorg; Here's the Internal Memo — No surprise here: After paying $315 million for Huffington Post, AOL is shuffling its executive ranks. David Eun, the former Google executive who came to AOL a year ago to run its media business, is out, and several other executives have new responsibilities.