Mediagazer: 4 key challenges NPR's next CEO faces as staffers, stations, funding needs escalate and conflict (Mallary Jean Tenore/Poynter)

3:10 PM ET, March 11, 2011

Top News:

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: FishbowlNY

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

Bill Keller Accuses Me of “Aggregating” an Idea He Had Actually “Aggregated” From Me — Perhaps unsettled by the fact that, when combined, The Huffington Post and AOL News have over 70 percent more unique visitors than the New York Times, and that HuffPost/AOL News' combined page views …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

NYT Editor Says It's Only Journalism When He Does It — Updated: If you're a traditional journalist, or someone who works for a traditional media outlet, the easiest way to cast aspersions at a digital media entity is to use the A word: that is, “aggregation.”

Discussion: Guardian, New York Times, @gaberivera, @fromedome, Techdirt, Bloggasm, NYConvergence.com and SAI, Thanks:dianapereira

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Bill Keller Writes Provocative Media Column From 1997

Discussion: The Wrap, New York Magazine, New York Observer and Runnin' Scared

Doc Searls Weblog:

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

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Interview: Armstrong On Layoffs: ‘News & Finance Was Losing $20 Million’ — AOL (NYSE: AOL) CEO Tim Armstrong warned that layoffs would be coming last week, and today, the pink slips were released. Armstrong spoke about the decision during a Q&A keynote session this morning at the Bloomberg Businessweek Media Summit.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, paidContent:UK, SAI, Talking Biz News, Newsonomics, Media & Entertainment, Future of Journalism and Poynter

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 and Mixed Media

Sam Gustin / Wired.com:
Veteran Journos Out as AOL-Huffington Cuts 900 Jobs

Discussion: Mashable!, Fortune, Editors Weblog, TechCrunch, Racked National, mediabistro.com, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat and paidContent

Instapaper Blog:

Instapaper 3.0 is here! — Instapaper 3.0 for iPhone and iPad is now available in the App Store, and I've updated the Instapaper website to include many of its new features as well. This is the biggest update Instapaper has ever had in one version, and I'm proud to finally show it to you.

Discussion: Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb, eBookNewser, Digital Trends, Gadget Lab, VatorNews, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Download Squad, The Next Web, MacStories, Gizmodo and The Loop, more at Techmeme »

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

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

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

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: FishbowlNY

Greg Masters / American Journalism Review:

Cracking the Twitter Case — Other reporters tried and failed, but The Atlantic's Alexis Madrigal tracked down the identity of the man behind the profane and brilliant @MayorEmanuel. Posted: Fri, March 11, 2011 — Greg Masters (gmasters@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant.

Discussion: Snarkmarket

Nat Worden / Dow Jones Newswires:

Time Warner Faces Pressure To Recoup HBO Subscriber Losses — NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- HBO, home of popular TV shows like “Big Love” and “True Blood,” faces a key test of its business model this year after its subscriber rolls declined to an estimated five-year low in 2010 …

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.

European Journalism Centre / EJC:

Will Righthaven copyright lawsuits change excerpting online? — Is it an infringement of copyright to post an excerpt from an online news article—including a link to its source—on a website, a blog, or an online forum? This practice is ubiquitous in online journalism …

Discussion: Techdirt

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Why the Knight-Mozilla Technology Partnership is betting on open source and distributed innovation — How exactly do we Firefox the news? — It's a question to ask now that the Knight Foundation has partnered with Mozilla to create news technology fellowships to help spur innovation in newsrooms.

Discussion: Newspaper Death Watch