Mediagazer: Henry Blodget Says Kara Swisher Helped Groupon Violate SEC Quiet Period (Ben Popper/Betabeat)

2:45 AM 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 (NYSE: NYT) today launched @NYTLive, a Twitter feed for breaking news surrounding major events.

Discussion: Mixed Media, Multichannel, Poynter, Future of Journalism, Newsday and Nieman Journalism Lab, more at Techmeme »

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: Multichannel, Forbes, ShortFormBlog, The New Republic, National and Local … and Arlington, Va.

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

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Phone Hacker Mulcaire Required to Name Names by Today in U.K. — Glenn Mulcaire, the British private detective who hacked celebrities' voice mails for the News of the World tabloid, is required to reveal by today for the first time the names of the News Corp. employees who directed him.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Guardian: Glenn Mulcaire names News of the World staff behind phone hacking

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: Suits & Sentences, FishbowlDC and TVNewser

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, Mediaite and Inside Cable 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, Poynter, The Wire and AllThingsD, more at Techmeme », Thanks:benpopper

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

Slate's Layoffs Signal Flaws in Web Model — Unexpected ‘Head Winds’ Buffet Online Pioneer's Ad Sales — Since its mid-1990s launch, the online magazine Slate has been a study in whether a Web-only news organization can support a staff of professional journalists churning out original, reported content.

Discussion: Poynter and Erik Wemple

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Slate Lays Off Staff. Does Its Model Still Make Sense?

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Thanks:beet_tv

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

Peter Greenberg / Poynter:

Travel is news, so why am I the only travel editor at a major network? — People know me because of travel. But the classic error that many people make - and it's a well-intentioned error - is when they say to me, “When did you make the transition from journalism to travel?”

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Ben Dowell / Guardian:

Rise in defamation involving blogs and Twitter — Cases include action brought by New Zealand cricketer Chris Cairns over former IPL chief's tweets — The growth of social networking sites has seen the number of defamation cases involving online content more than double in the 12 months to June, new research has found.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Press Gazette and Inforrm's Blog

Jason Kincaid / TechCrunch:

Taboola Raises $9 Million To Power Video Recommendations Across The Web — Taboola, a service that powers many of the video recommendation widgets you find across the web, has raised a $9 million Series B funding round. The round is being led by Crescent Point, which is based in New York and Asia …

Thanks:beet_tv

Spencer E. Ante / Wall Street Journal:

Tumblr Set to Close Big New Financing — Blogging service Tumblr has a funny name and scant revenue. It has also convinced investors it is worth hundreds of millions of dollars. — The New York-based company is poised to raise $75 million to $100 million in venture capital …

Discussion: VatorNews, VentureBeat, Adweek, Reuters and FT Tech Hub