Mediagazer: Tony Burman, Al Jazeera and the future of news (Gayle MacDonald/Globe and Mail)

1:40 PM ET, August 22, 2011

Top News:

Newspapers Edit Down Outlooks — Newspaper companies are resetting their advertising expectations after a discouraging first half of the year, a shift that could spur a return to more of the job cuts and other belt-tightening moves that spread through the industry in 2008 and 2009.

Discussion: Poynter, On Media's Blog and Gawker

Wall Street Journal:

Tight Credit Stymies MediaNews Deal With Freedom — Unstable markets have stalled a deal for MediaNews Group Inc. to buy Freedom Communications Inc.'s newspapers, people familiar with the matter said, setting back the companies' efforts to navigate a more challenging media landscape.

Discussion: Reuters and Guardian

ABC News:

Murdoch told me to have someone followed: Buttrose — Media figure Ita Buttrose says Rupert Murdoch suggested she have someone followed while chasing a story in her time as editor-in-chief of the Sunday Telegraph and Daily Telegraph. — On Australian Story tonight, Ms Buttrose …

Wall Street Journal:

Hulu Ponders Its Next Move — With Suitors' Bids Due Wednesday, Video Service Considers Future Structure — The companies trying to sell Hulu LLC are beginning a big game of chess that could lead them to redefine the popular video service once again. — Initial bids are due by Wednesday …

Discussion: Adweek, Digital Trends, digiday:DAILY, GeekWire, Company Town, CNET News, Future of Journalism and The Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Ayman Mohyeldin Leaves Al Jazeera for NBC News — Al Jazeera English correspondent Ayman Mohyeldin, who was the face of that channel during the Egypt uprising, is joining NBC News as a foreign correspondent in September. Mohyeldin will be based in the Middle East for NBC …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable, Facebook, nbcuniversal.presscentre.com and @aymanm

Gayle MacDonald / Globe and Mail:

Tony Burman, Al Jazeera and the future of news — Tony Burman was in his 11th-floor office at Al Jazeera English in Washington, D.C. - a stone's throw from the White House - when a news item appeared on his computer screen that made the veteran Canadian news man stop dead in his tracks.

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Miramax Launching Multi-Title Facebook Movie App In U.S., UK & Turkey — Watching movies on Facebook isn't new—Warner Bros. (NYSE: TWX), Paramount and Universal each are trying variations on the theme. But today, paidContent can report, Miramax is launching the largest-scale Facebook …

Discussion: Miramax, ZDNet, Softpedia News, The Wrap, Mashable!, Electronista, Fast Company, The Next Web and Medacity, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Hough / Telegraph:

Libya: Sky News reporter Alex Crawford praised for dramatic Tripoli reporting — An award-winning reporter from Sky News, Alex Crawford, provided some of the most riveting and dramatic reporting from the Libyan capital of Tripoli on Sunday night. — As Col Muammar Gaddafi's power “crumbled” …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
Covering the Imminent Fall of Tripoli

Discussion: Guardian, PSFK and Future of Journalism

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Local TV Newscasts Expanding — ST. LOUIS — Coming soon to this city's television screens: more news at 4 in the morning, again at 10, and at 4 in the afternoon. — KSDK, the local NBC affiliate, is adding newscasts to those time slots next month, giving it six and a half hours of local news each weekday, its highest count to date.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, TVSpy and Gannett Blog

James Robinson / Guardian:

‘Google needs TV’ will be message at Edinburgh — Eric Schmidt, chairman of Google, is expected to offer television executives an olive branch - and perhaps even some funding — • An open letter from Tess Alps of Thinkbox — When Google's chairman Eric Schmidt gives the MacTaggart lecture …

Discussion: Media Week and The Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

David Carr / New York Times:

Comic's PAC Is More Than a Gag — Let's start with a spot political quiz. Which of the following are legitimate political action committees known as Super PACs, and which is fake? — A) Citizens for a Working America — B) Make Us Great Again — C) Citizens for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow

Discussion: newsfeed.time.com, Splitsider and New York Magazine

Roy Peter Clark / Poynter:

Good tabloid writing turns crap into a front-page natural — On August 11, many news organizations covered another dramatic drop of the Dow, this one more than 500 points. So volatile was the market that week that even the roller coaster cliché seemed insufficient.

Discussion: Future Journalism Project

John Koblin / WWD:

Preview: WSJ Magazine's September Issue … JOURNAL ENTRY: While Sally Singer handed over her latest cover of T: The New York Times Style Magazine to the relatively unknown jazz singer Esperanza Spalding, editor Deborah Needleman is going conventional: Rachel Weisz is WSJ's September cover girl.

Discussion: The New York Observer

Adweek:

First Mover: Anderson Cooper — What prompted your move to daytime TV? — At the age of 44, I felt like I wanted to get more out of life. And laugh more and learn more and get more out of each day. And I want that for viewers as well. It allows me to go in-depth on topics which don't necessarily fit on a newscast.

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Magazines Flex Their Apps — But Will They Make Any Money From Them? — Beach-goers this summer may have noticed that their favorite magazines — from Time to Vanity Fair to Esquire — have shiny new tablet editions. — Magazine publishers are betting heavily on the tablet platform …