Mediagazer: In Defense of NPR — Come on now: Let's take a breath and put … (Bill Moyers/The Huffington Post)

11:10 PM ET, March 11, 2011

Top News:

Earthquake turns TV networks into print — An 8.9-magnitude earthquake that struck Japan yesterday, and a tsunami is spreading, right now, across the Pacific ocean. Thus we have much news that is best consumed live and uncooked. Here's mine, right now: — Not many of us carry radios in our pockets any more.

Jon Nicosia / Mediaite:
Japan Hit By Massive 8.9 Magnitude ‘Great’ Earthquake - Tsunami Triggered

Discussion: MediaMemo, This Just In, CNN, TVNewser, VentureBeat, CNET News, The Wire, Fortune and PSFK, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Why AOL Was So Desperate to Hook Up With Huffington Post — When AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced the $315-million acquisition of The Huffington Post several weeks ago, he made the deal sound like a nice strategic add-on for the former web portal's content business — an expansion …

Discussion: AdAge, On Media's Blog, Mixed Media, mediabistro.com and Editors Weblog

David Kaplan / paidContent:
Interview: Armstrong On Layoffs: ‘News & Finance Was Losing $20 Million’

Discussion: rbr.com, BoomTown, eMedia Vitals, paidContent:UK, SAI, Newsonomics and Epicenter

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A WordPress for news orgs: Knight gives Bay Citizen, Texas Tribune $975,000 for open-source CMS — This morning, the Knight Foundation announced a new $975,000 grant to the Texas Tribune and the Bay Citizen, two young nonprofit news organizations, to build an open-source publishing platform designed specifically for news outlets.

Discussion: paidContent, Strange Attractor and KnightBlog

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:
Texas Tribune, Bay Citizen to split $975,000 Knight grant

Discussion: News for Digital Journalists, Knight Foundation News … and Free Press

Dan / Xark!:

The danger in the doldrums — This morning's day-off multi-tasking: watching coverage of the horrible 8.9 earthquake in Japan while reading my various feeds, which included finally taking on the Bill Keller column about aggregation. It includes this passage in the ultimate graph:

Discussion: NewsBusters.org blogs, AAN, Editors Weblog, Silicon Valley Watcher and The Wrap

Bill Moyers / The Huffington Post:

In Defense of NPR — Come on now: Let's take a breath and put this NPR fracas into perspective. — Just as public radio struggles against yet another assault from the its long-time nemesis — the right-wing machine that would thrill if our sole sources of information were Fox News …

Discussion: Mediaite and NewsBusters.org blogs

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Excerpt: Maxim Founder Felix Dennis on the Fallacy of Big Ideas — In addition to being a publisher, poet, planter of trees and polyamorist, Felix Dennis, founder of Maxim and The Week magazines, is simply one of the most entertaining people you could hope to converse with.

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

4 key challenges NPR's next CEO faces as staffers, stations, funding needs escalate and conflict — NPR's next CEO faces an enormous set of challenges. Whoever the NPR Board of Directors eventually chooses for this position will assume leadership of an organization that in recent months has lost its CEO …

Discussion: Washington Post, Guardian, Slate, Opinionator, The Daily Beast, MediaPost, Free Press and Lippmann Would Roll

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

Happy birthday, Rupert Murdoch, but what next? — Entering his ninth decade, the media mogul seems more powerful than ever in America - the land he loves — Rupert Murdoch was never an especially good fit with Australia - too small for his ambitions, too egalitarian for his near-royal upbringing, and, plus, he hated sports.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire and FishbowlNY

MediaShift:

How French Site OWNI Profits by Giving Away Its Content — Business content on MediaShift is sponsored by the weekend MA in Public Communication at American University. Designed for working professionals, the program is suited to career changers and public relations or social marketing professionals seeking career advancement.

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Why Warner's Movie Test on Facebook Is Such Serious Business — It Won't Destroy Netflix or iTunes, but It Will Change the Media Landscape — You could argue Warner Bros.' test to rent, and soon sell, “The Dark Knight” and other films on Facebook is just another promotional deal on the world's largest social network.

Meghan Peters / Mashable!:

Washington Post Explores the Future of Journalism Via Tumblr — Thursday, the Washington Post launched @innovations, a Tumblr blog meant to showcase the news organization's digital features and discuss the changing media landscape. — The blog acknowledges the new ways readers are engaging …

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Poynter, Still Not Going To Do … and eMedia Vitals

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Adam Moss talks Tina Brown, Times Magazine and New York — Adam Moss was at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism Thursday night to share his experiences and insights as the award-winning editor-in-chief of New York magazine. But a few people in the audience were more interested in hearing …

Discussion: The Wire, Poynter, mediabistro.com and FishbowlNY

Stuart Dredge / paidContent:UK:

Condé Nast UK To Invest More In iPad Apps — iPad magazine sales have often failed to live up to their early promise, but Condé Nast Digital Britain is nevertheless upping its investment in bringing its publications to Apple's tablet. — The publisher announced on Friday …

Discussion: Media Week

Judith Acosta / The Huffington Post:

And Now, More About Me: The Sorry State Of The News Media — Things have changed in many ways, but few things as dramatically or as insidiously as the manner in which we receive and process information. This is particularly true of the media. — The media—or what was once called the press …