Mediagazer: Memo to newspapers: The future of media is a two-way street (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

1:40 PM ET, August 18, 2011

Top News:

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

First US-based NoW reporter is arrested — James Desborough is arrested by London police investigating UK hacking allegations — James Desborough, an award-winning reporter at the former News of the World newspaper, has been arrested by officers investigating the phone-hacking scandal.

Discussion: New York Times, Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wire, New York Magazine, The First Post, Deadline.com, The New Yorker Blog and Gawker

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:

That Remake of AOL? It's Still Being Written — SAN FRANCISCO — AOL hit a hard bump on its road to becoming a digital media company. — Last week it reported another loss and told Wall Street analysts it was not going to get much better: operating income for the year could be down as much as 20 percent because of weaker ad sales.

Discussion: Media Nation and The New York Observer

Bloomberg:

AOL Discounted Gets Last, Best Hope in Private Equity — For a private equity firm that's looking for the cheapest way to get online, AOL Inc. (AOL) is trading for 57 cents on the dollar. — The Internet pioneer spun off from Time Warner Inc. (TWX) in 2009 plunged to a record low last week …

Discussion: Betabeat and The Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Capital New York Snags Yahoo's Joe Pompeo In Mini Hiring Spree … NEW YORK — Capital New York, a website that promises to show readers “how New York works,” will soon have several more reporters working for it. — Launched in June 2010 by ex-New York Observer editors Tom McGeveran and Josh Benson …

Discussion: paidContent, @rafat, New York Magazine, NYConvergence.com and AdAge

Michael A. Memoli / Los Angeles Times:

In China, reporters covering Biden get the heave-ho — Only minutes into the vice president's remarks, Chinese officials began directing journalists toward the exits. Soon the shooing became shoving. — Reporting from Beijing— Vice President Joe Biden's famously loquacious style …

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker Blog, TPMDC and Political Punch

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Memo to newspapers: The future of media is a two-way street — Plenty of newspapers and other mainstream media entities are happy to use social tools like Twitter and Facebook to promote their content, host comments on their news stories in order to build traffic, and otherwise try and take advantage of the web.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and JackLail.com, Thanks:mathewi

Adweek:

Newsweek-Daily Beast Announces New Hires, Promotions Kyle Pope editor-at-large By Dylan Byers — Tina Brown's Newsweek-Daily Beast Company got hit hard last week: First, editor-at-large Randall Lane left to become editor of Forbes, then international general manager Alan Bone bounced to Bloomberg Businessweek.

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:

A life unravelled ... whistleblower who incurred wrath of the Murdoch empire — Relentless legal pursuit of ex-News Corp employee likened to ‘Rambo tactics’ — Five years ago Robert Emmel was enjoying the American dream. He lived in a detached house in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia …

Discussion: Company Town

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

New York Press Is Dead, Long Live Our Town Downtown — As has been rumored for weeks, Manhattan Media is shutting down the New York Press and reviving Our Town Downtown, starting September 1. The weekly publication-a magazine/community newspaper hybrid, according to the press release-will focus on news …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google Hires Silicon Valley Tech Blogger Louis Gray as Google+ Evangelist — Notable Silicon Valley tech blogger and startup consultant Louis Gray is finally turning his passion for Google's products and services into a career. Gray has just accepted the position of Product Marketing Manager …

Discussion: louisgray.com

Mike Shields / digiday:DAILY:

Revenge of the TV Buyers — Free TV on the Web seems increasingly doomed, as the broadcast networks are rapidly taking back control of their online content distribution. Meanwhile, Nielsen is pushing TV-like measurement for Web campaigns. Soon, many believe, TV networks will be able …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of what to read next — Editor's Note: Each week, Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of news for the Lab. — We'd all like to know what comes next. That can be a spiritual quest …

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Questions Surround Hulu Auction … With first bids for online video provider Hulu believed to be due late this week, there is a slew of open questions about the auction. — Among them: Will Google bid for the joint venture now that it has already agreed to acquire Motorola Mobility for $12.5 billion in its biggest deal ever?

David Hiltbrand / Sacramento Bee:

CNN anchor Don Lemon: Talented, imperious, scarred, publicly out — PHILADELPHIA - Want a yardstick for how far into the post-ironic era we have drifted? — This summer, TV newsman Don Lemon published a memoir, “Transparent,” in which he came out as gay and talked about being sexually abused as a boy.

Discussion: Inside Cable News