Mediagazer: The Geico Gecko meets The AOL Way: Are display advertisers too obsessed with click-through rates? (Simon Owens/Nieman Journalism Lab)

3:20 PM ET, March 29, 2011

Top News:

Jonathan Cooper / Journal Register Company:

Online Veteran To Lead Digital Transformation of JRC Newsrooms — Yardley, PA - Journal Register Company, a leading multi-media company in local news and information, announced today Jim Brady is joining the Company to lead the Digital Transformation of all of its newsroom on all platforms.

Discussion: paidContent, eMedia Vitals, On Media's Blog, Beet.TV and Editors Weblog

Danny Sullivan / Daggle:

A Better Letter To New York Times Readers About Digital Subscriptions — Today, the New York Times is taking a major step forward as we introduce digital subscriptions in the United States and the rest of the world. Since we first announced the plan 11 days ago, we've heard from so many of you, our readers.

Discussion: Editors Weblog, New York Times, Ubergizmo, Media Buyer Planner, Cision, Runnin' Scared and New York Times

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Pushing on an open door: Bill Keller's unnecessary argument for the Times' pay model — In his second column for The New York Times Magazine, appearing this week, Bill Keller, the top editor of the Times, ends with an analogy: … The column appeared the day before the Times' new metering system went into effect.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Wire

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:
How To Hack the New York Times Paywall ... With Your Delete Key

Discussion: Search Engine Land, paidContent, Digital Trends, Newspaper Death Watch, digiday:DAILY and Reflections of a Newsosaur

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

UK Times Claims 79,000 Digital Subscribers — Frequently besmirched since it started charging online eight month ago, News International has, as it promised it would, issued a second set of numbers for Times Newspapers' progress since then. — It claims 79,000 monthly digital-only subscribers …

Discussion: Media Week and The Next Web

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Dispute Over Time Warner Cable's Streaming to iPad Bursts Into the Open — Companies like Time Warner Cable and Cablevision buy the rights to beam channels to customers' television sets. But do those rights extend to iPads? — That question has divided the television industry in recent weeks …

Discussion: Media Buyer Planner and Lost Remote

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The power of...listicles? Yahoo Research tackles distribution and longevity data for Twitter — Who says what to whom on Twitter? That's the subject — and the title — of a just-released report from Yahoo Research. (You can read the abstract, and download the report's pdf, here.)

Discussion: The Wire and eMedia Vitals

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Twitter as Media: Yes, Celebrities and Brands Still Matter

Discussion: SAI, The 6th Floor, Mashable!, Media News, Digital Trends, thinq_ and Future of Journalism

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Before Libya, White House Must Negotiate With ABC — President Obama had a message for the American people Monday night, an explanation of the government's intentions in Libya, one that he believed was important enough to request air time from the broadcast networks as well as the cable news networks.

Discussion: The Wrap, Mediaite, The Wire, The Huffington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, Media Matters for America, Salon, The Daily Beast, Free Press and Gawker

Henry Blodget / The Wire:

WHO'S FULL OF CRAP? GE, The New York Times, And The Hazards Of “Tweeting The Record Straight” — We spent much of this afternoon sparring with GE's public affairs division on Twitter over a New York Times report that GE paid no US taxes last year. — GE had taken to Twitter to blast …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, Media Matters for America, Agence France Presse, SAI, mediabistro.com, The Huffington Post, The Beast, ThinkProgress, GE Reports, Gothamist, The Atlantic Wire, PE Hub Blog, Scocca and The Daily Beast

Reuters:

Journalist for Reuters killed in Iraq attack — (Reuters) - A freelance journalist who worked for Reuters was among at least 20 people killed on Tuesday when gunmen attacked a local government building in Tikrit, the hometown of former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein.

Discussion: Yahoo! News and FishbowlNY

Ethan Smith / Wall Street Journal:

Amazon Planning Online Media ‘Locker’ — Amazon.com Inc. is planning to start a service that would let people store music and video online and access it from various digital devices, people familiar with the matter said. — The company could announce the effort as early as Tuesday, the people said.

Discussion: Amazon.com, Bits, USA Today, hypebot, MediaMemo, MediaPost, Mobilized, GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb, SAI, Geekosystem, GeekWire, Fox News, Digits, Electronista and parislemon, more at Techmeme »

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Video Advertising Company Adap.tv Raises $20 Million — Video advertising company Adap.tv has raised $20 million in funding led by Bessemer Venture Partners with Gemini Israel Funds, Redpoint Ventures and Spark Capital also participating in the round. This brings Adap.tv's total funding to $43 million.

Discussion: paidContent and AdExchanger.com

Joe Mullin / paidContent:

Righthaven Sues Reporter For His Article About—A Righthaven Lawsuit — Sometimes it seems like Righthaven might run out of targets to sue for copyright infringement, but now it has tapped into a perhaps never-ending source: journalists covering Righthaven.

Discussion: Techdirt

Fortune:

The movie mogul of the Internet: YouTube — Google has long been a media company in denial. Now it's beefing up YouTube to become a studio system for a new era of content production. Keyboard cat, meet the evening news. — By Dan Mitchell, contributor

Simon Owens / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Geico Gecko meets The AOL Way: Are display advertisers too obsessed with click-through rates? — Late last year, AOL announced it would be revamping its ad platform, shrinking the number of ads it serves and expanding the sizes of those ads. In some cases the ad units would be four times larger than they were before.

Joe Mullin / paidContent:

Ex-Googlers Launch ‘NYT For A Nickel’ As Publicity Stunt; NYT Not Amused — Calvin Young and his partner Noah Ready-Campbell (pictured at left) left Google (NSDQ: GOOG) two months ago to start Minno, a company dedicated to reviving the idea of micropayments as a way to monetize content on the web.

Discussion: The Next Web and Poynter

Ben Huh / Cheezburger Company Blog:

Know How To Pronounce “Meme” — Does “meme” rhyme with “Mimi”? Or is it like “mem” in “memory”? Well, it turns out, it has a silent “k” in front, as in “Know Your Meme”. — I'm very happy to announce that Cheezburger has acquired Know Your Meme. In addition to acquiring the popular site …

Discussion: VentureBeat, The Next Web and Know Your Meme Blog