Mediagazer: Chris Blackhurst: 'It's relentless, but I'm having fun' (Dan Sabbagh/Guardian)

7:55 AM ET, October 3, 2011

Top News:

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Murdoch's Tablet Newspaper Experiment Shows Some Promise — IPad-only Pub Has 120,000 Active Weekly Readers and Is Getting a Boost From Burgeoning Device Market, But Is Still a Long Way From Viable Biz — Can you build a general-news publication exclusively for tablets and gain an audience of paying subscribers?

Discussion: Guardian, @amadeus3000, @julianprucha, Future of Journalism and Business Insider

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Daily Claims 80,000 Paying Subscribers; Majority Opt For Annual Plan — News Corp has stopped stonewalling about The Daily's circulation following reports from Bloomberg that the tablet tabloid had 120,000 weekly uniques and from paidContent that nearly two-thirds of those were paying subs.

Mathew Ingram / @mathewi: .@katherinedanks: Murdoch spent over $30 million launching it and it costs $30 million a year to run — needs 500K paying to break even

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

NPR names Gary Knell, head of nonprofit behind ‘Sesame Street,’ as chief executive — NPR on Sunday named Gary Knell, who has headed the organization that produces “Sesame Street,” as its new chief executive and president. — Knell replaces Vivian Schiller, who left NPR in March …

Mark Memmott / NPR:

NPR Names Sesame Workshop's Gary Knell As New CEO/President — Gary Knell, president and CEO of Sesame Workshop - producers of the Sesame Street educational children's TV show — has been named the new CEO and president of NPR. The news was broken this hour on Weekend All Things Considered.

Discussion: Poynter, Media Decoder, The Wrap, AllThingsD, Associated Press, The Politico and Deadline.com

Gary Knell / @nprgaryknell: I'm thrilled to join NPR. This is media with a deeply held mission, compelling history and boundless future.

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

HuffPo at One Biiiilllliiion Monthly Page Views: More Buying, More Launching, More Hiring — The Huffington Post Media Group, which says it has topped one billion page views for the month of August, has bought an online grassroots platform called Localocracy.

Discussion: Street Fight, TechCrunch, Future of Journalism and The Next Web

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

He's Back: Bob Pittman Named CEO of Clear Channel — Longtime media and Internet exec Bob Pittman has been named CEO of radio broadcast and outdoor advertising giant Clear Channel, the company announced today. — Pittman — who has been chairman of Clear Channel's media and entertainment platforms …

Discussion: paidContent, mediabistro.com, Los Angeles Times, Forbes and MediaPost

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Dreaming at the Kindle Potential — With each introduction of a new reading device publishers around the world are overcome with the same recurring same fantasy: What if it worked, this time around? Could a reliable business model emerge for news publishing companies?

Discussion: Guardian and @tcarmody, more at Techmeme »

Dave Itzkoff / ArtsBeat:

‘Arrested Development’ Movie, and New TV Episodes, Are in the Works — Captain Ahab had Moby-Dick; Linus van Pelt had the Great Pumpkin; and, in the five years since “Arrested Development” has gone off the air, fans of that underdog Fox comedy series have spent their lives pining …

Discussion: Speakeasy, NY Daily News, Inside TV, /Film, LAist, All, Washington Post and Forbes

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Chris Blackhurst: 'It's relentless, but I'm having fun' — The Independent's new editor talks about his plans to give the paper more energy - and whether the title will back Labour or the Lib Dems ever again — Chris Blackhurst is quick to tell me that this is his “fourth incarnation at the Independent” …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Brian Womack / Bloomberg:

Google Takes Page From Sunday Newspaper With New ‘Circulars’ Ads — Google Inc. (GOOG) is on a quest to make Internet advertising look more like the Sunday paper. — The online-search giant is working with advertisers such as Best Buy Co. and Macy's Inc. (M) to create Web-based circulars …

Discussion: The Official Google Blog, Fast Company, TechCrunch and Softpedia News, more at Techmeme »

David Hinckley / NY Daily News:

Allan Jefferys, broadcast legend and theater critic at ABC, dead at 88 — Allan Jefferys, who dropped a planeload of paratroopers into Normandy on D-Day and later became the theater critic for Channel 7, died Thursday at his home in Pinehurst, S.C. He was 88.

Nick Greene / Runnin' Scared:

Why Did the New York Times Change Their Brooklyn Bridge Arrests Story? — The above photo of juxtaposed screenshots from the New York Times website has been making the rounds on Facebook, and it shows two very different takes for the same story on yesterday's Brooklyn Bridge arrests.

Discussion: New York Times, Future of Journalism, FishbowlLA, Gothamist and Boing Boing