Mediagazer: Regional Newspapers' Merger Talks Break Down (Wall Street Journal)

6:50 AM ET, June 16, 2011

Top News:

Cross Platform Report: Americans Watching More TV, Mobile and Web Video — The average American today has more ways to watch video — whenever, however and wherever they choose. In the Cross-Platform Report, Nielsen finds that the resounding trend is this: Americans are spending …

Discussion: Mashable!, GigaOM, Future of Journalism, WebProNews and Lost Remote, more at Techmeme »

Audrey Watters / ReadWriteWeb:

Does More Internet Streaming and Web Video Mean Less Traditional TV Viewership? — Despite all the hullabaloo about the ascendancy of Web video and predictions about the demise of cable, Americans still watch a lot of television. Those are the findings, at least, from the latest study by Nielsen.

Wayne Friedman / MediaPost:
Heavy Streaming Video Viewers Watch Less TV, Nielsen Says

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, CNET News and NetNewsCheck Latest

Glynnis MacNicol / The Wire:

Here's Why There Are (Almost) No Women In The Big NYT ‘Page One’ Documentary — It's not entirely true to say there are no women in Page One: Inside the New York Times, the new documentary that spends a year following the NYT media desk as they cover an imploding industry in which their paper plays a major role.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Ready for His Digital Close-Up: The NYT's Media Dude, David Carr, Talks About “Page One”

Discussion: Anthony DeRosa

Jamie Miles / New York Magazine:
Timesmen React to Their Portrayal in Page One Documentary

Discussion: EW.com, FishbowlNY, Chickaboomer and New York Post

Wall Street Journal:

Regional Newspapers' Merger Talks Break Down — Buyout discussions between the publishers of the Denver Post and Orange County Register broke down recently amid disagreements over price, said people familiar with the matter, as regional newspapers grapple with consolidation efforts to shore up their finances.

Discussion: Gazette, The Latest Word and Poynter

Andrei Scheinkman / Open:

Using Twitter as Your Database — For the 2010 election, we built a continuously updated election guide that let readers explore data related to each of the 509 congressional and gubernatorial races. — After adding candidate information, race ratings, polls, election forecasts …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Ben Kuchera / Ars Technica:

Duke Nukem's PR threatens to punish sites that run negative reviews — A large part of my job is dealing with people who work in public relations. The vast majority of those whose do PR for video game companies are polite, well-intentioned, and extremely professional.

Discussion: Guardian, ZDNet, The Escapist, broadstuff, The Awl, The Loop, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, The Consumerist, Boing Boing and BGR, more at Techmeme »

David Carr / New York Times:

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: Runnin' Scared, Mediaite, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, Yahoo! News, The Wire, Chickaboomer and The 6th Floor

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”

Discussion: SocialTimes.com

Aaron Mackey / Reporters Committee News:

Federal law bars libel suit against New York bloggers — A federal law protects website publishers who add material to defamatory posts and attempt to elicit greater discussion on the topic, New York's highest court ruled earlier this week. — In a 4-3 decision on Tuesday …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Future of media: Community is your new business model — As media companies try desperately to solve their revenue problems by launching paywalls and subscription iPad apps, too few are looking at how connecting with their community (or communities) can help.

Discussion: 10,000 Words, Nieman Journalism Lab and Nieman Reports, Thanks:andrewspearin

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

The Onion Signs First-Look Deal With CBS TV Studios — After launching two Onion-branded cable series this year, the satiric news organization is setting its sights on broadcast next. The Onion, best known for its fake-news newspaper and Web site, has signed a one-year first-look development deal with CBS Television Studios.

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Chicago Tribune debuts ‘enhanced’ paper with at least 40 more news pages per week — The Tribune says total news space in the print edition is now greater than it was five years ago. The paper's top execs tell readers that today's debut “enhanced” edition has eight additional full news pages …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Gawker Gets Into the TV Business — The Japanese Cult Hit Game Show TV Business — Gawker Media boss Nick Denton says he wants his blog empire to be more than a blog empire - he wants it to be like TV. So here's the next logical step: He's going to start running a TV show on one of his blogs.

Discussion: The Wire

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.