Mediagazer: Calling people at home for a story? You heathen! (Robert MacMillan)

8:35 PM ET, March 24, 2011

Top News:

The newsonomics of Sunday paper/tablet subscriptions — Editor's Note: Each week, Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of news for the Lab. — Digital news business models are playing out on pool tables these days.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and Editors Weblog

Nate Silver / FiveThirtyEight:

A Note to Our Readers on the Times Pay Model and the Economics of Reporting — Let me say up front that I have some mixed feelings about The New York Times's metered model, which takes effect on March 28. I'd encourage you to read my colleague David Carr's take, as well as some of the many analyses …

Discussion: On Media's Blog, Reuters, FishbowlNY and PC Magazine

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

The New York Times subscription plan doesn't protect print, it promotes the mobile Web — The New York Times' new digital subscription pricing has been characterized by some as a backward-looking effort to protect print revenue. But after comparing the Times' subscription prices …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Boing Boing, Gizmodo, One Man & His Blog, eMedia Vitals and C-Scape

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

UK Times Plans Upgrade To Its ‘Berlin Wall’ — The Times is planning some changes to its paid digital model that could lead to more nuanced additions to its current hard in-or-out system. — Enders Analysis just published a research paper with this intriguing lead line …

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Brill, Crovitz & Co. Sell Journalism Online To RR Donnelly — That was fast. Just shy of two years after launch, Steve Brill, Gordon Crovitz and Leo Hindery Jr. have sold their “make journalism pay” business to someone who already makes money from publishing.

Discussion: Folio, Media & Entertainment, Poynter, MediaPost, Nieman Journalism Lab, Mediaweek, MinOnline and MediaPost

Ken Doctor / Newsonomics:
Beyond Journalism, Beyond Press, Journalism Online Moves into the B2B World

Discussion: The Wire, Poynter and The Wrap

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

Self-Publisher Signs Four-Book Deal With St. Martin's — Amanda Hocking, the 26-year-old author who shot to fame by selling more than a million copies of her self-published books, has signed up with a traditional publisher for her next series. — St. Martin's Press, part of Macmillan …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Amanda Hocking's Blog, TeleRead, GalleyCat and Jacket Copy

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

McKinsey Back at Condé Nast for Phase Three — Consulting firm responsible for deep cuts at publisher ramps up its work there — McKinsey & Co.—the consulting firm that was associated with magazine closings, layoffs and deep budget cuts at Condé Nast—is hard at work again inside 4 Times Square.

Discussion: New York Magazine

The Atlantic Wire:

Mark Armstrong: 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 a conversation with Mark Armstrong …

Thanks:jaredbkeller

Robert MacMillan:

Calling people at home for a story? You heathen! — A public relations person at a well known company told one of my reporter colleagues here that he was stalking board members of a company that he covers. Why? Because he called them at home, and had not told her before what story he was working on.

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

'I'm just mystified that this little job post has resonated with so many people in the business' — Sarasota Herald-Tribune's Matthew Doig has written what Mother Jones calls “the best journalism-job want ad ever.” His search for an investigative reporter is all over Twitter and journalists' Facebook pages.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Runnin' Scared, The Wire, Riptide 2.0, The Daily Caller, FishbowlNY, freefromeditors, MetaFilter, Mother Jones, NetNewsCheck Latest, Mediaite, The Daily What, FleetStreetBlues and New York Magazine

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Writer's disclosure: I used to buy pot from my story subject — Van Smith's story about Reptilian Records owner Christopher Neu pleading guilty to drug charges includes this passage in the 14th paragraph: … Romenesko asked Smith about bringing up his pot days. His response:

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Google begins testing Google Music internally — Google has begun testing Google Music internally, a sign that the much anticipated service is nearly ready to launch. — Google employees have begun a process commonly referred to in Silicon Valley as dog fooding, when employees try …

Discussion: SAI, more at Techmeme »

Lance Knobel / Davos Newbies:

Google listens... if you shout loudly enough — Yesterday evening I wrote about the bizarre disappearance from Google News of my news site, Berkeleyside. What happens next is either an illustration of the power of digital democracy or an example of the value of friends with fantastic megaphones.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab: Google News de-indexing Berkleyside: Bug, not snub!

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Time Warner Cable iPad flap heats up — Cabler facing litigation over app that streams live TV channels — Time Warner Cable is facing litigation from at least one of Hollywood's majors in a matter of days over its iPad app that transmits live TV channels within a subscriber's home …

Discussion: Multichannel

Jonathan Berr / DailyFinance:

Guess Who's Making Money? NPR — NPR expects to make a profit this year, a surprising state of affairs for a nonprofit. But with the national debate raging about whether the federal government should stop funding public broadcasting, could NPR find itself a victim of its own success?

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Poynter

Gail Shister / mediabistro.com:

‘I know the difference between journalism and a slogan. Keeping them honest is a slogan.’ — Twenty-seven years after suffering a heart attack he didn't know was a heart attack, CNN exile Aaron Brown will undergo triple-bypass surgery today in Phoenix. — “Some part of me has known …

Discussion: All Things CNN, Poynter and New York Magazine