Mediagazer: Star Tribune's paywall is bringing in more money than it's costing in ad revenue (Steve Myers/Poynter)

8:55 AM ET, December 7, 2011

Top News:

Exclusive: Verizon to take on Netflix with Web service — (Reuters) - Verizon Communications Inc plans to launch a standalone service allowing customers to stream movies and television shows over the Web, in a fresh challenge to Netflix Inc and the traditional cable TV business, according to several people briefed on the plan.

Jeff Roberts / paidContent: Netflix CEO Compares Company To Bank Of America And Oakland A's

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
Netflix's Chief Sees HBO as Its Main Rival

Discussion: Deadline.com, paidContent, CNET News, GigaOM and Home Media Magazine

Curtis Cartier / The Daily Weekly:

Crystal Cox, Oregon Blogger, Isn't a Journalist, Concludes U.S. Court—Imposes $2.5 Million Judgement on Her — A U.S. District Court judge in Portland has drawn a line in the sand between “journalist” and “blogger.” And for Crystal Cox, a woman on the latter end of that comparison, the distinction has cost her $2.5 million.

Discussion: Guardian, the Econsultancy blog, Street Fight, SEO Book.com, Betabeat, Future of Journalism, @digiphile, @cshirky, @jayrosen_nyu, @jayrosen_nyu and ShortFormBlog

Curtis Cartier / Seattle Weekly:

Unlike Oregon, Bloggers Are Journalists in Washington State, Do Qualify for Legal Protections — This morning we told you about the troubling case of Crystal Cox, the Oregon blogger who was successfully sued for defamation, thanks in part to a federal court ruling that she isn't a …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

Phone hacking: Police arrest 41-year-old man — Arrest is 18th by the Metropolitan police's phone hacking investigation Operation Weeting — The Metropolitan police arrested the man at an address in London at 7am today — Copyright: Alberto OG on Flickr. Some rights reserved

Discussion: Daily Mail

Sky News:

Sky Sources: Glenn Mulcaire Held Over Hacking — Private investigator Glenn Mulcaire has been arrested as part of the phone-hacking inquiry, according to Sky sources. — Police said a 41-year-old man was arrested this morning as part of Operation Weeting.

Telegraph:

Andy Coulson sues News Group over refusal to pay phone hacking legal fees — Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor, took his ex-employer News Group Newspapers to the High Court today over its refusal to reimburse his legal fees arising from the phone-hacking affair.

Oliver Duff / The Independent: Rebekah? ‘We helped choose her police station’

Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:

Flipboard launches sleek iPhone app with new ‘Cover Stories’ section — Popular iPad news reading application Flipboard has made the move to the iPhone and while it retains its smart and simple design, it also has added a new Cover Stories section to boot. — Flipboard's application …

Discussion: Adweek, ReadWriteWeb, Inside Flipboard, NetNewsCheck Latest, CNET News, AllThingsD, SiliconFilter, Mashable!, Forbes, Bits, USA Today, mocoNews and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

The aggregator's dilemma: How do you fairly serve your readers & the sources you rely on? — When you aggregate content, what obligation do you have to the original source — and to readers? — I asked myself this question after seeing how people reacted to the events surrounding Jim Romenesko's departure …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and AllThingsD

David Roeder / Chicago Sun Times:

Sun-Times Media online sites to begin metered pay plan — The Chicago Sun-Times and its sister publications in the suburbs will start charging for online access, joining the ranks of newspapers looking for new online revenue sources. — Access to web sites controlled by Sun-Times Media LLC …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Associated Press, The Huffington Post and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Paul Roderick Gregory / Forbes:

A Blogger Could Start Russia's Arab Spring — The new face of the Russian opposition is a young whistle-blowing, shareholder activist, muckraking blogger by the name of Alexei Navalny. At 2:15 p.m. on Monday, he called his huge internet following to a 7 p.m. demonstration at the Chistye Prudy park …

Discussion: Media News and Future of Journalism

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

Broadcasters Press Supreme Court to Overturn TV, Radio and Newspaper Ownership Rules — Broadcasters are urging the Supreme Court to loosen restrictions that prevent companies from owning newspapers, radio stations and television stations in the same market.

Discussion: Hillicon Valley, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable and Adweek

Gautham Nagesh / The Hill:
Copps submits notice to resign from FCC

Discussion: rbr.com

David Carr / Media Decoder:

At News Foo, Imagining the End of the World, and How to Cover It — Let's say, just for giggles, that the word was ending. Could be an alien invasion, a pandemic or nuclear annihilation. If one of those scenarios became a news event, how would it be covered?

Thanks:megan

David Brauer / MinnPost:

Boogaard's brain: How the New York Times got that story — Minnesota Wild forward Derek Boogaard, right, punching Calgary Flames forward Brian McGrattan in their fight during a December 2009 game. — John Branch isn't completely sure, but he thinks “Punched Out: The Life and Death of a Hockey Enforcer” …

Discussion: Poynter

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

T.J. Holmes Leaving CNN — CNN weekend anchor T.J. Holmes is leaving the cable channel at the end of the year, TVNewser has confirmed. Richard Prince first reported the move in his daily media column. — Holmes began his career as a producer for KSNF in Joplin, Missouri …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, All Things CNN and The Maynard Institute

Patrick Meighan / My Occupy LA Arrest,:

My Occupy LA Arrest, by Patrick Meighan — My name is Patrick Meighan, and I'm a husband, a father, a writer on the Fox animated sitcom “Family Guy”, and a member of the Unitarian Universalist Community Church of Santa Monica. I was arrested at about 1 a.m. Wednesday morning with 291 …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

It's online! Zombie ‘New York Press’ looks for recruits; owner wants it to be Bloomberg's ‘homepage’ — Three months after shutting down the 23-year-old newspaper New York Press, the paper's publisher, Manhattan Media, is gearing up for a relaunch of the late alternative weekly's website.

Discussion: Gawker

Buzz Bissinger / The Daily Beast:

How Jerry Sandusky Played The New York Times in His Interview — The New York Times gave the ex-Penn State coach free rein to mount a pathetic defense against sexual abuse charges. Buzz Bissinger on how the paper royally botched the story—which should never have been printed. — Why did Joe Amendola do it?

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Eagle News Online, Slate, newsfeed.time.com and msnbc.com

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Star Tribune's paywall is bringing in more money than it's costing in ad revenue — The Star Tribune tells David Brauer how its paywall is doing a month after launch. Ad revenue will suffer from lower traffic, which is down 10 to 15 percent, depending on the metric.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, MinnPost and @carr2n

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Campaigns Take Ad War to TV After Months of Holding Fire — Newt Gingrich rolled out his first ad in Iowa, top left, on Monday. Ron Paul's campaign has had a higher profile on the air in early voting states. Mitt Romney, bottom left, began advertising only recently.

Discussion: The Caucus, Guardian and Daily Dot

Caitlin Johnston / American Journalism Review:

The Naked Retweet Dilemma — If journalists retweet information and links without providing any lead-in or context, does that suggest that they endorse it? — Caitlin Johnston (cljohnst@gmail.com) is a graduate student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, Poynter, @omars81 and Future of Journalism

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

MediaNews Group's ‘Digital-First’ Mondays Bring Some Paywalls Down — In the hopes of saving money while avoiding consolidation, MediaNews Group is introducing “digital-first Mondays” at six of its California newspapers. Of those papers, the three that have paywalls will make all web content free …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, The Huffington Post and Poynter