Mediagazer: Random House switches to e-book agency model; little bookseller chagrined (David Sarno/L.A. Times Tech Blog)

12:40 PM ET, March 1, 2011

Top News:

Frank Rich Joins New York Magazine — Frank Rich is joining New York Magazine, beginning in June. Rich will be an essayist for the magazine, writing monthly on politics and culture, and will serve as an editor-at-large, editing a special monthly section anchored by his essay.

Michael Barbaro / New York Times:

After Business and Politics, Mayor Tests Opinion — Over the last year, representatives of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg quietly reached out to a handful of the country's top journalists with an intriguing job offer: Divine and distill his unique brand of political philosophy and disseminate …

Discussion: Poynter, On Media's Blog, The Wire, FishbowlNY, The Big Picture, City Room, Talking Biz News and The Empire

Jodi Enda / American Journalism Review:

The Bloomberg Juggernaut — While many news organizations are struggling and retreating, Bloomberg News keeps adding talented journalists, expanding its empire and elevating its ambitions. Posted: Wed, March 1, 2011 — Jodi Enda (jaenda@gmail.com) writes about politics and government from Washington …

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Exploiting Charlie — When I arrived in Detroit to intern at the Free Press many years ago, I saw a local character dressed in a bright yellow rain slicker, no matter the weather, theatrically directing traffic in front of the Cadillac hotel. He was there every day.

Discussion: AdAge, msnbc.com, Mediaite, The Wire, TIME Healthland, Poynter and Inside Cable News

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Charie Sheen: NBC interview ‘pure gold,’ ABC interview ‘slanted’

Discussion: TMZ.com, New York Times, The Wire, @fromedome, doublex.com, @jeffjarvis, The Wrap, Hollywood Reporter, @brianstelter and Brow Beat

Alex Weprin / @alexweprin:
A quick thought on Charlie Sheen's TMZ intvw: This is the best TV I have seen in a long, long time. And it isn't on TV.

Discussion: New York Post, ABCNEWS, Hollywood Rag and @jbflint

Chris Atkins / Media Standards Trust:

Fuel to the fire — Chris Atkins, the independent film maker who played a number of news hoaxes to help raise awareness about churnalism, writes a guest post describing what he did and how he did it — It was just under a month ago when the Media Standards Trust challenged me to raise awareness …

Discussion: Richard Sambrook … and Media Law Journal

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Denton: Gawker's redesign more bruising than it needed to be — “When the redesign first launched, a some key features simply did not work - which is no way to introduce readers to something new,” writes Gawker Media boss Nick Denton. After the jump, he describes the fixes made in response to reader complaints.

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker, Bloggasm, paidContent, The Wrap and @nicksumm

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Facebook Comments Platform Brings Media Partners Into Users' News Feeds — Facebook is relaunching its commenting plugin that will promise to insert media partners into users' news feeds. Previously, when a user made a comment on another site with their Facebook profile, the comment remained with that outside site.

Discussion: WebNewser, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, Inside Facebook, Facebook Developer Blog, Search Engine Land and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Exclusive: Thumbplay Gives Up On Music Subscriptions, And Clear Channel Steps In — After less than a year in the music subscription business, Thumbplay is giving up: The company is selling off the struggling service to Clear Channel Radio. — Thumbplay will hang on to its once-booming ringtone business …

Discussion: Guardian, Mashable!, hypebot and paidContent, more at Techmeme »

Gregory Ferenstein / Fast Company:

Google's Journalism Prize and the 5 Groups Who Should Win It — Google's running a $2.7 million contest for innovative online journalism and we rounded up 5 models to inspire the contestants. — Google's philanthropic spending spree has just dropped another $2.7 million to fund innovative uses …

Discussion: CyberJournalist.net

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Yahoo's Anna Robertson: Streaming Videos on Facebook is a “Huge Opportunity for Us” — Facebook pages are becoming increasingly video rich and an increasing number of small and large video publishers are streaming more of their videos “in-line,” meaning having their player on Facebook pages, not just providing links.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

The Politico:

Darrell Issa probes staff; spokesman Kurt Bardella at center of controversy — Rep. Darrell Issa, the Republican chairman of the powerful Oversight and Government Reform Committee, has launched an inquiry into whether spokesman Kurt Bardella improperly shared e-mails from other reporters …

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, New York Magazine, FishbowlDC and On Media's Blog, Thanks:gnagesh

