Mediagazer: Traditional media's refusal to enter the link economy (Anthony DeRosa)

11:25 PM ET, April 13, 2011

Top News:

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

About That Lawsuit... The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Jonathan Tasini is so utterly without merit, and has been so thoroughly eviscerated in the media — including being ridiculed as the “dumbest lawsuit ever” — I am hesitant to take any time away from aggregating adorable kitten videos to respond.

Discussion: Mixed Media, The Volokh Conspiracy, Media Law Prof Blog and The Wire

Brett Pulley / Bloomberg:

AOL's Huffington to Add News Staff in Local Site Revamp — AOL Inc. (AOL), seeking to revive sales growth after buying the Huffington Post, is hiring as many as 800 full-time employees at local-news operations across the country and reducing the use of freelancers.

Discussion: Street Fight, Poynter, VatorNews, Digital Trends, paidContent, NetNewsCheck Latest, FishbowlNY, Future of Journalism, Noted and Digits

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Does HuffPo even need its unpaid bloggers anymore?

Discussion: B2B Memes, The Wrap and Poynter

Jack Shafer / Slate:
Huffington Post lawsuit: The bloggers' class action against Arianna's site is pure bunk.

Discussion: Mixed Media, MediaPost, Editors Weblog, Forbes.com, The Atlantic Online, GigaOM, Washington Post, The First Post, The Atlantic Wire, L.A. Times Tech Blog, VentureBeat, Working Life, The Huffington Post, PC Magazine and Crikey

The Daily Beast:

Sidney Harman 1918-2011 — Sidney Harman died last night of complications from acute myeloid leukemia at the young age of almost 93. He first learned of his illness one month ago and remained vigorously engaged as Executive Chairman of Newsweek, and Chairman of the Academy for Polymathic Study …

Samantha Henig / The New Yorker Blog:
Postscript: Sidney Harman

Discussion: The Daily Beast and American Journalism Review

Media Decoder:
For Newsweek's Future, More Questions

Discussion: The Wrap and DealBook

Associated Press:

AP Mistakenly Reports on Fake GE Press Release — AP mistakenly publishes story about General Electric that was based on a fake press release — The Associated Press mistakenly published a story Wednesday about General Electric Co. that was based on a fake press release.

Discussion: CNBC, Associated Press, Talking Biz News, On Media's Blog, AOL News and genewscenters.com

Joe Weisenthal / The Wire:

WHOOPS: AP Falls For Hoax Press Release Saying That GE Will Repay Government $3.8 Billion Tax Break — Original post: The AP just fell for a hoax press release, which claimed that GE would repay the government the $3.8 billion tax loss carryforward it received.

Discussion: Poynter, Associated Press, CJR, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Hot Air, Regret the Error and FishbowlNY

msnbc.com:
‘Yes Men’ claim hoax GE tax press release

Discussion: Poynter and New York Observer

Anthony DeRosa:

Traditional media's refusal to enter the link economy — Blogger ethics tend to be better than traditional journalism ethics when it comes to linking to sources. It's actually far more likely you won't find a single link in any articles in most mainstream news publications online.

Douglas Martin / New York Times:

Charles Laufer, Founder of Tiger Beat, Dies at 87 — Charles Laufer, who as a high school teacher in 1955 despaired that his students had nothing entertaining to read and responded with magazines aimed at teenage girls desperate to know much, much more about the lives of their favorite cute stars …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, PopEater and FishbowlNY

Meghan Peters / Mashable!:

How Paywalls Are Changing News Organizations' Social Media Strategies — The recent launch of The New York Times paywall has prompted debates about the viability and fairness of paying for news online. Are publications unrealistic about subscription prices? Should the community rally to support journalism?

Discussion: paidContent:UK, Editors Weblog, blogs.journalism.co.uk, Future of Journalism and Noted, Thanks:lavrusik

Vadim Lavrusik / Mashable!:
Why Social Media Reinvigorates the Market for Quality Journalism

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, MediaPost, Online NewsHour and Noted, Thanks:cmmeetup

Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:

Spotify mulls plan to limit free music — Spotify is considering a plan to further cut back the amount of free music it offers to users and is expected to impose new limits perhaps as soon as this week, sources with knowledge of the plans told CNET. — Spotify, the online music service …

Discussion: Electronista

Tanzina Vega / Media Decoder:

Online Ad Revenue Continues to Rise — Internet advertising revenue continues to rise, according to a report released Wednesday by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers. — Advertising revenue for the full year reached a record high of $26 billion, a 15 percent increase over 2009.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Folio, FishbowlNY, GigaOM and NetNewsCheck Latest, more at Techmeme »

New York Post:

CNN tries ‘diverse’ approach — CNN brass are scrambling to find a new host for their troubled 7 p.m. timeslot, and trying to win back the African-American and Hispanic viewers sources say they've lost since the 2008 presidential campaign. — Hoping to accomplish both things at once …

Discussion: Inside Cable News, TVNewser, The Wire, TVWeek.com and Chickaboomer

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

Financial newsletter files plagiarism suit against competitor — Next Inning Technology Research, an online investment newsletter focused on semiconductor and technology stocks, has filed suit to stop the plagiarism of its content by New World Investor and its editor Michael Murphy.

Discussion: EE Times, Thanks:jspepper

C.W. Anderson / Nieman Journalism Lab:

David Levy and Rasmus Kleis Nielsen on the future of journalism beyond America's borders — Much of the discussion in the United States about the future of journalism has tended to revolve around a cluster of key themes: What are the business models for digital news? Is there a market failure for journalism?

Subtraction.com:

Commented Out — Last week I had to shut down the comment thread for a post I wrote about The Daily when it turned into an unexpectedly snarky exchange on the merits of various approaches to iPad publishing. To look at the twenty comments that were published before I shut it off …

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

As GetGlue Hits 1 Million Users, Is Checking In Becoming Part of TV Ritual? — A lot of the stories on the future of “social” TV focus on the idea of a real-time conversation happening online, with viewers sharing thoughts and jokes while taking in their favorite shows.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Lost Remote and NetworkEffect

Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:

IPad and old media: a shotgun wedding — Commentary: Publishing isn't ready yet to make a commitment — Front Page - News Viewer - Commentary - Markets - Investing - Personal Finance - Community - Games — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — The magazine industry and the iPad are headed for a shotgun wedding.

Discussion: Future of Journalism