Mediagazer: MediaNews Group Consolidates Eleven Bay Area Papers Into Two (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

1:15 PM ET, August 24, 2011

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Time Warner to Subsidize Subscribers' TV Device — Time Warner Cable, one of the nation's top cable and Internet providers, said on Tuesday that it would subsidize some purchases of a set-top box called Slingbox that allows users to watch their home television programming from anywhere, like a vacation home or a mobile phone.

Discussion: Adweek, Gizmodo, NYConvergence.com, This is my next, Electronista, Company Town, The Business Insider and Engadget

Lauren A. E. Schuker / Wall Street Journal:

Hollywood News Machine Getting a New TV Entrant — PMC, the digital-media company owned by entrepreneur Jay Penske whose properties include Nikki Finke's Deadline.com, is making a push into entertainment television by teaming up with ION Television to produce short news segments on Hollywood.

Discussion: Poynter and Medacity

Gina Lovett / New Media Age:

Specific Media to launch video creative testing tool — Specific Media is to launch a video version of its creative campaign testing technology that uses eye-tracking. — The tool for display advertising analyses the impact of advertising creative by tracking user eye movement.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Medacity

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

MediaNews Group Consolidates Eleven Bay Area Papers Into Two — California's Bay Area residents are a couple months away from losing many of their local newspapers, as the Bay Area News Group—a division of MediaNews Group—consolidates eleven newspapers, including the Oakland Tribune, into just two: The Times and the East Bay Tribune.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, LA Observed and Future of Journalism

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:
About 120 lose jobs in Bay Area News Group rebranding, streamlining

Discussion: Dublin Patch

Erik Sherman / Wired In Blog| BNET:

MarketBrief Shows Media's Future: More Automation, Fewer People — The future of news is increasingly automated. Just look at a company called MarketBrief, which translates SEC documents into template-driven reports. The company makes them available on its site and also hopes to syndicate them to other publishers.

Amber Jamieson / Crikey:

The quality journalism project: investigating Wendy Bacon — Shining a light on injustice and corruption isn't an easy, but it's a critical aspect of journalism and democracy. Walkley award-winning journalist Wendy Bacon has done just that, examining official corruption in NSW …

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Online Video Platform Company Brightcove Files For $50 Million IPO — Online video platform company Brightcove this morning announced that it has filed a registration statement on Form S-1 with the SEC in connection with a proposed IPO of its common stock. The company is looking to raise up to $50 million through the offering.

Discussion: Business Wire, AllThingsD, paidContent, VentureBeat, Online Video News, Softpedia News, Venture Capital Dispatch and VatorNews, more at Techmeme »

Leslie Horn / PC Magazine:

Report: As Tablets Market Grows, Paper Media Will Have Steep Decline — As print goes increasingly digital, many wonder if the growth of the tablet and e-reader space mean the death of traditional paper media. A new report from RISI, a company that monitors the paper industry, says it doesn't look good for print.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Publishing Executive News, Future of Journalism, Noted and BtoB Magazine

Erik Wemple:

Washington, D.C., earthquake: The coverage, assessed — A frenzied roundup of D.C. earthquake coverage, featuring no particular order or logic: — Huffington Post, as per usual, masters the great teaser: QUAKE! Media goes nuts. The coverage, delivered in SEO splendor (Washington …

Discussion: Washington Post, Housing Complex and TBD All News

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:
East Coasters Turn to Twitter During Virginia Earthquake

Discussion: Future of Journalism

David Higgerson:

How the NCTJ proved that asking the wrong question is one of the most basic fact-finding failings — “Asking the right question, that's the key to journalism.” It's one of the many pieces of advice I received from the experienced and wise old hands who mentored me during my first job …

Discussion: One Man & His Blog, AndyDickinson.net, Press Gazette and Headlines and Deadlines

Hannah Vinter / WAN-IFRA:

Scott Klein: news apps don't just tell a story, they tell your story — Scott Klein is Editor of News Applications at ProPublica, the New York-based non-profit organization dedicated to investigative journalism. He tells WAN-IFRA how 'a whole new ocean of investigation has become possible …

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

CNN Thinks All Tripolis Look the Same — According to this CNN screenshot (apparently from Monday), Libyan rebels are advancing on Tripoli, Lebanon. Wrong continent, guys! They all do sort of look the same, if you are a 4th grader trying to pass her geography pop quiz. — Let's give them a break.

Discussion: The New York Observer, TVNewser and Mediaite

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Carlos Slim Adds to Stake in Times Company — Carlos Slim Helú, the Mexican billionaire who is by some accounts the world's richest man, has added to his holdings in The New York Times Company. — In a regulatory filing Monday, Mr. Slim and members of his family …

Discussion: MediaPost, Future of Journalism and Poynter

Edan Lepucki / The Millions:

Shutting the Drawer: What Happens When a Book Doesn't Sell? — 1. — In May, after my novel manuscript had been read and rejected by a healthy number of editors, my husband rewrote my author bio. It read as follows: … As an American woman living in an uncool neighborhood in Los Angeles, I thought this hilarious.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Does StumbleUpon Really Drive More Traffic Than Facebook? — StumbleUpon, the social discovery service, has about 15 million users. Is it possible it could be directing more traffic to outside websites than Facebook, which has more than 700 million? — That's what StumbleUpon founder Garrett Camp claims.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Editors Weblog and Click Here Blog