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Your words, your real name — If people posting comments on websites had to use their true identity, they might be more civil. — Remember when you threw that raging party in high school? Being at the center of the action felt so good — until a couple of guests parked on your lawn.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Benny Evangelista / San Francisco Chronicle:

Bloomberg TV goes live from West Coast Feb. 28 — The expanding San Francisco office of Bloomberg LP launches a new hourlong television show today aimed at beaming technology news with a Silicon Valley point of view to the rest of the world. — “Bloomberg West” will air weekdays at 3 p.m …

Discussion: BusinessJournalism.org … and San Francisco Peninsula …

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Revealing the Man Behind @MayorEmanuel — It was the best fake Twitter account ever, deftly satirizing Rahm Emanuel, and elevating the Tweet and the f-word to the level of literature. But the mystery writer was never revealed - until now. — There were many storylines in Rahm Emanuel's romp …

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Boxee's Backers Bet Big On Web Video, With A $16 Million Round — Here's that big funding round for Boxee I told you about last fall: The Web video software company has raised another $16.5 million. Previous investors General Catalyst, Spark Capital and Union Square Ventures are all back …

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, paidContent, SAI, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Boxee Blog and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

David Sarno / L.A. Times Tech Blog:

Random House switches to e-book agency model; little bookseller chagrined — Random House Inc. on Monday ended its long stand against the so-called “agency model” for sales of e-books, a move that could pave the way for the publisher to join its competitors on Apple's iPad.

Discussion: Kindle Review, Jacket Copy, The Next Web and MetaFilter, more at Techmeme »

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Get the gray out of America's newspapers — In 1995, the Society of News Design counted a dozen American newspapers as among the best-looking in the world. By 2010, there were none. — Though it may not be fair to judge the problems of American newspaper publishers strictly by their covers …

Discussion: Matters of Varying …

Robinsloan / Twitter Media:

Your view from the #Oscars stage — The 83rd Annual Academy Awards captured the country's attention on Sunday night, but ABC's cameras didn't provide the only view. This year's show was a new kind of 360-degree event, with: — a camera-snapping, live-tweeting host; — an official hashtag on air; and

Discussion: TweetReach Blog, SocialTimes.com, Search Engine Land, paidContent, USA Today, Carpetbagger, Lost Remote, Future of Journalism and Tuned In

John Hendel / The Atlantic Online:

Kachingle and the Limits of Tip-Jar Journalism — A two-year-old start-up has the best of intentions, but faces many obstacles and continues to struggle for acceptance — As the New York Times prepares to throw up its new subscription-based paywall in coming weeks, the news giant …

Discussion: Poynter and eMedia Vitals, Thanks:jaredbkeller

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Rachel Maddow Seizes Her Moment at Post-Keith Olbermann MSNBC — Keith Olbermann's sudden departure from MSNBC has created the biggest challenge of Rachel Maddow's broadcasting career—becoming the face of a cable network at an uncomfortable crossroads. — The woman at the whiteboard …

Discussion: TVNewser, Inside Cable News, Mediaite and On Media's Blog

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

At Comcast, No Fear of Web Video — Comcast Corp.'s chokehold on its subscribers' video consumption is slipping away as new video providers muscle in on the business. — But Brian Roberts, Comcast's 51-year-old chief executive, says he's still optimistic about the future …

Discussion: GigaOM, Engadget, Techland, VideoNuze, Company Town and Fortune, more at Techmeme »

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

Ad Industry Group Picks Bigger Online Ads in Hopes of Attracting TV Dollars to Web — Winning New Ad Formats From AOL, YouTube, Unicast and Microsoft — Get ready for bigger online ads — everywhere. — In an effort to lure more lucrative brand advertising dollars to the web …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and iMediaConnection Blog

Oliver Luft / Press Gazette:

FT Group operating profit rises 54 per cent — The FT Group, publisher of the Financial Times, recorded a 12 per cent year-on-year revenue increase last year, according to its parent company. — Pearson said this morning that FT Group drew £403m in revenue in 2010 …

Discussion: Media News, Journalism.co.uk, Guardian, Press Gazette and Editors Weblog

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Yahoo's (and Associated Content Founder) Luke Beatty Talks About Google's Content Farm Putsch — Yahoo's Luke Beatty said he is not worried. — “We welcome the change,” he insisted about Google taking aim last Friday at so-called “content farms,” producers of low-quality content that spam up the Web and the search giant's results.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Guardian and SAI