Mediagazer: Hurricane Irene Knocks Down Paywalls (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

2:45 PM ET, August 27, 2011

Top News:

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Hurricane Irene Knocks Down Paywalls — As the East Coast prepares for a major hurricane, Zinio is offering digital magazines free to stranded travelers and some newspapers' paywalls are coming down. — The New York Times today launched @NYTLive, a Twitter feed for breaking news surrounding major events.

Erik Wemple:

Hurricane Irene's path: Is the Weather Channel veering off course? — A Weather Channel news release lays out the station's mission in covering Hurricane Irene: … That's not just PR blather, either. In a noon interview, Bob Walker, executive vice president and general manager of network …

Discussion: Mediaite, Gizmodo, Forbes and Multichannel

Maria Popova / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Accessibility vs. access: How the rhetoric of “rare” is changing in the age of information abundance — A Rare Glimpse of William Burroughs' Belongings, proclaimed a recent Fast Company headline. But what does “rare” really mean these days? A photograph indexed by Google is hardly “rare …

Paul Carr / TechCrunch:

Now Can We All Agree That The “High Quality Web Content” Experiment Has Failed? — It's hard to imagine anything more perfect that Slate's decision to lay off its respected media critic Jack Shafer. Not perfect in a good way — I count myself amongst Shafer's legions of fans …

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

Tuning into Kai Ryssdal's ‘Marketplace’ — The L.A.-based public radio program, among the few major economic shows not based in New York, has grown its audience. — The voice coming out of the radio sounded folksy and a bit worn-out, speaking words so honest they almost made you feel embarrassed to be listening in.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

Henry Blodget Says Kara Swisher Helped Groupon Violate SEC Quiet Period — I'm telling you this Pets.com is a winner! — Henry Blodget knows a thing or two about securities violations. During the dot-com boom he rose to the the position of number one Internet analyst at Merrill Lynch.

Discussion: The Business Insider, The Wrap, Poynter and The Wire, Thanks:benpopper

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Judge dismisses Fox News correspondent's age, sex discrimination suit — On Thursday, U.S. District Judge Richard Leon sided with Fox News and dismissed an age and sex discrimination complaint filed by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission on behalf of homeland and national security correspondent Catherine Herridge.

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Suits & Sentences and TVNewser

Guardian:

Mulcaire names NoW staff behind hacking — Private investigator passes names on to Steve Coogan's lawyers, in accordance with court order — Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has revealed the names of the News of the World staff who instructed him to carry out phone hacking, his solicitor has confirmed.

Discussion: themediablog.typepad.com

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:
News Corp. Phone Hacker Mulcaire Required to Name Names by Today in U.K.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

John Cook / Gawker:

There's a Reason Fox News Keeps Attacking Gawker — Hey look! The good folks on Fox and Friends did a segment on Gawker this morning, for no apparent reason at all, claiming (falsely!) that our traffic is down 75%. — What's the hook for breaking into hurricane coverage to lie about the stats of an independent online news outlet?

Discussion: On Media's Blog, Inside Cable News and Mediaite

New York Post:

Staff cries Wolff — Adweek's top editor, Michael Wolff, is on the hot seat, The Post has learned. — Senior executives at Prometheus Global Media, which owns the title, have been telling business associates that they are unhappy with Adweek under Wolff, sources said.

Discussion: @michaelwolffnyc, New York Magazine, @michaelwolffnyc, @rickwebb, The New York Observer, @espiers and MediaPost

MediaPost:

Hulu Faces Another Potential Patent Fight — As the initial round of bidding for Hulu wraps up, the digital media venture owned by News Corp., NBC-Universal and Walt Disney Co. may be facing another patent dispute. Mobile technology company Single Touch Systems said Thursday it had issued a …

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

New York Times Publishes Spread From State-Owned Chinese Newspaper — In the center of today's front section, the New York Times published a full page spread from China Daily, the state-owned English-language newspaper of China, called “China Watch.” It is marked as an advertisement …

Discussion: mediabistro.com and Future of Journalism