Mediagazer: Using technology to ‘save’ longform journalism: Q & A with Evan Ratliff, aka The Atavist (Robert Hernandez/Online Journalism Review)

9:20 AM ET, April 27, 2011

Top News:

Alicia Dennis / People.com:

Katie Couric: I Am Leaving CBS Evening News — After weeks of widespread speculation about her future, Katie Couric is finally ready to go on the record. — “I have decided to step down from the CBS Evening News,” Couric tells PEOPLE exclusively. “I'm really proud of the talented team …

Discussion: Speakeasy, Reuters, Media Decoder, TVGuide.com, TVNewser, Hollywood Life, MediaPost, On Media's Blog, The Wire, msnbc.com, The Wrap, TVNewser, MyFox New York, Mediaite, rbr.com, Adweek, Yahoo! News, New York Magazine and Hollywood Reporter

Bloomberg:
Couric Said to Weigh Move to ABC as CBS Anchor Job Ends

Discussion: TVNewser and The Wrap

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

AOL's Patch Adding 8,000 Bloggers in ‘Full-On Course Correction’ — Ah, memories. Image via Wikipedia — Arianna Huffington must not be taking that class action lawsuit against her too seriously. Not only is AOL's new content chief not cutting down on the use of unpaid bloggers, she's doubling down — literally.

Discussion: paidContent, SAI, Street Fight, FishbowlLA, FishbowlNY, The Atlantic Wire, Poynter and LA Observed, more at Techmeme »

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

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.

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

Media companies haven't exploited opportunities created by iPad and mobile technology — I helped launch the Mobile Media blog in January 2010, days before Apple unveiled the iPad. Now, 15 months and 20 million iPads later, this is my last week as a daily contributor to Poynter.org.

MediaShift:

Highs and Lows of “Post Mortem” Collaboration Between Frontline, ProPublica, NPR — Recently at the Logan Symposium at UC Berkeley's Graduate School of Journalism, Mark Katches, California Watch's editorial director, asked a room full of reporters and editors if anyone wanted to share a “collaboration horror story.”

Joseph P. Kahn / Boston Globe:
‘Frontline’ team investigates its options for digital future

Discussion: Poynter and Free Press

Mike Melanson / ReadWriteWeb:

Instapaper Founder: Apps Don't Need To Be Free — Have you noticed that the free version of Instapaper, the app that captures online articles and stores them for offline reading on your mobile device, disappeared from the app store about a month ago? Neither had we, but today …

Sam Gustin / Epicenter:

Wired.com Q&A: New MIT Media Lab Director Joichi Ito on ‘Context and Connection’ — Joichi Ito, tapped as only the fourth director of the MIT Media Lab, says having a bio that seems “scatterbrained” will make the 25-year-old institution — already famous for its unorthodox research approach — seem just like home.

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Village Voice taps Harry Siegel as metro columnist — The Village Voice has been without a metro columnist since the abrupt departure of longtime staffer Tom Robbins back in January. — Starting in June, however, a new name will appear where Robbins' once did on the the masthead …

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and FishbowlNY

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: Poynter and On Media's Blog

Laura Miller / Salon:

From editor to writer — Legendary editor Robert Gottlieb on working with literary stars — and the miseries of his own writing process — Robert Gottlieb has worked in publishing since 1955, when he was hired as an editorial assistant at Simon & Schuster.

Robert Hernandez / Online Journalism Review:

Using technology to ‘save’ longform journalism: Q & A with Evan Ratliff, aka The Atavist — By Robert Hernandez: There are those who blame the digital age and the Internet as the causes of our short attention spans and disinterest in longform storytelling. Then there are those who embrace …

Christian Lorentzen / New York Observer:

Almost Amis — On Monday night, I was on 10th Avenue talking to the biological granddaughter of Brooklyn literary lioness Paula Fox. I asked her if she read Martin Amis. “I like Money,” said Courtney Love, sitting on a bench and smoking a cigarette outside a film premiere after-party.