Mediagazer: The Elusive Big Idea (Neal Gabler/New York Times)

4:00 AM ET, August 15, 2011

Top News:

The Elusive Big Idea — A senior fellow at the Annenberg Norman Lear Center at the University of Southern California and the author of “Walt Disney: The Triumph of the American Imagination.” — THE July/August issue of The Atlantic trumpets the “14 Biggest Ideas of the Year.” Take a deep breath.

Discussion: Jared Bernstein, The Chutry Experiment, jenbayne.wordpress.com, Bit of Tech and Mother Jones

Maryanne Wolf / Guardian:

Will the speed of online reading deplete our analytic thought? | Maryanne Wolf — Marshall McLuhan's hypothesis about the medium influencing our reading circuits forms an apt prelude to today's debates — Susan Greenfield's recent comments about how modern technology and social media …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

The NYT doesn't have a paywall; it's a line of sandbags — If you follow the media sphere, you might have seen some news articles and blog posts recently about how the “New York Times paywall is working,” or words to that effect. They were all over the place, including a piece …

Discussion: bijan sabet and Felix Salmon, Thanks:mathewi

Fred / A VC:

On Porous Paywalls — Felix Salmon has a couple great posts on the New York Times' paywall. He notes that it has been successful and explains why. Felix says: … I've been a fan and a proponent of porous paywalls since studying the FT's model a few years back and was very pleased to see the NY Times go with the FT's model.

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Does Cinemax's iPad app violate Apple's no-porn policy? — Anyone who's ever subscribed to Cinemax knows that one of its biggest draws is not the availability of Hollywood movies, but the softcore movies and TV shows available on the network. With the recent launch of its iPad app …

Discussion: Guardian, CNET News, Electronista, PC Magazine, Gizmodo and 9to5Mac

David Weinberger / Joho the Blog:

Reddit and community journalism — I've come to love Reddit. What started as a better Digg (and is yet another happy outcome of the remarkable Y Combinator) has turned into a way of sharing and interrogating news. Reddit as it stands is not the future of news. It is, however, a hope for news.

Discussion: Ryan Sholin

Bloomberg:

Time Warner Cable Is Said to Be in $3 Billion Talks for Carlyle's Insight — Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC), the second- largest U.S. cable-television operator, is in advanced talks to buy Carlyle Group's Insight Communications Co. for about $3 billion, said people with knowledge of the matter.

Discussion: Financial Times, Reuters, New York Times and Deadline.com, more at Techmeme »

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:

Source Sought for False Story on French Bank — PARIS — Misunderstandings between the French and visiting British vacationers are a traditional feature of summers in France. But did a British malentendu over another French summer staple — a fictional series of articles in Le Monde …

J. David Goodman / New York Times:

Comedy Podcast Inside News Corp. Feasts on a Scandal — Sitting in a windowless London recording studio at the start of the phone hacking scandal that engulfed Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, Chris Skinner faced a dilemma. — Multimedia — The Bugle, a news satire podcast …

Emily Steel / Wall Street Journal:

AOL Growth Comes at a Cost — After Acquisition Binge, Internet Company Faces Fierce Competition for Ad Dollars — AOL Inc. has no shortage of websites, with more than 800. They range from hundreds of little hometown-news sites in the Patch network to its 37 bigger-name properties …

Yael Kohen / Marie Claire:

Megyn Kelly on Good Looks, Fox News & Jon Stewart — None of Fox News' anchors compete for airtime quite like her. We caught up with the 40-year-old mother of two, just back from maternity leave, for a chat about her controversial boss and famously short hemlines.

Discussion: TVNewser

Jim / Gannett Blog:

Des Moines | New commenting policy's impact? — The Des Moines Register on Wednesday became the second Gannett paper to switch to a Facebook-driven commenting system, in a bid to clean up the negative posts that often come with anonymity. (The other paper is The News-Press in Fort Myers …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

Hachette UK mired in pensions debacle — Hachette UK, the publishing group behind David Nicholls' One Day, is attempting to shore up a pension deficit in the region of £35m - but stands to lose some of its most “starry” editors over its handling of the situation.

Andy Mabbett / Andy Mabbett, aka pigsonthewing:

The BBC's fundamental misunderstanding of copyright — On 6 August, I sent a complaint to the BBC: … Here's their reply, with my annotations and emboldening: … I'm speechless. — Update: I've sent a follow-up complaint to the BBC, you can see it below.

Discussion: currybetdotnet