Mediagazer: Why The New York Times replaced its Twitter ‘cyborg’ with people this week (Jeff Sonderman/Poynter)

8:45 PM ET, May 24, 2011

Top News:

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Why The New York Times replaced its Twitter ‘cyborg’ with people this week — The New York Times is turning off the automatic feed for its main Twitter account this week in an experiment to determine if a human-run, interactive approach will be more effective.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Future Journalism Project, The Wire, Editors Weblog and FishbowlNY, more at Techmeme »

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Times Reporter Served With Subpoena in Leak Case — WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors, with the approval of Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., are trying to force a reporter at The New York Times to testify at a criminal trial about who leaked information to him about a C.I.A. effort …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Gawker, Yahoo! News, The New Yorker Blog, Runnin' Scared, Battleland, FishbowlNY and The Wire

Paul Miller / This is my next:

Barnes & Noble's new Nook goes back to basics — Barnes & Noble just announced its all-new Nook, with an E-Ink screen and zero shenanigans. It's being subtitled “The Simple Touch Reader,” with a single 6-inch black and white touchscreen. There's obviously no physical keyboard …

Discussion: The Next Web, NYConvergence.com and Daring Fireball, more at Techmeme »

Jacqui Cheng / Ars Technica:
Barnes & Noble goes after Kindle with Nook Simple Touch Reader

Discussion: Marco.org

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

YouTube Extends Plans for Ads Before Videos — In the early days of online video, commercials that appeared before viewers could watch clips, known as preroll, got “thumbs down” from most computer users. That attitude seems to have softened more recently, a change of heart that Web giants have noticed.

Discussion: AllThingsD, ReveNews, Search Engine Land, MarketingVox News & Trends, WebProNews, Softpedia News, paidContent and The Next Web

Adam Hochberg / Poynter:

Joplin Globe's Facebook page locates, reunites missing people in tornado aftermath — After a massive tornado roared through Joplin, Mo., Sunday night, much of the city was left isolated without electricity, telephone service, or Internet connections. Survivors have found it difficult …

Discussion: The Stream, Future of Journalism, MediaShift, The Huffington Post, Joplin Globe and The Rural Blog

Jeff Lehr / Joplin Globe:
Globe reporter joins neighborhood of survivors

Discussion: New York Post, Poynter and Poynter

New York Times:
In TV Crew's Hunt for Twisters, More Than They Bargained For

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Mediaite

Dbyers / Adweek:

Bloomberg View to Launch on Wednesday — Bloomberg View, the new opinion section of Bloomberg News, will launch on Wednesday, a company source told Adweek. — “Columns will start appearing overnight on Tuesday night” at Bloomberg.com/view, the source said, adding that the launch was part of a redesign …

Discussion: Mediaite, Yahoo! News, The Wire and FishbowlNY

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Dick Ebsersol's exit from NBC sends signal to rest of company — The abrupt departure of Dick Ebersol as chairman of NBC Sports Group last Thursday sent shockwaves through the network and the media industry. — It also sent a not-so-subtle message to other top NBCUniversal executives: Get with the program or hit the road.

Discussion: Mediaite, TVWeek.com and Free Press

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

Cheezburger CEO Planning WordPress-Style News 2.0 Software — Once you've built an empire of funny cat pictures and other user-generated comedy ephemera, what do you do next? Ben Huh, CEO of the sprawling Cheezburger network of comedy websites, has begun discussing a side-project he's working on called The Moby Dick Project.

Discussion: GeekWire and eMedia Vitals

Ben Huh / benhuh!:
Why Are We Still Consuming News Like It's 1899?

Discussion: Betabeat

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Brightcove Moves Mobile App Creation Into the Cloud — Brightcove has made a name for itself as one of the largest platforms for video distribution online. But now it is stepping beyond just the managing and distribution of online video with a new SaaS-based product for easily creating …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Beet.TV, PC Magazine, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Michael Paterniti / GQ:

Inside Al Jazeera — Nothing prepared us for what we saw happening across the Arab world this year. One network knew damn well how to report a revolution. Michael Paterniti takes us behind the cameras at Al Jazeera — On a cold March evening in Manhattan, Ayman Mohyeldin rode …

Discussion: TVNewser and The Wire

Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:

USA Network's Chatter Aggregates Conversations About TV Shows From Facebook and More — Cable television's USA Network recently launched an app called Chatter that allows a specific TV show's viewers to converse with fellow fans and engage with a streams of official content aggregated from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

Discussion: Lost Remote

Nieman Foundation News:

Nieman Foundation announces Class of 2012 — CAMBRIDGE, Mass. - The Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard has selected 24 journalists from the United States and abroad to become the 74th class of Nieman Fellows. The group includes journalists who work for newspapers, magazines, radio, television and online news organizations.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Media Nation, LA Observed and The Rural Blog

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

BBC Global Digital Chief: The “ROI from Facebook is Staggering” — Social media is not a marketing solution but a “profit center” for the BBC's commercial Web sites, says Daniel Heaf, Director of Digital for BBC Worldwide, in this exclusive interview with Beet.TV

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

AOL Seeks Heidi Klum's Advice in Million-Dollar Content Deal — Ad Age Talks to the Supermodel About Her How-to-Video Partnership That Lets People 'Speak to the Horse's Mouth' — AOL began publishing its content partnership with fashion model Heidi Klum today, AOL's latest celebrity acquisition …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Curbed National

Paul Wakely / BBC:

Moderation and ‘superinjunctions’ — I'm the Editor, Moderation Services for BBC Online, which means I oversee moderation of your comments across the BBC website. — I wanted to respond to some interesting discussions about the moderation we've applied to comments about the 'footballer injunction …

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Wired, GQ announce iPad subscriptions — Romenesko Misc. — Starting with the June issue, the magazines will offer monthly ($1.99) and yearly ($19.99) iPad subscriptions and will continue to offer single issues, all via In-App Purchase on the App Store. Current print subscribers …

Discussion: paidContent, GigaOM and Wired

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

From radio reporter to graphic novelist, how Brooke Gladstone became a character in ‘The Influencing Machine’ — “On the Media” reporter Brooke Gladstone has long been identified by her voice on the radio. Now, readers can see her voice in a new graphic novel that comes out today.