Mediagazer: Choire Sicha: What I Read (Erik Hayden/The Atlantic Wire)

12:40 PM ET, September 7, 2011

Top News:

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Carol Bartz Out at Yahoo; CFO Tim Morse Named Interim CEO — According to sources at the company, Yahoo's Carol Bartz is no longer CEO of Yahoo. CFO Tim Morse has been named interim CEO. — The situation around what is clearly an ouster is uncertain, but Bartz has had a very rocky tenure in her 32 months at the company.

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Once Display's Ad Sales Leader, Trends Now Favor Yahoo Rivals — Barring some explosive revelation, Carol Bartz is out as CEO of Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) because she couldn't show any way up. During the Q2 earnings call, Bartz had to admit that at a time when others were seeing improvements …

Discussion: Mixed Media, AllThingsD, Business Insider, MediaPost, TechCrunch, CNET News, VentureBeat, AllThingsD, Forbes, mocoNews and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Jxpaton / Digital First:

Digital First: The Next Step — Today marks another important step for Digital First. — As announced earlier this morning, we have formed a new company - Digital First Media Inc. It will manage both the Journal Register Company and Media News Group and its mission will be to accelerate …

Discussion: Journal Register Company, The Buttry Diary, BuzzMachine, Felix Salmon and Editors Weblog

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A wave of consolidation? Some context on MediaNews, Journal Register, and Alden Global Capital — The big newspaper news this morning is that two of the nation's largest remaining chains, Journal Register Co. and MediaNews Group, are executing something like a merger-without-merging.

Discussion: Gannett Blog

Steve Myers / Poynter:

MediaNews and Journal Register Co. brought under one roof with John Paton at helm — Journal Register Co. announced Wednesday that it is creating a company called Digital First Media Inc. to manage it and MediaNewsGroup. John Paton will be CEO of Digital First and will act as CEO of MediaNews …

Discussion: paidContent

Guardian:

Guardian journalist questioned over alleged phone-hacking leaks — Case raises concerns about attempts to criminalise contact between journalists and off-the-record sources — A Guardian journalist has been questioned by police officers investigating alleged leaks of information from Operation Weeting …

Discussion: Business Insider, Press Gazette, Jon Slattery and Telegraph

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

Editorial Independence — There's confusion - way too much confusion - about my status at TechCrunch and TechCrunch's status at Aol after last week's announcement that I was launching a venture fund, partially backed by Aol. — The multiple conflicting statements made by Aol on Thursday …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
War at AOL as Arrington and Huffington Declare Independence

Discussion: TheMediaBriefing, Gawker, Betabeat, Future of Journalism and The Snitch

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Media Analysts Begin To Slash Ad Spending Forecasts As Economy Craters... When the economy weakens, one of the first expenses that companies cut is advertising spending. — Especially advertising spending on old, dying media in which performance is unmeasurable—e.g., newspapers.

Steve Smith / MediaPost:

Ralph Lauren Takes Over The Times iPad App, Reminds Us What A ‘Sponsor’ Does — If you haven't yet caved to the New York Times paywall restrictions and ponied up the subscription fee, then you may have let your iPad app for the brand lie unused in recent months.

Discussion: Medialets, Poynter and NetNewsCheck Latest

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Phone hacking: Evidence to MPs gives James Murdoch room for manoeuvre — Colin Myler and Tom Crone did not deal a fatal blow — Colin Myler and Tom Crone may have come to the select committee with pistols loaded, but they did not fire the fatal shot at James Murdoch.

Discussion: PC Magazine, NetNewsCheck Latest, The Independent, Crikey, Adweek and BBC

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

Suggestions (but not standards) for live tweeting — “Do you know of any standards for content of live tweets?” a commenter asked on my blog recently. — “I have students live tweet meetings and speeches. Would love some specific guidelines for what makes a good tweet,” asked Michele Day …

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Newsweek Daily Beast Co. Hires New President Rob Gregory jumps from Plum TV By Lucia Moses — The Newsweek Daily Beast Co. is getting a new president. CEO Stephen Colvin picked Rob Gregory, a veteran of Maxim and Rolling Stone with whom he worked at Dennis Publishing, for the newly created position.

Discussion: MiamiHerald.com, On Media's Blog and FishbowlNY

Noreen Malone / New York Magazine:

Slate's Jack Shafer Is Headed to Reuters [Updated] — Shafer — Jack Shafer, Slate's very recently laid-off media critic, is moving to Reuters, according to a source familiar with the matter. The deep-pocketed news service — which under the digital leadership of Chrystia Freeland …

Discussion: Talking Biz News, bookforum.com, On Media's Blog, Future of Journalism, FishbowlDC and FishbowlNY

Dylan Byers / Adweek:
Jack Shafer Joins Reuters

Discussion: Gawker and Poynter

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Felix Salmon's brain, Drudged: Meet Counterparties, a personal linkblog with Reuters branding — What would a “Buzzfeed for finance” look like? — Felix Salmon and Ryan McCarthy are figuring it out — via Counterparties, the site they launched this afternoon.

Discussion: Felix Salmon, Talking Biz News and Soup

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:
Felix Salmon's New Blog Will Teach You to Read Like Felix Salmon

Discussion: AdAge and The Corsair

Jon Friedman / MarketWatch:

Al Jazeera is America's post 9-11 network — NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — Al Jazeera is too smart for its own good. — And that's why I conclude that it will never become a household name in the United States. Maybe the best Al Jazeera can hope for is to attain notoriety along the lines …

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Roy J. Harris Jr / Poynter:

How The Wall Street Journal's improvised 9/11 battle plan helped it to a Pulitzer — There's an old joke that refers to newspapers as “the daily miracle.” But one edition a decade ago, assembled by Wall Street Journal staffers on Sept. 11, 2001, was truly miraculous.

Discussion: Crikey

Keach Hagey / On Media's Blog:

Jonathan Chait to New York; Timothy Noah to New Republic — Tim Noah, another of the recent Slate layoffs that causes such a furor last month, emails some major media news. … Noah, who had written Slate's “Chatterbox” column, has lately been on book leave for a book about income inequality …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, The New York Observer, FishbowlNY and Gawker

Caroline Binham / Financial Times:

Media groups apply for key status in inquiry — Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive officer of News International, and subjects of alleged-phone hacking, including the parents of Madeleine McCann, a missing child, are among the roster of names who presented their formal interest in a judicial inquiry into press ethics.