Mediagazer: Game Changer — Do games have any place in the training of future journalists? (Adam Penenberg/Fast Company)

5:20 PM ET, September 30, 2011

Top News:

Media Poachables 2011: The 25 Editors and Staffers to Steal For Your Masthead — IT'S A BUYER'S MARKET, AND THEY'RE JUST IN IT. Only three years after 2008 ravaged many a media property, New York's editorial operations haven't just thawed, but many are now on a hiring hot streak.

Discussion: @mathewi and Talking Biz News

Peter Applebome / New York Times:

2 Long Island Weeklies Wonder About Spike in Sales — It is possible there is some larger lesson for ailing newspaper sales in the sudden good fortune of The Suffolk Times and The Riverhead News-Review, two modest Long Island weeklies that saw an unprecedented sales spike last week …

Discussion: Mediaite, Suffolk Times, New York Magazine and Pat's Papers

Alex Sherman / Business Week:

Cable's ESPN Dilemma: Wildly Popular—but Costly — As the Disney-owned network pays more for sports content, cable bills may rise — Of the 20 most-watched programs ever on cable TV, 16 were episodes of Monday Night Football—a show that Walt Disney's ESPN sports network didn't begin broadcasting on cable until 2006.

Discussion: MediaPost

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Who believes print newspapers have a future? ‘The Occupy Wall Street Journal’ does — Amid all the complaints that there's an Occupy Wall Street media blackout, some protest-sympathizers have taken matters into their own hands. — Tomorrow, the rolling protest in the Financial District …

Discussion: Gawker, CJR, Runnin' Scared and Folio

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:
The Yes Men Raise Money to Publish the Occupy Wall Street Journal

Discussion: Mediaite, Runnin' Scared, ANIMAL, Forbes, Globe and Mail, Mogulite and New York Magazine

Paul Vale / The Huffington Post - UK:

Donald Rumsfeld Tells Al Jazeera ‘I Am Delighted You Are Doing What You Are Doing’ — The Huffington Post UK … Former US Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld has given an interview to Al Jazeera, ending his feud with a channel he once described as “vicious”.

Discussion: The Wrap and TVNewser

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Memo to media: A Facebook app is not innovation — There's been a lot of attention paid recently to the new “social reading” apps that were launched by a number of publishers and content companies — including The Washington Post and The Guardian — at Facebook's f8 developer conference.

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Thanks:mathewi

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:
Washington Post Chairman — and Facebook Director — Don Graham Talks About Social Reader (Video)

Discussion: Poynter

Tom Kington / Guardian:

News Corp faces fresh hacking drama - around satellite TV cards — Italian trial of those accused of hacking TV access cards turns spotlight on to Sky Italia - and is expected to hear that hackers nicknamed Rupert Murdoch ‘the Kangaroo’ — The Palace of Justice in Siracusa on the east coast …

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

Sean Parker Is Launching a Blog — The Sean Parkington Post? Seanster? Blogify? It's not clear what former Facebook president Sean Parker will call his forthcoming blog, but it's clear the famed tech hustler is serious about the endeavor: He's hired a firm to build buzz, and is already running ads and planning to hire writers.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire

Adam Penenberg / Fast Company:

Game Changer — Do games have any place in the training of future journalists? This reporter stages a challenge to students to find out. — This fall, I began layering in game mechanics into a graduate journalism course I teach at New York University. In it, students vote for the best stories …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Clean Slate: How the online mag's tech director Dan Check fine-tuned a 15-year-old machine — As the web's oldest living magazine, Slate has acquired a certain reputation of, well, old-fashionedness. The New York Observer called Slate “tech-backward” last November.

Discussion: Future Journalism Project, eMedia Vitals, The Awl and Slate

Alex Alvarez / Mediaite:

Exclusive: Presenting The ‘Newspaper’ Nominees For Adweek's ‘Hot List’ Awards — Adweek is gearing up for its newly expanded and revamped Hot List awards this December, when it will honor only the very hottest in magazines and newspapers, as well as (as of this year) the hottest names and titles in TV and digital media.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Steve Fishman / New York Magazine:

Floored by News Corp.: Who Hacked a Rival's Computer System? — News Corp. was at war with Floorgraphics, a small in-store advertising company, and veteran salesman Gary Henderson was leading the attack. He appeared to have a valuable advantage: access to inside information …

Discussion: On Media's Blog