Mediagazer: When Hurricane Irene Was on Approach, Weather Channel Was Tops in Cable News (Alex Weprin/TVNewser)

2:15 PM ET, August 30, 2011

Top News:

CNN:

CNN Acquires Zite — CNN has acquired technology company Zite, a news app for the iPad that gives users a personalized magazine-like experience, it was announced today by Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide. CNN has added Zite to its already robust portfolio of digital products as a separate …

Discussion: Poynter, Lost Remote, paidContent, Zite - Blog, The Huffington Post, CNN, Inside Cable News, Appolicious ™ App Directory, @philosophygeek, @mathewi, @dotben, @mat, @marshallk, WebProNews and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Apple iPad News Reader Zite Sold to CNN for Just Over $20 Million — Zite, the magazine reader app for the Apple iPad, has been sold to news giant CNN for $20 million to $25 million. — The arena for news readers on tablets and smartphones is competitive, with high-profile efforts such as Flipboard …

Discussion: Multichannel, The New York Observer, Folio, CyberJournalist.net and The Next Web

Christopher Hope / Telegraph:

Phone hacking: judge to question Rupert and James Murdoch under oath — Rupert Murdoch and his son, James, are to be questioned about the phone hacking scandal under oath in the High Court. — Lord Justice Leveson, the man who prosecuted Rose West, will hold his inquiry at the Royal Courts of Justice.

Discussion: The New York Observer, rbr.com, The Wrap, Adweek, On Media's Blog, New York Magazine, Media & Entertainment, Company Town, Press Gazette, Editors Weblog, Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media and NY Daily News

Reuters:

Murdoch expands internal inquiry of papers — (Reuters) - Lawyers for Rupert Murdoch's News International are conducting a broad inquiry into reporting practices at all of the company's UK newspapers, according to sources who have been briefed on the probe.

Discussion: Adweek

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Is Controversy Selling for Tina Brown? Newsstand numbers for attention-grabbing covers revealed By Lucia Moses — Tina Brown has courted controversy with some of her recent Newsweek cover choices. Now, newly available sales numbers are showing that those covers did not necessarily translate …

Discussion: Poynter and On Media's Blog

Noah Davis / SAI:

Thanks To Covers You Love To Hate, Tina Brown Is Turning Around Newsweek — Newsweek may have a bit of a turnover issue, but there are signs Tina Brown is righting the ship. — Her cover choices are certainly talked about with increasing frequency. — The “insane” Michele Bachmann cover …

Discussion: The New York Observer and FishbowlNY

John Cook / Gawker:

How Bill O'Reilly Tried to Get His Wife's Boyfriend Investigated By the Cops — Last summer, Fox News anchor Bill O'Reilly came to believe that his wife was romantically involved with another man. Not just any man, but a police detective in the Long Island community they call home.

Discussion: Forbes.com, On Media's Blog, @fromedome and NYConvergence.com

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

How The New York Times is taking Twitter reporting faster and deeper with @NYTLive — After 346 tweets and 22,000 followers in three days, @NYTLive has gone dormant — for now. — The Times' new Twitter megaphone for in-depth, real-time curation of big news stories got its first test run this weekend for Hurricane Irene.

Discussion: newsplexer, Editors Weblog, eMedia Vitals and NYConvergence.com

Joe Grimm / Poynter:

Following layoff, Jack Shafer tells journalists: ‘Always be looking’ — In this week's career chat, we talked with longtime media critic Jack Shafer, who has covered the media for about 25 years. Just last week, he was laid off from Slate. — Shafer, who said no audience questions were off-limits …

Discussion: Editors Weblog, GalleyCat and FishbowlNY

Paul Smalera / MediaFile:
How to reboot Slate — The opinions expressed are his own.

Discussion: Future Journalism Project and Poynter

New York Times:

Joao Silva: ‘This Is What I Do. This Is All That I Know.’ — Photographs by Joao Silva are on exhibit at the Visa Pour l'Image photojournalism festival in Perpignan, France. Mr. Silva spoke at the Bronx Documentary Center on Aug. 2, during his first visit to New York since he was injured in Afghanistan.

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY, Journalism.co.uk and Gawker

Jon Cooper / The Ben Franklin Project:

Journal Register Company: Hurricane Irene meets Ben Franklin — New Haven Register staff members file reports after The Register's newsroom lost power. — By Jon Cooper, @jemersoncooper — About 14 months ago the Journal Register Company's Ben Franklin Project challenged our staffers …

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:
JRC journalists use social media to cover earthquate and hurricane

Discussion: Connecticut Newsroom

Ellie Behling / eMedia Vitals:

Newspaper paywalls: Lessons learned — News sites have launched a variety of different online paywall models this year, some with more success than others. There's no one way that works for every local market, but a few best practices are emerging for any news publisher to consider before charging for digital content.

Discussion: Poynter

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

When Hurricane Irene Was on Approach, Weather Channel Was Tops in Cable News — Friday evening, with Hurricane Irene barreling toward the eastern seaboard, the Weather Channel became the go-to cable news channel. Ratings data from Nielsen show that Weather was easily the most watched cable news outlet …

Discussion: Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable, FishbowlNY, TVWeek.com, ZDNet, 10,000 Words, UnBeige, Erik Wemple, FishbowlDC and The Huffington Post

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

The global internet speedup initiative will make web video faster — Get ready for a ride on the Global Internet Speedup Initiative. It's an alliance of companies who want to make the internet faster by shortening the distance that data has to travel when someone is requesting it.

Discussion: Forbes, PC Magazine, ZDNet, Techland, GigaOM, Softpedia News, Lifehacker and CNET News, more at Techmeme »

Kristin Piombino / Ragan.com:

Study: LinkedIn top social media site for journalists — Communicators and PR pros should be available and prepared for inquiries on social networks, survey says. — Advanced — Search » — When 92 percent of journalists have a LinkedIn account, there has to be a good reason.