Mediagazer: Legal Battles Are Woven Over Tangled Web Gossip (Diane Cardwell/New York Times)

9:55 PM ET, June 21, 2011

Top News:

Dawn Chmielewski / Company Town:

Yahoo approaches Hulu about possible acquisition — Yahoo Inc. recently approached Hulu to discuss a possible acquisition of the popular online video service, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. — Hulu, which streams television shows on the Internet, has been the subject of intense speculation about its future.

Discussion: Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

Website Hulu Considers Sale — Web-video site Hulu LLC is weighing whether to sell itself after a potential buyer for the company approached it with an offer, people familiar with the matter said. — The identity of the buyer couldn't be learned. The offer has spurred Hulu's board to study its options …

Discussion: Deadline.com, The Huffington Post, GigaOM, Forbes.com and DealBook

Jay Yarow / The Wire:

Hulu Considering Selling Itself After Receiving An Offer — Hulu is considering selling itself after being approached with a buyout offer, according to tweets from CNBC and WSJ reporters. — Julia Boorstin at CNBC says the offer did not come from Google, but doesn't say who the offer did come from.

Discussion: @jboorstin, @preetatweets, VentureBeat, SAI, Media Maverick, @bristei, Gizmodo, Deal Journal and AllThingsD, more at Techmeme »

Jim / Gannett Blog:

Bulletin: Gannett announces 700 newspaper layoffs — U.S. newspapers division President Bob Dickey distributed the following memo today: — CONFIDENTIAL CONTAINS PROPRIETARY BUSINESS INFORMATION - NOT FOR PUBLIC DISSEMINATION — June 21, 2011 — To: All US Community Publishing employees

Discussion: Poynter, paidContent, MediaPost, Future Journalism Project and Adweek

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Can OnSwipe convince media to go web instead of app? — OnSwipe, the New York-based startup that we wrote about awhile back, is launching the full version of its mobile web-publishing service today: a platform that allows websites and media companies to create tablet-friendly views …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, TechCrunch, Epicenter and PC Magazine, Thanks:mirkolorenz

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:
6 reasons to consider Onswipe for tablet-friendly websites

Discussion: The Next Web and Betabeat

David Kravets / Threat Level:

Righthaven Loss: Judge Rules Reposting Entire Article Is Fair Use — A federal judge ruled Monday that publishing an entire article without the rights holder's authorization was a fair use of the work, in yet another blow to newspaper copyright troll Righthaven.

Discussion: Poynter, paidContent, Runnin' Scared, FishbowlNY, PlagiarismToday, Techdirt, WebProNews, Future of Journalism, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Consumerist and http://www.Stinkyjournalism …

Matthew Campbell / Bloomberg:

AOL Considering Paid Content, International Acquisitions in Company Revamp — AOL Inc. (AOL) may introduce premium versions of its online content and make international acquisitions as Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong works to turn around the struggling Internet pioneer.

Discussion: Mixed Media, On Media's Blog, FishbowlNY, Online Video News, Adweek, Noted and Future of Journalism

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Upending Anonymity, These Days the Web Unmasks Everyone — Not too long ago, theorists fretted that the Internet was a place where anonymity thrived. — Now, it seems, it is the place where anonymity dies. — A commuter in the New York area who verbally tangled with a conductor last Tuesday …

Discussion: Gannett Blog, Gawker, Tech Daily Dose and The Rumpus.net, more at Techmeme »

Mat Honan / Gizmodo:

I Call This Blackmail — Aol employee Mike Arrington is angry! The TechCrunch founder and co-editor fired off a histrionic screed yesterday directed at Caterina Fake, founder of Flickr and Hunch, with an explicit threat aimed at anyone who doesn't kowtow to him.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Digital Media, SAI, AllThingsD, Caterina.net, ReadWriteWeb and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Barnes & Noble: E-books Now Outsell Print Books 3 To 1 On BN.com — As Barnes & Noble's board reviews a bid from Liberty Media to acquire the company, it still has to focus on the here-and-now of running a business with physical and digital components. On the digital side, the news is good.

Discussion: Barnes & Noble, Inc., Bloomberg, ReadWriteWeb and BNET, more at Techmeme »

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A discovery engine for narrative nonfiction: Byliner.com launches with high hopes and a sleek site — It's a nonfiction nerd's fantasy: a database of nearly 30,000 feature stories, meticulously organized, sleekly presented, and fully searchable — by author, by publication, by topic.

Discussion: Poynter, The Atlantic Wire, The Wire and Mashable!

Ellie Behling / eMedia Vitals:

The rise of the journalist as publisher — The rise of the journalist as publisher — Journalists can be their own publishers — able to produce, distribute, market and monetize their own content. It's not a new concept, but it continues to gain traction on new platforms like the iPad.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Turntable.fm Really Is Awesome. Is It Legal? — Turntable.fm is a little miracle that does something simple and essential: It lets you play your favorite songs for your friends and strangers on the Web, in real time, for free. — I'd say it's astonishing no one has done it before …

Discussion: Pop & Hiss, TechCrunch, The Next Web and Forbes.com, more at Techmeme »

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Economist group defies gloomy media trend with upbeat results — Almost all British-based newspaper and magazine publishers are contemplating losses or declining profits. But the Economist group, as it does on a regular basis, is telling a very different story today.

Discussion: Media Week, Adweek, Press Gazette and Folio

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

The Washington Post is making money the new-fashioned way, by playing roulette — In the newspaper business, every year brings fresh buzzwords. Jockeying for the lead so far in 2011 are “new revenue streams” and its corollary “many small bets.” But what does that mean, in practice, for a given paper?

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Meet Engine28, an arts-focused pop-up newsroom — It has the makings of an MTV show: Forty journalists...picked to work in a house...and have their lives taped. But The Real World this is not. — Engine28 is another kind of reality show: a pop-up newsroom.

Discussion: LA Observed and Editors Weblog