Mediagazer: No, licensing journalists isn't the answer (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

2:40 AM ET, September 9, 2011

Top News:

Marissa Mayer / The Official Google Blog:

Google just got ZAGAT Rated! — “Did you know there's a place in Menlo Park near the Safeway that has a 27 food rating?” one of my friends asked me that about two years ago, and I was struck because I immediately knew what it meant. Food rating... 30 point scale... Zagat. And the place... had to be good.

Discussion: DealBook, Search Engine Land, TechCrunch, Reuters, Zagat Buzz, Epicenter, Business Insider, Deal Journal, Eater National, TechCrunch, Jeff Jarvis, @marissamayer, AllThingsD, CNET News, PE Hub Blog, rbr.com, John Battelle's Searchblog, Medacity, Computerworld, Betabeat, VatorNews, @jeremyhfisher, paidContent:UK, @jeffjarvis, Gawker, AdAge, Forbes, Fortune, Globe and Mail, msnbc.com, Gothamist, Media & Entertainment, CNNMoney.com, ReadWriteWeb, Future of Journalism, MarketingVox News & Trends, Fast Company, GeekWire, Screenwerk, Engadget, ClickZ, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, HBR.org, Mercury News, MediaPost, The Week, The Consumerist, The New York Observer, GigaOM, Mashable!, Adweek, LAUNCH, The Next Web, Techland, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Techi.com, Felix Salmon, New York Magazine, GalleyCat, Hillicon Valley, Gannett Blog and eBookNewser, more at Techmeme »

Larry Dignan / Between the Lines Blog:
Google acquires Zagat, enters original content business

Discussion: DealBook, broadstuff, MediaFile, AllThingsD, Computerworld, CNET News, Top Digital Journal News and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

Social media (mostly Twitter) resources for journalists — Here are resources to help journalists using Twitter and other social media. — For the last few months, as I've been visiting Journal Register Co. newsrooms and blogging more tips for journalists using social media …

David Kravets / Threat Level:

Newspaper Chain Drops Righthaven — ‘It Was a Dumb Idea’ — The new chief executive of MediaNews Group, publisher of the Denver Post and 50 other newspapers, said it was “a dumb idea” for the nation's second-largest newspaper chain to sign up with copyright troll Righthaven.

Discussion: Adweek

Alex Goldman / On the Media:
A BRIEF HISTORY OF RIGHTHAVEN

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, TeleRead, Denver Post and paidContent

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Paton: Too Early To Say Whether MediaNews Paywalls Stay Up

Discussion: Erik Wemple, MediaPost, Poynter, mediabistro.com, San Francisco Peninsula … and eMedia Vitals

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

After AOL Rules Out TechCrunch Sale to Arrington, Tense Severance Negotiations Taking Place — AOL is still engaged in complex severance negotiations with TechCrunch founder and editor Michael Arrington, which some close to the situation warn could eventually end in court if not resolved.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, TechCrunch, Folio and PE Hub Blog, more at Techmeme »

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Analysis: AOL's Armstrong feeling the heat with Project Devil — (Reuters) - Forget the Michael Arrington sideshow — AOL boss Tim Armstrong has a bigger problem, involving the “Project Devil” advertising unit. — Project Devil, which is a large-ad format with interactive panels that dominate a Web page …

Elias Bizannes / Elias Bizannes/blog:
The changing dynamics of news

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and broadstuff

BBC:

Nato-led forces killed BBC reporter in Afghanistan — Ahmed Omed Khpulwak sent text messages saying: “Death has come” — The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan has admitted it mistakenly killed BBC reporter Ahmed Omed Khpulwak in July.

Discussion: Guardian, Jon Slattery, New York Times, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, msnbc.com, TVNewser and Business Insider

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

What Publishers Can Learn From Online Retailers — What does content mean for online retailers, and how can publishers successfully work commerce into their websites? Those were the questions discussed at a Financial Times panel in NYC last night. “There are lots of things …

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

ESPN Signs News Rights Deal With NFL — Keeps ‘Monday Night Football’ through 2021 — Jumping the gun on the kickoff of the pro football season Thursday night, Walt Disney Co.'s ESPN unit has signed an extension with the NFL that will keep Monday Night Football on the cable channel for eight more years.

Discussion: Multichannel, Adweek, Forbes, ESPN, mediabistro.com and MediaPost

Los Angeles Times:
How high can fees for sports rights go?

Discussion: Company Town and rbr.com

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Washington Post publisher Weymouth sees new media as ‘them,’ not ‘us’ — Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth draws a big, bold line between “old media” like the Post and “new media” such as blogs and citizen journalists. — The Post is embracing the new “tools” of online journalism …

Discussion: Zombie Journalism, B2B Memes and J-Lab

Choire Sicha / The Awl:

Inside Gawker Media's First Company-Wide Meeting — Last night, Gawker Media held its first real company-wide meeting at the Crosby Hotel screening room, down in the hotel's swank basement. Honcho Nick Denton gave a speech from the stage—just like a real grown-up company, and also totally not.

Discussion: Poynter, @weareyourfek, PE Hub Blog and Business Insider

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Hey Twitter, you are a media entity now — embrace it — In an informal chat at Twitter headquarters on Thursday, chief executive Dick Costolo talked about some of the numbers behind the service (as Erica reported earlier), including the fact that the network has over 100 million active users now.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Bits and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Paul Tash / St. Petersburg Times:

Pay for staffers at St. Petersburg Times cut five percent for five months under new cost-saving plan — Pay for full-time employees at the St. Petersburg Times will be cut by five percent until January 2012 under a new cost-savings plan implemented by the newspaper starting Monday.

Discussion: Poynter

Wall Street Journal:

Content Deluge Swamps Yahoo — Yahoo, Rivals Fetch Less for Ads as Services That Sift Through Web Gain an Edge — Ousted Yahoo Inc. Chief Executive Carol Bartz faced a plight all too familiar to many of her peers: Making money off digital content isn't easy and it's getting harder.

Discussion: Fortune, AdPulp, GigaOM, On Media's Blog, Editors Weblog and George Dearing dot com, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

No, licensing journalists isn't the answer — Is the media industry in turmoil? Clearly it is, with publishers fighting declines in circulation and advertising revenue, combined with competition from digital-native entities such as blog networks and the “democracy of distribution” …

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Thanks:mathewi

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Media companies have three ways to innovate, each with its own barriers — Deteriorating advertising revenues in 2011 have brought skeptics in news organizations around to what their critics have been saying for years: Innovation is an imperative. — But how, exactly?

Discussion: MediaPost