Mediagazer: Debut Time for Aol News Real-Time (David Cohen/mediabistro.com)

5:55 PM ET, March 2, 2011

Top News:

Takeaways for journalists from today's Apple announcement: Better reporting tools and an ebook boom — Apple's Steve Jobs just left the stage after a surprise appearance to announce the new iPad 2. Check Engadget's liveblog if you want to relive the whole event, but I noticed a few takeaways …

Discussion: Gadget Lab, Speakeasy, The Evolving Newsroom, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Lost Remote, Future of Journalism, CNET News, Engadget, Geekosystem, The Daily Beast, Techland and Consumer Reports …, more at Techmeme »

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

John Gruber on Apple's 30% cut: To the victor goes the pricing power — John Gruber at Daring Fireball has an extended take on the justice or injustice of Apple's 30-percent cut of all iPhone/iPad subscriptions. (He comes down on the side of justice. Or at least a kind of it's-fair-because-we-can justice.)

Discussion: Daring Fireball

John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Dirty Percent — It's not hard to make the case that Apple's …

Discussion: CrunchGear

The New York Times Company:

The New York Times Company Updates its Outlook Ahead of Morgan Stanley Conference Presentation — The New York Times Company (NYSE: NYT) today will discuss its business and strategy at the Morgan Stanley Technology, Media & Telecom Conference. — “The improvement in print advertising trends …

Discussion: Reuters, The Wrap, Poynter, Yahoo! News and The Wall Blog

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

NY Times chairman determined to charge for online access — Arthur Sulzberger undeterred by long delays to metered scheme and also plans to charge for iPad app — Arthur Sulzberger, the chairman and publisher of the New York Times, is bullish about plans to charge for access to the paper's website …

Discussion: Media Week and Bloggasm

Neal Ungerleider / Fast Company:

Al Jazeera in Talks With Comcast, Time Warner — Al Jazeera English may be coming to American television screens. The Qatar-based network is currently in talks with cable giants Comcast and Time Warner, creating a groundswell of enthusiasm among American news junkies and a collective groan from right-leaning conservative activists.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Awl

Gus Lubin / The Wire:

Hillary Clinton Says Al Jazeera Is Putting American Media To Shame — Hillary Clinton was defending her department budget in front of the U.S. Foreign Policy Priorities committee this morning on C-Span. — She says a major reason the State Department needs money is because “we are in an information war and we are losing that war.”

Discussion: MarketWatch, MediaPost, Mediaite and C-SPAN Video Library

BBC:

Rupert Murdoch to sell Sky News for takeover approval — Mr Murdoch hopes that his offer to sell Sky News will be enough to get the nod from Mr Hunt — Rupert Murdoch has agreed to sell off the loss-making Sky News. — The move is likely to be enough to win government approval …

Discussion: New York Times, Telegraph, Guardian and TVNewser

David Cohen / mediabistro.com:

Debut Time for Aol News Real-Time — Aol News is looking to enforce the concept that news is real-time with its launch of Aol News Real-Time, which adds real-time badges to its 100 most active articles, as well as highlighting the top six stories being read at that moment, complete with reading counts.

Discussion: Beet.TV and Echo

Chris Ariens / mediabistro.com:

Fox News announces temporary suspension of Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum as Contributors — Fox News' Bret Baier just announced that the network has put a 60-day suspension on the paid contributor deals with both Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum — who are both considering a run for president in 2012.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Mediaite, Adweek, New York Times, Poynter, TVNewser, The Wire, On Media's Blog, The Wrap, Gawker, The Politico and Swampland

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

How Charlie Sheen Got His Twitter Account Verified So Fast — Ad.ly Helped Take Handle From Squatter — Only 24 hours after Charlie Sheen got started on Twitter with @CharlieSheen, he had amassed more than 900,000 followers, easily one of the fastest follower roll-ups the service has seen.

Discussion: de.tech.ting, TechCrunch, Gawker and TVNewser, more at Techmeme »

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:
Charlie Sheen, Now On Twitter At @CharlieSheen

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Why the Medium Is Not the Message — Earlier this week, I got a chance to go on Leo Laporte's Twit.tv. We debated the much-discussed New York Times story, which essentially said blogging is dead. It has been more than 10 years since I started to blog, and still, the act of blogging is consistently misunderstood.

Discussion: State of the Fourth Estate, Technology Liberation Front and Consumer Reports …

Foster Kamer / Esquire:

The Real Fake Rahm Emanuel — With one Twitter account, Dan Sinker changed the entire political satire game. And now, he's talking. — It's a mystery that 41,147 people and counting have been dying to know: Who is Mayor Emanuel? Not Rahm, but rather, the fake Twitter account …

Discussion: Poynter, Jim DeRogatis, Snarkmarket, TBD All News, Robert Feder and Change of Subject

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Texas Tribune databases drive majority of site's traffic, help citizens make sense of government data — When The Texas Tribune launched, Matt Stiles said the site was the .10 version of what it would be six months out. Sixteen months later, the site's traffic and audience have grown tremendously …

Discussion: @romenesko

Jeremy Adam Smith / Knight Garage:

How We're Financing Meaningful Journalism — Very few of us become journalists so that we can write product reviews, celebrity gossip, or forty-seven tips for driving your man crazy in bed—even if that's how we pay the bills. — Yet as media have converged online, opportunities …

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

New York Times Launching Groupon-Like Daily Deals Service — The online division of The New York Times is in the process of launching TimesLimited, a Groupon-like daily deals service offered through e-mail. — Subscribers will receive offers on high-end goods and services from The Times's advertising partners.

Discussion: paidContent, New York Observer, MediaMemo, From the Reporters, Digital Trends, Fast Company, FishbowlNY, SAI and The Tech Trade, more at Techmeme », Thanks:laureni

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Twitter Big on Smaller Advertisers — Twitter Inc. is a hot property among investors, who are pumping up the company's valuation. But whether the start-up can live up to its multibillion-dollar appraisal depends on the likes of David Szetela, who holds the purse strings of numerous small and medium-sized advertisers.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Venture Capital Dispatch and Digits, more at Techmeme »

Joy Mayer / RJI:

Being an authentic person: Talking engagement with NPR's Bob Boilen — Yesterday, I wrote about NPR's listener community and wisdom from Andy Carvin. This is part 2 of my NPR chats. — National Public Radio's Bob Boilen has been talking directly to his listeners since the late '80s …

Tara Conlan / paidContent:UK:

BBC's International iPad iPlayer Will Cost Under $10 A Month — The BBC's international iPlayer iPad app will cost less than $10 (£6.13) a month when it launches later this year, according to director general Mark Thompson. — He said the global version of the corporation's online catch …

Discussion: Techland

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Atlantic Wire relaunches in newsier format — Today Atlantic readers are waking up to a drastically revamped version of the magazine's online aggregation site, the Atlantic Wire—and Gabriel Snyder,the site's recently installed editor is probably sleeping in a bit.

Discussion: Poynter