Mediagazer: I was duped by Jose Vargas, illegal immigrant (Phil Bronstein/SFGate)

5:40 PM ET, June 23, 2011

Top News:

Phil Bronstein / SFGate:

I was duped by Jose Vargas, illegal immigrant — I was duped. I once hired an illegal immigrant to be a reporter for the Chronicle. — “I don't think I'm a criminal,” Jose Antonio Vargas told me when we met last week, right before he announced his status to the world. “Don't make me seem guiltier than I am.”

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker, The Atlantic Wire, The New Republic, ProPublica, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, San Francisco Peninsula …, The Snitch, Salon, The Daily Caller, The New Yorker Blog, AmSpecBlog, TPMDC, NewsBusters.org, Mother Jones, Bottom-up and Mediaite

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Post responds to ex-reporter Vargas's revelation that he's an illegal immigrant — For almost 14 years, Jose Antonio Vargas carried a secret. A journalist skilled in getting information from others, Vargas withheld some important news from his American employers: He is an undocumented immigrant.

Discussion: Slate, Poynter, TBD All News, FishbowlNY, Washington Post, The Politico and New York Times

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

American Media Buys OK Magazine — Richard Desmond. Image by Getty Images Europe via @daylife — Richard Desmond couldn't sell OK Magazine to Time Inc. Now he's found another buyer: American Media Inc., home to the National Enquirer and Star, is buying the money-losing entertainment title.

Discussion: Media Week, Wall Street Journal, Kleinman, Yahoo! News, Media & Entertainment, New York Magazine, AdAge, Gawker, The Atlantic Wire, FishbowlNY, Adweek and New York Post

Steve Smith / MinOnline:

Top Magazine Money Makers in the iPad App Store — Maybe it is the new subscription model in the App Store? Perhaps it is just Apple making nice with publishers after seeming to have dissed the media world for so long. But whatever the motives or the reasons, even a cursory glance …

Discussion: rbr.com, eMedia Vitals, Softpedia News, The Business Insider and Canadian Magazines

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

When big data meets journalism — The Knight Foundation, a non-profit entity that is one of the biggest funders of media-related projects in the United States — including the new MIT Center for Civic Media, which we wrote about earlier — announced the winners of its annual $4.7-million News Challenge on Wednesday.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, eMedia Vitals, The Next Web, FrontlineSMS, Poynter, Knight Foundation, ReadWriteWeb and Jon Slattery

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The News Challenge-winning PANDA Project aims to make research easier in the newsroom

Discussion: Fast Company and Future of Journalism

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Knight News Challenge 2011: Sixteen winners, from mapping to data viz, from water shortages to interactive documentaries

Discussion: Poynter, Mediaite, O'Reilly Radar, Knight Foundation, CyberJournalist.net, ...My heart's in Accra, GigaOM, The Official Google Blog, MediaShift Idea Lab and Poynter

Paul Sonne / Wall Street Journal:

J.K. Rowling Conjures Up Potter E-Books — LONDON—After years of refusing to release her boy-wizard books in electronic format, Harry Potter mastermind J.K. Rowling is finally taking the digital plunge, launching an online store that will sell Harry Potter e-books directly to consumers …

Discussion: The Business Insider, BBC, Underwire, Forbes.com, ArtsBeat, Guardian, Tech Trader Daily, MyFox Philadelphia, GigaOM, The Corsair, The Wire, Epicenter and The Atlantic Wire, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

News and Opinion Get Cozy in NY Times's New Sunday Section — Bill Keller, executive editor of The New York Times — The New York Times is serious about keeping the chocolate of opinion out of the peanut butter of its objective reporting. Readers, on the other hand, would often rather just have a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup.

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Joshua Hersh Leaves The Daily for The Huffington Post — The Huffington Post has poached reporter Joshua Hersh from The Daily, spokesman Mario Ruiz told The Observer. — Mr. Hersh will be a staff reporter covering foreign policy and the State Department in the Washington, D.C. bureau.

Discussion: @aarongell

Rosie Baker / New Media Age:

News International to enable PayPal payments for newspaper content — News International is to introduce PayPal's fast checkout system in a move that could bring micropayments for online content from UK titles a step closer. — Readers will be able to use PayPal to pay for The Times …

Discussion: Noted

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

What Are Hulu's Owners Really Selling? — Yes, Hulu is for sale. The video site hired bankers from Morgan Stanley and Guggenheim Partners last week, people familiar with the company tell me. They've just started asking potential buyers if they'd like to sign an NDA and take a look-see.

Discussion: PC Magazine, GigaOM, Epicenter and The Business Insider

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:
Fox renews Hulu licensing pact

Discussion: Bloomberg, Hollywood Reporter, AllThingsD, Deadline.com, Los Angeles Times, AdAge, Fortune, GigaOM, PC Magazine, Company Town, CNET News, Adweek, VentureBeat, TVbytheNumbers, Future of Journalism, Digital Media, The Business Insider and Engadget

Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:
Is someone leaking Hulu news to jack up sales price?

Discussion: Company Town, SocialTimes.com, Mixed Media and CNET News

Kate Holton / Reuters:

Google eyeing further display ad acquisitions — Google will buy more companies to boost its presence in the booming online display ad sector in a challenge to Facebook, even as European regulators examine its dominant web search position. — Speaking to a small group of reporters …

Discussion: CNET News.com, VentureBeat, FT Tech Hub and Electronista

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

TouchPad-Only Magazine ‘Pivot’ To Debut With Tablet, Produced By HP Itself — HP (NYSE: HPQ) must be tiring of all the news about Apple's strength in the tablet market, and trying to get its own name out in front: to coincide with the launch of its own TouchPad tablet in July …

Discussion: Business Wire, NetNewsCheck Latest, AllThingsD, Fast Company, CNET News, PC Magazine and Mashable!, more at Techmeme »

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Good News for ‘Newsweek’ — After a year of year-on-year declines in ad pages, Newsweek has something to celebrate. For July, at least, it has stopped that decline, which could mean improved advertiser confidence in the brand. — Last year, the magazine had 52 ad pages for the month of July; this year it will be the same.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, FishbowlNY and The Wire

Jessica Roy / 10,000 Words:

Easily Manage A Digital Newsroom With Kapost — Even the most seasoned newsroom vet can have trouble handling an army of remote freelancers without the right software. Kapost, a new digital newsroom service, is seeking to change all that. — Kapost is project management software …

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:

Twitter plans bolder advertisements — Twitter is looking at introducing advertisements among the short messages that users see in the most active part of the social networking service, according to people with direct knowledge of its plans. — The move comes as Twitter looks at a wider range …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Phuong Ly / Poynter:

California Watch's engagement efforts show staffers what hard-to-reach audiences want — California Watch's stories about earthquake safety problems in schools reached hundreds of thousands of people through a statewide network of radio, TV and newspaper partnerships.