Mediagazer: Times Director Saw Keller ‘About to Throw in the Towel’ (Anna Peele/Esquire)

9:40 AM ET, June 8, 2011

Top News:

FCC Backs Away From Aiding Media — WASHINGTON—Two years ago, the FCC and FTC launched reviews of the media industry with an eye toward changes in laws or tax code that could help struggling traditional media companies. Since then, the federal government's interest in helping the newspaper industry appears to be waning.

Discussion: The New York Observer and News for Digital Journalists

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

AOL After the Honeymoon — Arianna Huffington. Image by Getty Images for AOL via @daylife — What happens when you mix the ambition of Arianna Huffington with the desperation of Tim Armstrong? AOL shareholders will soon find out. — AOL Chairman Tim Armstrong seemed to find his ideal mate in Arianna Huffington.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Poynter, CJR, The Wrap, SAI, LA Observed, FishbowlNY, Runnin' Scared and Future of Journalism

Ryan Tate / Gawker:
The Implosion of the Huffington Post-AOL Merger

Discussion: The First Post and Future of Journalism

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Twitter as media: What happens when anyone can publish? — We often take for granted what Twitter and other social-media tools offer in terms of instant publishing, until someone live-tweets a historic event like the raid on Osama bin Laden's compound or a congressman torpedoes his political career with an ill-advised photo.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, @penenberg and Poynter, Thanks:plrodriguez

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Financial Times shuns the App Store, but not the iPad — The Financial Times has launched a new, subscription-based iPad app, but you won't find it in Apple's App Store. The app is a touch-optimized, HTML5-powered newspaper that runs in the browser. — And it's slick.

Discussion: Softpedia News, Techdirt, Editors Weblog and New York Observer

Financial Times:
The new FT app for iPad and iPhone

Bobbie Johnson / GigaOM:
Can the FT help publishers quit their Apple addiction?

Discussion: Newsonomics, Financial Times, Guardian, TheMediaBriefing and MediaFile

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

Keith Olbermann Breaks Silence On MSNBC Exit; Could Earn $100M at Current TV … For the new issue of The Hollywood Reporter, out in Los Angeles and New York on Thursday, Keith Olbermann sat down with senior writer Marisa Guthrie in his first wide-ranging interview since leaving MSNBC …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Rolling Stone, Mediaite, Show Tracker, Adweek, TVNewser, From Inside the Box, The Atlantic Wire, National Review, Inside Cable News, The Wire, The Huffington Post, On Media's Blog and MediaPost

Anna Peele / Esquire:

Times Director Saw Keller ‘About to Throw in the Towel’ — When Andrew Rossi began quietly documenting the New York Times in 2010, he had no idea the Iraq war would end, Wikileaks would expose government secrets, and the Times would roll out a new paywall, effectively symbolizing the marriage of old and new media.

The Lede:

After Report of Disappearance, Questions About Syrian-American Blogger — 7:17 p.m. Update: After this post about the author of the blog A Gay Girl in Damascus was published, Andy Carvin, an NPR journalist and expert at debunking Internet rumors, pointed out that none of the reports of the arrest …

Discussion: Gawker, newsfeed.time.com, Guardian, msnbc.com, The Wire, AMERICAblog Gay, GalleyCat and Global Voices

New York Times:

New TV Hit Hums Along Online, Too — LOS ANGELES — At home here on Saturday afternoon, Paul Telegdy, who heads up reality programming for NBC, directed his Web browser to a real-time search engine of Twitter messages and checked in on “The Voice,” the Tuesday night singing competition …

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

New York Observer to emphasize long-form, scoops with new web design — Change has been perhaps the most reliable constant at the New York Observer in recent years. In the past two years alone, the Manhattan weekly blew through three top editors and about as many redesigns in print and online.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and bookforum.com

Andrew Crook / Crikey:

Kohler quits CEO gig to focus on journalism — Business Spectator and Eureka Report figurehead Alan Kohler has stepped down as CEO to focus on journalism and strategy, as the websites' controlling company hires fresh blood to expand its burgeoning finance news empire.

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

NBC Wins U.S. Television Rights to Four More Olympics — Since 2000, no network has carried the Olympics but NBC. But when NBC Universal was bought by Comcast this year, there was doubt that it had the passion for the Olympics that led the network's former parent, General Electric …

Discussion: TVSpy and Inside TV

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

CW Becomes 2nd Network to Finish ‘Upfront’ Sales — CW, the home of series like “Gossip Girl” and “The Vampire Diaries,” has become the second broadcast television network to complete its upfront advertising sales before the beginning of the 2011-12 season.

Discussion: Company Town and MediaPost

Simon Owens / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Pilates approach: How CNN is trouncing its competitors on the web — For the past several years, news outlets that cover the media industry have focused predominantly on television ratings when reporting on the cable news wars — a metric that, at least until recently, has been almost exclusively dominated by the Fox News Channel.

Discussion: TVNewser and Future of Journalism

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Five years of GigaOM: The story of us [Video] — On May 30, 2006, after nearly five years as my personal blog, we incorporated GigaOM, the company. Just 24 hours later, our investors, True Ventures, wired me the seed money to get going. They also presented me with a check in an envelope that had three simple words: Live the dream.

Discussion: Om.Is.Me and AdPulp

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Don't call it retirement: An exit interview with Bill Kling, public radio's original entrepreneur — As he prepares to step down from the top of American Public Media, his job for the last 44 years, I recently made the mistake of congratulating Bill Kling on his retirement.

Discussion: SPJ News and LA Observed

Joel Meares / CJR:

The Man Who Cried Scandal — Weinergate and thoughts from Breitbart on the media — It was the pre-game show to one of the most excruciating political confession-apologies in recent memory. Andrew Breitbart, attending the Anthony Weiner presser, took to the podium before the congressman emerged …

Discussion: The Politico, Mediaite, Yahoo! News and The Atlantic Wire