Mediagazer: Pay for staffers at St. Petersburg Times cut five percent for five months under new cost-saving plan (Paul Tash/St. Petersburg Times)

7:35 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, TechCrunch, Search Engine Land, Reuters, Business Insider, Zagat Buzz, Epicenter, Deal Journal, Eater National, AllThingsD, Jeff Jarvis, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, CNET News, Medacity, PE Hub Blog, rbr.com, John Battelle's Searchblog, Computerworld, ReadWriteWeb, Betabeat, VatorNews, @jeremyhfisher, paidContent:UK, Gawker, @jeffjarvis, AdAge, Forbes, Engadget, Fortune, Globe and Mail, msnbc.com, Gothamist, @marissamayer, Media & Entertainment, CNNMoney.com, MarketingVox News & Trends, Future of Journalism, Fast Company, GeekWire, Screenwerk, Beyond Search, ClickZ, MediaPost, VentureBeat, Mercury News, The Week, HBR.org, PC Magazine, The Consumerist, GigaOM, Mashable!, LAUNCH, L.A. Times Tech Blog, The Next Web, Techland, Techi.com, The New York Observer, Felix Salmon, Adweek, 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, ReadWriteWeb, broadstuff, AllThingsD, MediaFile, Computerworld, Top Digital Journal News, CNET 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’

Discussion: Adweek

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

Discussion: TeleRead, Plagiarism Today, 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, Guardian, 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, PE Hub Blog, TechCrunch and A VC, 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 …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

How to Watch the NFL on the Web, Legally, for Free — Remember when it seemed like this year's pro football season could be cancelled or delayed because of a fight between millionaires and billionaires? — Phew! The NFL kicks off tonight, on schedule, on NBC, when the Saints play the Packers.

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, Beet.TV, Company Town, Adweek, Forbes, mediabistro.com, rbr.com, MediaPost and Los Angeles Times

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 …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

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

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, TechCrunch, paidContent and Future of Journalism, 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

bizjournals:

Morning News lays off employees as ad decline continues — Dallas Business Journal by Lance Murray , Digital Content Producer — The Dallas Morning News laid off a reported 38 employees on Tuesday as the paper's parent company, A.H. Belo Corp., contends with a continued decline in advertising revenues at its newspapers.

Discussion: MediaPost

Quote and Comment:

Journalists Washing Their Hands of the Truth. — NPR goes all “He Said, She Said” on us. Do they really think that fools anyone? — The audio clip (3:42) is an NPR report about a new set of regulations for abortion clinics that the state of Kansas has tried to put in place.

Michael Malone / Broadcasting & Cable:

Scripps Launches Live Streaming to Mobile Devices — Wifi simulcast may be lifeline at times of severe weather — The Scripps station group has taken a major step toward keeping its viewers connected on myriad platforms, as it launches live streaming apps in its nine markets that …

Discussion: MediaPost and rbr.com

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

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 and B2B Memes