Mediagazer: Media chiefs confront challenges facing cable TV industry (Meg James/Company Town)

1:35 PM ET, June 15, 2011

Top News:

America's Favorite Talking Hot Head — Keith Olbermann likes looking into a camera. The return of its gaze animates him and reminds him that he has a million friends on the other side of it. But he doesn't picture those people. He talks directly to the camera.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Mediaite, The Wire, National Review, Chickaboomer and TVNewser

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Does a new report mean doom and gloom for local online news? Maybe, but here are a few balancing factors — Matthew Hindman's new paper showing miserably low levels of local online news consumption is a terrific addition to research on how journalism gets produced and consumed online.

Nikki Usher / Nieman Journalism Lab: Less of less: FCC-commissioned report finds a “surprisingly small audience for local news traffic”

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

BBC developing new iPhone app for field reporters — The BBC is developing an app that will allow its reporters in the field to file video, stills and audio directly into the BBC system from an iPhone or iPad. — The new app, due to be in use within a month or so, is also intended …

Discussion: Poynter, TUAW, MacNN, The Next Web, 10,000 Words, Mobile Entertainment, Mobile Marketing Watch, TiPb, Editors Weblog, App Advice, Adweek and MacStories

Wayne Friedman / MediaPost:

Heavy Streaming Video Viewers Watch Less TV, Nielsen Says — The Nielsen Company now says streaming of Internet video may come at the expense of some traditional TV viewing, especially among young TV/video users. — According to Nielsen's new “State of the Media: Cross Platform Report” …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, NetNewsCheck Latest and CNET News

Tarini Parti / OpenSecrets.org:

News Companies Popular Investments Among Congressmen — As recent political fiascoes involving Rep. Anthony Weiner and ex-Sen. John Edwards have shown, the power of the press carries weight, especially in Washington. Careers of high-rising politicos can be buried or propelled to new heights in a matter of minutes by the media.

Discussion: On Media's Blog and The Daily Caller

Jonathan A. Knee / The Atlantic Online:

Why Content Isn't King — How Netflix became America's biggest video service—much to the astonishment of media executives and investors — NETFLIX FAMOUSLY ENGENDERS fierce loyalty from its ever-growing customer base. This year, it even beat out reigning champion Apple, among 528 other brands …

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Facebook Hires Former White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart — Joe Lockhart, who served as White House press secretary during President Bill Clinton's eventful second term, will join Facebook as VP of global communications next month. — Lockhart, currently founding partner …

Discussion: Washington Post, Epicenter, Yahoo! News, Forbes.com, The Atlantic Wire, Bits, Inside Facebook, CNET News, PC Magazine, Hillicon Valley and SAI

Meg James / Company Town:

Media chiefs confront challenges facing cable TV industry — A sense of urgency surrounds the annual National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention in Chicago this week as big media firms grapple with a host of business challenges that threaten their livelihood.

Discussion: TVNewser, Broadcasting & Cable, paidContent, Technology News, GigaOM and AdPulp, more at Techmeme »

Lynn Cowan / Venture Capital Dispatch:

Pandora IPO Prices At $16; Valued At $2.56 Billion — Interactive Internet radio company Pandora Media Inc. continued the trend of hot Internet-related IPOs by pricing its shares at $16 apiece Tuesday night, above expectations. … The company sold 14.7 million initial public offering shares …

Discussion: Fast Company, TechCrunch, paidContent, Deal Journal, Forbes.com, GeekWire, Hillicon Valley, CNET News, GigaOM, Company Town, VentureBeat and CNBC, more at Techmeme »

Joe Mullin / paidContent:

Judge: Righthaven Has No Standing To File Lawsuits—Case Dismissed — The saga of controversial copyright-enforcement company Righthaven may be slowly drawing to a close. A judge has dismissed its lawsuit against the Democratic Underground website, saying that the contract Righthaven struck …

Discussion: Threat Level, Techdirt, Gametime IP and eMedia Vitals

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Tumblr now has about the same number of bloggers as WordPress — WordPress has been around for eight years, and Tumblr just four. In the past six months, the number of Tumblr users has nearly tripled, reports John Asante. (There are more than 7 million Tumblr blogs.)

Adweek:

Hearst Magazines President Carey, Times' Carr Face Off — When the New York Times' David Carr is in the interviewer's seat, it's hard to tell who's going to be the bigger attraction: The interviewee or Carr himself—especially now that he's a movie star, thanks to the new documentary Page One, about the Times' Media desk.

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Fargo Kindle City: One small paper's experiment with publishing ebooks — When you are a 50,000-circulation daily newspaper in Fargo, North Dakota, it would be easy to leave trying new things to the big guys. — But that's not the attitude of The Forum of Fargo-Moorhead …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Digital Subscriptions Will Lift Magazines But Not Newspapers — Publishers of magazines and newspapers are investing millions in tablet-based editions and online paywalls in the hopes that digital subscriptions will offset the steady erosion they've been seeing in circulation revenues.

Discussion: Canadian Magazines, eMedia Vitals and NetNewsCheck Latest

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

Does Twitter have different standards than TV news? — This is a story that will make just about anyone in TV news shudder. Last Thursday, news organizations across the world announced that 20 to 30 bodies — some of them children — had been discovered at a property outside Houston.

Discussion: Editors Weblog