Mediagazer: Top US Web Brands (Matth/Nielsen Wire)

4:10 PM ET, October 1, 2011

Top News:

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Judith Miller: ‘Just what kind of journalism is Poynter promoting?’ — Fox Newser Judith Miller took Poynter's free online course titled “Covering Islam in America,” then graded it “mediocre.” She complains that “the implicit message” of the course is that the 3,000 9/11 deaths have been over-covered …

Judith Miller / Fox News:

Jihad Is Not Just Murder, Motive Matters — The respected Florida-based Poynter Institute, whose mission is to improve journalism in support of democracy, is trying to help journalists cover Islam more effectively by offering a new on-line course free of charge. So I registered.

Discussion: Gawker

Judson Berger / Fox News:
Course Instructs Journalists to Take Note That Jihad ‘Not a Leading Cause of Death’

Discussion: Media Research Center and Big Journalism

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Alibaba's Jack Ma at Stanford: “We Are Very Interested” in Buying the “Whole” of Yahoo — In answer to a direct question about whether his company was going to buy Yahoo at a forum at Stanford University in Silicon Valley this afternoon, Alibaba Chairman and CEO Jack Ma said: “We are very interested.”

Discussion: VentureBeat, Bits, Technology News, Softpedia News, Reuters, TechCrunch and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Who'll Be NPR's Next CEO? — NEW YORK — It's been over six months since NPR's board of directors ousted CEO Vivian Schiller, following a hidden-camera scandal involving an NPR fundraising executive, and eight months since NPR's top news executive, Ellen Weiss, was shown the door in the wake of the Juan Williams firing.

Discussion: Chickaboomer

Greg Sandoval / CNET News:

Apple seeks worldwide iCloud music rights — Managers at iTunes are trying to lock down worldwide cloud-music rights, CNET has learned. — Sources familiar with the discussions between Apple, record companies, and music publishers, say Apple is seeking international music licenses for its iCloud service.

Discussion: AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, MacStories, Electronista and TUAW, more at Techmeme »

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Don't hold your breath for a la carte cable — Is the cable industry starting to change its mind about the idea of letting consumers decide what channels they want? A recent story from Reuters says cable operators are working on a such a plan and that it “represents a complete reversal …

Alex Sherman / Business Week:
Cable's ESPN Dilemma: Wildly Popular—but Costly

Discussion: MediaPost

Leigh Gallagher / Fortune:

The fall of the house of Forbes — Welcome to the Weekly Read, our column that features Fortune staffers' and contributors' takes on recently published books about the business world and beyond. We've invited the entire Fortune family — from our writers and editors to our photo editors and designers …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Matth / Nielsen Wire:

Top US Web Brands — Google was the most visited website during August 2011 with 176 million unique U.S. visitors. The Top Sites among U.S. web users remained largely the same as the month before, with Amazon increasing its rank to become the 9th most visited site during August 2011.

Discussion: PC Magazine and Mashable!

Tara Williams / Baristanet:

Online News Startup NJ Spotlight Wins Prestigious Online Journalism Award — The Online News Association (ONA), the world's largest organization of digital journalists, presented NJ Spotlight, the online news service launched in 2010 to spotlight public policy issues in New Jersey …

Daniel Bentley / Ink Think:

Big Media is at the mercy of the tech giants and it's their own fault … This is a question I have been asked to answer. Well, not answer, but at least research the issues enough to stimulate some debate. So over the course of a few blog posts I intend to share some of what I uncovered and solicit some feedback.

The Wrap:

Michael Ovitz Fails in Takeover Bid at IMG, Board Moves to Oust Him — Follow @sharonwaxman Follow @BrentALang — With IMG Worldwide Chairman and CEO Ted Forstmann on his deathbed, board member Michael Ovitz has made a failed play to take over the giant sports talent agency, and it has backfired, TheWrap has learned.

Discussion: FishbowlLA

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Historic New York Times Emoticon Headline Makes it into Print — When the New York Times published the headline “Study of Twitter Messages Tracks When We Are ” online, Yahoo reported that it marked first time an emoticon had been used to convey information in a headline-replacing a word in a sentence rather than punctuating it.

Discussion: Adverblog and Future Journalism Project