Mediagazer: Syed Saleem Shahzad's murder, Pakistan, and the ISI. (Dexter Filkins/New Yorker)

11:35 AM ET, September 12, 2011

Top News:

Amazon in Talks to Launch Digital-Book Library — Amazon.com Inc. is talking with book publishers about launching a Netflix Inc.-like service for digital books, in which customers would pay an annual fee to access a library of content, according to people familiar with the matter.

David Carr / New York Times:

News Trends Tilt Toward Niche Sites — It was a rough week for the big guys on the Web. Yahoo unceremoniously dumped its chief executive, Carol Bartz, and AOL faced a mutiny from TechCrunch, the Silicon Valley news site it bought last year. — Apart from the specific business issues feeding …

more at Techmeme »

Wall Street Journal:

A Business Model Based on Conflict of Interest — On TechCrunch it's hard to tell where news ends and investing begins. — New technology provides an endless supply of information online, but as even Silicon Valley found out this month, it comes at a price: Readers have to work harder …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:
The Blogosphere's Soft Corruption

Discussion: AllThingsD and Guardian, more at Techmeme »

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

BostonGlobe.Com Launches Today; Shifts To Paying Subscribers Only Oct. 1 — One of the most unusual efforts to make money from a newspaper web site launches today in Boston, slightly less than a year after plans were announced. For the rest of September, BostonGlobe.com, which went live overnight …

Discussion: Poynter, Boston Globe, FishbowlNY, The New York Observer, Media Nation, The Huffington Post, eMedia Vitals, Nieman Journalism Lab and WBUR

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Four observations (and lots of questions) on The Boston Globe's lovely new paywalled site — This morning, The Boston Globe took the cloak off its brand new website, BostonGlobe.com. And I really do mean “brand new” — this is no redesign. Years ago, rather than building …

Discussion: Boston Globe, Poynter and Editors Weblog

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Report Details Rise of Social Media — As social media like blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube grow increasingly popular among consumers, marketers are seeking more data about the changing behavior of their customers. — The Nielsen Company, which has long provided such information …

Discussion: iMediaConnection Blog, Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, eMedia Vitals, The New Yorker Blog, digiday:DAILY, Nielsen Wire and Future of Journalism

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Ad Spending Grows Again, Albeit More Slowly — Advertising spending is still increasing, according to a report to be released Monday morning, but the rate of growth has slowed again. — The report, by Kantar Media, part of WPP, found that ad spending in major media in the United States …

Discussion: MediaPost, paidContent and NetNewsCheck Latest

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Another 2008 Flashback: Ad Spending Already Contracting — Last week we reminded some of you that if the economy implodes, ad spending goes with it. Not news, obviously, but forewarned is forearmed and all that. — And now for our media bummer of the week: Even without a 2008-style meltdown, ad spending is already contracting.

Discussion: AdAge and Wall Street Journal

Lauren A. E. Schuker / Wall Street Journal:

Glenn Beck Faces Big Test as New Show Bows — Conservative firebrand Glenn Beck faces his first big test since leaving Fox News when his new two-hour show begins Monday. — The first episode of Mr. Beck's program “Glenn Beck,” which will air on his new Internet-only network GBTV …

Discussion: TVNewser, Speakeasy, Business Insider, Mediaite, On Media's Blog and The New York Observer

Financial Times:

Turning the page: newspapers face the future — The digitalisation of the media is no longer just about the migration towards online news. — Tablets, apps and mobile sites are all part of the package that must be provided by modern news organisations whose century-old business models …

Barbara Chai / Wall Street Journal:

CBS Show Is Watching With Interactive Billboards — To promote its new fall drama “Person of Interest,” CBS Corp. is turning its eye on viewers. — To highlight the show's theme of citizen-surveillance, CBS is tapping into the trend of interactive billboards, installing one each in New York City and Los Angeles.

Dexter Filkins / New Yorker:

Syed Saleem Shahzad's murder, Pakistan, and the ISI. — On May 30th, as the sun beat down on the plains of eastern Pakistan, a laborer named Muhammad Shafiq walked along the top of a dam on the Upper Jhelum Canal to begin his morning routine of clearing grass and trash that had drifted into the intake grates overnight.

Discussion: Mother Jones, Ask the Author and Felix Salmon

New York Times:

Raid on Egyptian Al Jazeera Affiliate Seen as Part of a Broader Crackdown — CAIRO — Egyptian security forces raided the offices of an Egyptian affiliate of the Al Jazeera news network known for attentive coverage of street protests, eliciting allegations on Sunday of a crackdown on the news media …

Discussion: Pajamas Media

Alessandra Stanley / New York Times:

On Slow and Somber Anniversary, News Media Try to Stay Out of the Picture — Television is about faces, not names. It's about motion, not stillness. So the fact that so much time on Sunday was dedicated to the slow, solemn recitation of all the Sept. 11 victims was as significant a tribute as the camera can make.

Discussion: WebProNews and Jon Slattery