Mediagazer: Networks unlikely to pay RNC to broadcast debates (Michael Calderone/Yahoo! News)

3:40 PM ET, March 16, 2011

Top News:

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Four New York Times Journalists Are Missing in Libya — The New York Times said Wednesday that four of its journalists reporting on the conflict in Libya were missing. — Editors at the paper said they were last in contact with the journalists on Tuesday morning New York time.

Discussion: Poynter, Yahoo! News, Guardian, Jon Slattery, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, The Wire, LA Observed, FishbowlNY, On Media's Blog, Gothamist, The Wrap, @fieldproducer, New York Magazine and This Just In

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Patch.com's Newark plan smells of conflict — Huffington Post co-founder Arianna Huffington (Jason Kempin / Getty Images For IMG / March 16, 2011) — The AOL hyper-local news operation, now under Arianna Huffington, enters a partnership with a New Jersey mayor that doesn't seem journalistically sound.

Discussion: On Media's Blog

Lucia Moses / Mediaweek:
Huffington Explains AOL's Odd Partnership With Newark Mayor

Discussion: Poynter

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Quake Coverage Draws Viewers to CNN — CNN once again proved its appeal to viewers of breaking news last Friday through Monday night, with coverage of the aftermath of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami. — Friday's audience for the total day, 2.273 million, was CNN's largest since the Inauguration in January 2009.

Discussion: Mediaite, Poynter, TVWeek.com and rbr.com

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

Netflix To Enter Original Programming With Mega Deal For David Fincher-Kevin Spacey Series ‘House Of Cards’ — EXCLUSIVE: Video streaming juggernaut Netflix is becoming an original series player. In what is probably the biggest gamble in its 14-year history, I hear Netflix …

Michael Calderone / Yahoo! News:

Networks unlikely to pay RNC to broadcast debates — The Republican National Committee is considering the idea of officially sanctioning presidential primary debates and then selling the television broadcast rights to the networksâ€"an unprecedented move that would force networks …

Discussion: Swampland

CNN:
RNC considers selling TV rights of presidential primary debates

Discussion: TVNewser and Politics Daily

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Bob Woodward: ‘You get the truth at night, the lies during the day’ — During a visit to Poynter on Tuesday, Bob Woodward talked about why he likes his iPad, what he thinks about the future of long-form journalism and what he considers to be the best time of day to access hard-to-reach sources.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, MediaMemo, Media Buyer Planner, Editors Weblog and Poynter

Dave Winer / Scripting News:

Will we see the NY Times paywall soon? — Amid revolutions and huge earthquakes and nuclear meltdowns, we're reminded that we might see a NY Times paywall any day now. — I've always said that the Times likes to talk about a paywall, and they've been doing that for a long time …

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

The Washington Post Has Achieved Perfect Fairness — The most noteworthy feature of the new WashingtonPost.com redesign: its opinion section (the world's worst) now features “Left-Leaning” and “Right-Leaning” tabs, so that you can comfortably segregate yourself in the opinion ghetto of your choice.

Discussion: The Wire and Poynter

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

100 Percent Fresh Exclusive!: Flixster/Rotten Tomatoes in Acquisition Talks With Yahoo and Others — Flixster-the popular social movie site whose brands include the Rotten Tomatoes premium reviews site, as well as BuddyTV-is in early acquisition talks with several suitors, including Yahoo, said sources close to the situation.

Discussion: VentureBeat and Techland

Patricia Chui / The Moviefone Blog:

Moviefone's Response to the TechCrunch Post — By now you may have read the recent post in TechCrunch regarding that site's SXSW coverage of the film ‘Source Code.’ A representative from Moviefone, who set up the interview with Summit Entertainment, received some feedback from the studio …

Scott Weinberg / @scotteweinberg:
Effective immediately, I no longer work for @moviefone. Here's why: http://tcrn.ch/eLmTwi I will always love @cinematical.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, @scotteweinberg, @alexia, @erikmal, Poynter and The Awl

Abu Dhabi / Reuters:

News Corp aims to build own social gaming business — (Reuters) - Media giant News Corp aims to build its own social-gaming business as valuations of games companies, such as FarmVille maker Zynga skyrocket, its head of digital media said on Wednesday. — Jonathan Miller also said News Corp's …

Discussion: BloggingStocks

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

New York Observer launches tech site, loses editor — It's been more than a month since Kyle Pope left his post as editor-in-chief of The New York Observer, and the salmon-colored weekly is sailing along under its new captain, Elizabeth Spiers. But one Observer editor has abandoned ship.

Discussion: Poynter

New York Observer:
We Got the Betabeat! ‘The Observer’ Tech Site Launches Tomorrow

Discussion: Talking Biz News and WebNewser

minonline.com:

Hearst Magazines is 2010 Group Publishers' Ad-Page Champ — With the explosion of magazine apps, social media and the resurgence of print advertising, magazine brands are showing a prominent face to their loyal and new readers and advertisers. This week's top 5 chart looks …

Discussion: Folio and FishbowlNY

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Facebook Takes Another Swing At Web Video: Live Streaming Major League Baseball — Last week, you could rent a movie on Facebook. Today, you can watch a live pro baseball game on the site. — Still think Facebook can't be a big player in Web video? — You can watch the game …

Discussion: Inside Facebook, paidContent and San Francisco Chronicle, more at Techmeme »

Los Angeles Times:

Reel China: Hollywood tries to stay on China's good side — Without Beijing even uttering a critical word, MGM is changing the villains in its ‘Red Dawn’ remake from Chinese to North Korean. It's all about maintaining access to the Asian superpower's lucrative box office.

Discussion: Hit & Run and Company Town