Mediagazer: Will Google's Search Ad Previews Break The Click? (Kevin Ryan/AdAge)

5:45 PM ET, April 27, 2011

Top News:

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Factchecking Obama: Birther controversy was 4% of newshole, not ‘dominant’ story — In a news conference called Wednesday morning to resolve the controversy over where he was born, President Barack Obama showed his recently-released long-form birth certificate and criticized not only 'birthers …

Discussion: Mediaite, Journalism.org, New York Times, doublex.com, The New Yorker Blog, Salon, Political Punch, The Wire and Pajamas Media

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Obama Scolds Media For Focusing On Birthers — At his press conference on Wednesday, President Obama scolded the media for focusing on his birth certificate instead of more important issues. — He started the conference by calling out NBC's Chuck Todd directly.

Discussion: Journalism.org, TVWeek.com, Pajamas Media, FrumForum, Yahoo! News, @davidfolkenflik and The Wire

Associated Press:
Obama releases birth form, decries ‘silliness’

Discussion: New York Times, White House.gov Blog, Mediaite, The Politico, Guardian, The Raw Story, New York Magazine, The Politico, The Wire, Hit & Run, Mediaite, MediaMemo, The Maddow Blog, Runnin' Scared, Pajamas Media, The Wire and New York Observer

Meg Pickard / Guardian:

Guardian Local - an update on the experiment — The Guardian Local pilot has taught us a lot about new models of journalism but we will soon be winding it down — We believe that journalism plays a vital role in communities, so two years ago we created the Local project.

Discussion: paidContent, Jon Slattery and Journalism.co.uk

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

AP Interactive visualizes a future of stories that reach beyond text — Over the past two years, the Associated Press has nearly doubled the number of interactive graphics it produces each month, jumping from 40 in 2009 to over 70 so far in 2011. On the surface, that increase is logical almost …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Katie Feola / Adweek:

The New York Times Has Not Sunk...Yet Sulzberger talks up company at annual meeting — NEW YORK—At the New York Times Company's annual meeting here on Wednesday, company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. did his best to keep the focus on the flagship paper's high quality journalism.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Gabriel Snyder / The Atlantic Wire:

Malcolm Gladwell: 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. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and The Atlantic Wire, Thanks:deliacabe

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Comcast in Talks to Offer On-Demand Movies 6 to 8 Weeks After Theaters — Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), the largest U.S. cable-television company, is in talks with Hollywood movie studios to show some films on demand six to eight weeks after their theatrical release, a Comcast executive said.

Discussion: Deadline.com, MediaPost and Company Town

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Jesse Thorn on making your own thing in public radio (while still being able to feed your family) — Two years ago, I did an interview with Jesse Thorn, the host of the public radio program The Sound of Young America and, to my mind, one of the most interesting entrepreneurs in public media today.

Dan Duray / New York Observer:

What's an Out-of-Work Ethicist to Do? Randy Cohen Seeks Refuge on the Airwaves — Randy Cohen received the news that The New York Times Magazine would continue the Ethicist without him from Hugo Lindgren himself. Mr. Cohen had been edited by Mr. Lindgren and called it …

Discussion: New York Magazine and FishbowlNY

Ellie Behling / eMedia Vitals:

Bloomberg updates social media policy: Ask first. Tweet later. — Bloomberg's new social media policy encourages reporters to use Twitter — but with stipulations. It might seem like an obvious move for a news organization these days, but some traditional outlets, including Bloomberg, have managed to hold off until now.

Discussion: Poynter, Talking Biz News, FishbowlNY and @jayrosen_nyu

New York Times:

In WikiLeaks' Growth, Some Control Is Lost — WikiLeaks, the Web site responsible for publicizing millions of state secrets in the last year, has tried to pick its media partners carefully. But the site has become such a large player in journalism that some of its secrets are no longer its own to control.

Discussion: http://www.Stinkyjournalism …

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Fox News Pushes Mike Huckabee on 2012 Decision — THE DAILY BEAST ON: — The network wants a yes or no on whether the governor-turned-TV host is running for the White House. But Huckabee tells Howard Kurtz he feels no pressure at all. — Mike Huckabee may be running out of time to make a decision on running for president.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Poynter, New York Magazine, FrumForum, On Media's Blog and TVNewser

Jeffrey Benzing / American Journalism Review:

On the Front Lines — Former TBD.com honcho Jim Brady is helping the Journal Register Company reinvent itself for the digital age. Posted: Wed, April 27, 2011 — Jeffrey Benzing (jbenzing@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — They're building Thunderdome.

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Why newspaper ad sales are not recovering — Nearly two years after the U.S. economy began climbing out of the worst recession since the 1930s, advertising sales at newspapers have yet to hit bottom. — Now, the question haunting every newspaper executive is: How low will they go?

Matt Palevsky / Poynter:

Royal Wedding ticket the latest benchmark of citizen journalism's ascendancy at CNN — A week ago, CNN announced that it will send Floridian Jason Sauter to the hottest ticket of the year, the British Royal Wedding. Sauter — who works as a guest service manager at Disney World and …

Discussion: Washington Post and mediabistro.com

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Is The Mag Recovery Over? Meredith Profits, Revenues Drop On Ad Pullback — While newspapers' ad revenues continue to be depressed at the major publishers, magazines have tended to keep their collective head above water. But an advertising pullback has caused women's magazine publisher Meredith Corp. …

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Copps Lays Into Local News ‘Evisceration’ — FCC commish wants better and more accountable journalism — The venue was different, but the message was the same. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, on something of a farewell tour as he wraps up his second and what he has indicated …

Discussion: FishbowlLA

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

What now for those buying anonymity? — After presenter's confession, what now for the rich and famous who have bought anonymity with super-injunctions? — Campaigners for reform of Britain's privacy laws have expressed hope that Andrew Marr's dramatic volte-face yesterday over an injunction …

Discussion: BBC and Daily Mail

Kevin Ryan / AdAge:

Will Google's Search Ad Previews Break The Click? — Probably Not, But Big Adjustments Lie Ahead For Search Advertisers — Search ad formats are in a constant state of motion. Since sponsored ads first appeared on the scene, tweaks to how ads appear and what makes people click have kept marketers on their toes.

Discussion: Adweek

Elliot Jay Stocks:

Adobe's Digital Publishing mistake — It's Easter Monday (a public holiday here in the UK) and I'm sitting outside in the garden, enjoying some much-needed downtime. I've spent he last half hour or so casually flicking through the latest issue of MacUser magazine, which has a large feature …

Discussion: Boing Boing

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

From dozens of articles, a portrait emerges of the ‘Times’ portrait — In yesterday's quite fun piece about City Comptroller Jon Liu and Mayor Michael Bloomberg, reporter David Chen began with a very nice, obviously well-sourced anecdote about a trip the two took last year.

Discussion: Poynter, New York Times and New York Magazine

Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:

Village Voice Media Getting Down and Dirty with Escort Ads — Last week, deputies in Polk County, Fla., arrested 60 people—including a Disney employee, a man with breast implants, a 15-year-old runaway with a 2-year-old infant, and her pimp—in an online prostitution bust dubbed Operation Curtain Call.