Mediagazer: Why Selling Film Downloads Is So Difficult (Andrew Wallenstein/paidContent)

7:25 PM ET, March 9, 2011

Top News:

Mark Memmott / NPR:

NPR CEO Vivian Schiller Resigns — This follows yesterday's news that then-NPR fundraiser Ron Schiller (no relation) was videotapped slamming conservatives and questioning whether NPR needs federal funding during a lunch with men posing as members of a Muslim organization …

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

NPR president Vivian Schiller resigns — Romenesko Misc. — NPR board chairman Dave Edwards says CEO and president Vivian Schiller's resignation was accepted “with understanding, genuine regret and great respect for her leadership of NPR these past two years.”

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Examiner, The Daily Caller, @brianstelter, @brianstelter, Hot Air, NewsBusters.org blogs, Mixed Media, Weasel Zippers, NewsBusters.org blogs, The Hill, @carr2n, CJR and Hit & Run

New York Times:
Facing Lawmakers' Fire, NPR Sees New Setback

Discussion: Poynter, The Future of Capitalism, USA Today, Runnin' Scared, Guardian, Bloggasm, BlogPost and Boing Boing

David Folkenflik / @davidfolkenflik:
Board chairman Edwards confirms board ousted her - said Schiller set tone by saying board should take any action it felt necessary.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Fox Nation and Big Journalism

Mark Memmott / NPR:
In Video: NPR Exec Slams Tea Party, Questions Need For Federal Funds

Discussion: Poynter, NPR Blogs, MediaFile, CNN, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker Blog, Tuned In, paidContent, Los Angeles Times, Salon, Weigel, USA Today, The Daily Caller, The Atlantic Online, Politics Daily, Big Journalism, AOL News and The Atlantic Wire

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:
NPR ‘appalled’ by former exec's comments

Discussion: CJR, The Daily Caller, The Wrap and Weigel

Austin Carr / Fast Company:

Personalized iPad Magazine Zite Learns As You Read, Challenges Flipboard — Have you ever created a Genius playlist on iTunes or set up a station on Pandora? Just plug in one song, and you instantly hear music that matches your tastes. Think of Zite, the free personalized iPad magazine …

Discussion: Mashable!, NetworkEffect, Scobleizer, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Phones Review, App Advice, Ubergizmo, The Next Web and eMedia Vitals, more at Techmeme »

Katherine Boehret / All Things Digital:
A Digital “Magazine” With One Subscriber [The Digital Solution]

Discussion: MarketingVOX

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

TV.com Head Anthony Soohoo Leaves CBS — More bodies moving around at CBS' digital division: Last week, the broadcaster bought Clicker.com for a reported $100 million, and put its CEO Jim Lanzone in charge of CBS Interactive. Today, CBS Interactive entertainment head Anthony Soohoo says he's leaving.

Discussion: Mediaweek, WebNewser, paidContent, MediaPost, GigaOM, Broadcasting & Cable and Company Town

Neal Ungerleider / Fast Company:

Al Jazeera Launching English-Language Children's Channel — Al Jazeera isn't just news. Their next project? An English-language childrens' edutainment network on American TV by 2012. — Al Jazeera's banking that its newest project—an English-language children's channel …

Discussion: The Wire, Weasel Zippers, Mediaite and FishbowlNY

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Hearst's Carey: Tablets Will Provide 25 Percent Of Magazines' Circulation — The notion that the iPad was going to save newspapers and magazines had been diminishing somewhat lately, especially since publishers have tended to regard Apple's 70/30 revenue split for digital subscriptions coupled.

Discussion: MediaPost and Media Buyer Planner

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

New York Times Editor Bill Keller Defends Fox News Comments — The Times' top editor stands by his description of Fox News' “Fair and Balanced” slogan as “cynical,” but tells Howard Kurtz his newspaper will provide fair and incisive coverage of the network.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wire, On Media's Blog, Poynter, Chickaboomer and The Atlantic Wire

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Magazines' iPad Editions Struggle to Keep Your Attention, New Study Finds — CP&B Now Using the Research to Develop Tablet Ad Formats — Readers have more trouble focusing on magazines' iPad editions than publishers initially predicted, according to the latest study in a growing effort to figure out tablet computers.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and NetNewsCheck Latest

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

It's Time For NPR to Get Off the Government Payroll — NPR gets about 2% of its direct funding from the U.S. government, through the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. For NPR's member stations, CPB funding is about 10% of their total, with other federal, state, and local government sources kicking in another 6%.

Discussion: On Media's Blog, rbr.com, MediaPost, Broadcasting & Cable, The Huffington Post, Weigel, The Atlantic Wire and Jezebel

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Lessons of the Like Log: The big story and the nuances of shareability — The Internet may run on love; thanks to Facebook, though, it also runs on like. Or, more specifically, on Like. — That's made clear in a collection of research, released last night, that traces the Facebook effect when it comes to online news.

Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:

Drilling Down: Is ‘The Times’ Giving Proper Credit? — Who do you have to frack to get some credit around here? — That's what we're wondering after a recent New York Times series on the latest hot-button environmental issue—hydraulic fracturing, a.k.a. “fracking.”

The Atlantic Wire:

Megan McCarthy: What I Read — How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all? Do they have some secret? Perhaps. We are asking various people who seem well-informed to describe their media diets.This is from an email exchange with Megan McCarthy …

Discussion: @megan and The Huffington Post

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Craigslist's Newmark joins Center for Public Integrity board — Romenesko Misc. — Executive director William Buzenberg calls Craig Newmark “an iconic visionary who saw the community- empowerment potential of the Internet early on.” The Craigslist founder, he says …

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Why Selling Film Downloads Is So Difficult — Though the whole notion of ownership is called into question by the nature of streaming video, consumers would do more buying than renting of films online if studios seeking higher margins had their way. But a new PricewaterhouseCoopers study offers …

Richard J. Tofel / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Someday, the sun will set on SEO — and the business of news will be better for it — Editor's Note: Richard J. Tofel is general manager at ProPublica, a Wall Street Journal veteran, and author of a number of books, most recently Eight Weeks in Washington, 1861: Abraham Lincoln and the Hazards of Transition.

Discussion: iMediaConnection Blog

Marika Lynch / KnightBlog:

Knight welcomes new VP Journalism and Media Innovation, Detroit program director; promotes journalism exec — Today, Knight Foundation is announcing two new arrivals, and an important new position. — Michael Maness will become vice president of the Journalism and Media Innovation program.

Discussion: Knight Foundation News …, Gannett Blog, Poynter and News for Digital Journalists