Mediagazer: iTunes features best news apps of 2011 (Julie Moos/Poynter)

6:55 AM ET, December 10, 2011

Top News:

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Google doesn't seem to get how media works now — Google launched a news-reading app called Currents on Thursday, something it has been working on for some time — ever since it was a much-rumored skunkworks project called Propeller — and much of the coverage of the new app has called …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Sunlight Foundation Blog, Lifehacker, Folio and NetNewsCheck Latest

Julie Moos / Poynter:

iTunes features best news apps of 2011 — Even iTunes is doing a year-end list; its staff pick the best and top selling apps of 2011, including news apps. The New York Times made the list of top iPhone and iPad news apps. The Daily was one of the top Newsstand apps and also the third top-grossing app of the year.

Discussion: VentureBeat, The FJP, mediabistro.com and Pocket-lint

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:
CNN's Zite launches iPhone app for personalized news, and tests a business model

Discussion: Future of Journalism, USA Today, New York Times, Fast Company, VentureBeat, Forbes and MediaPost, Thanks:jeffsondermanch

Tom Krazit / paidContent:
Zite Joins Flipboard, Google On The iPhone In Crowded Week For News Apps

Discussion: Zite - Blog, Technologizer and AllThingsD

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Romney campaign kicks Jose Antonio Vargas out of event for being an activist — Jose Antonio Vargas is wearing two hats these days, advocating for immigration reform while writing about it, but that didn't work at a Mitt Romney campaign event Friday. He was kicked out after he showed …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and New York Magazine

Dylan Byers / Ben Smith's Blog:

Romney spox: Undoc ‘Activist’ Vargas lacked press docs — The Romney camp calls to clarify an incident in Iowa involving Jose Antonio Vargas, the Filipino journalist who has written extensively about his status as an undocumented immigrant. — Vargas, who came to the event with a large sign that said …

Discussion: Guardian and The Huffington Post

Cotton Delo / AdAge:

Twitter Joins Facebook, Google, Launches ‘Brand Pages’ for Marketers — Brands Get a Home on Twitter With More Functionality — Twitter is looking to strengthen its relationship with advertisers by launching brand pages that will be unveiled today as part of a more comprehensive redesign.

Discussion: Yahoo! Advertising Blog, HubSpot's Inbound …, PopWatch, Poynter, Daily Dot, Business Insider, Editors Weblog, Poynter and paidContent

Elizabeth Flock / Washington Post:

Nick Kristof tear gassed, detained in Bahrain (tweets) — New York Times columnist Nick Kristof, who is in Bahrain to cover the ongoing protests in the country's 10-month-old uprising, tweeted Friday that he was tear-gassed and then taken into a police car in the eastern island of Sitra before being released by a senior officer.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, The Wrap and The Huffington Post

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

YouTube Buys Company That Processes Music Royalties — In an effort to streamline its often complex relations with music publishers, YouTube has acquired RightsFlow, an upstart company in New York that processes royalties for the music industry. — YouTube, which is owned by Google …

Discussion: YouTube Blog, RightsFlow, CNET News, TechCrunch and New York Times, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Condé Nast: magazine publisher, app inventor — (A Santa clause: Spoilers lie ahead.) — Last week Condé Nast debuted a free web app called Santa's Hideout, a registry for children's Christmas gifts. Kids browse a virtual toy store and build a wish list …

Discussion: TheMediaBriefing

Hunter Walker / PolitickerNY:

Mayor Bloomberg Says Police Didn't Prevent Reporters From Covering Occupy Wall Street — On John Gambling's radio show this morning, Mayor Bloomberg once again addressed the controversy over press access at the NYPD's raid on the Occupy Wall Street encampment in Zuccotti Park last month.

Discussion: Capital New York, Runnin' Scared, The Huffington Post, City Room, New York Magazine and New York Times

Enigmax / TorrentFreak:

RIAA Label Artists & A-List Stars Endorse Megaupload In New Song — By now readers will be all too familiar with the rhetoric of the mainstream music and movie industries. So-called foreign “rogue sites” steal American content, steal American money, cost American jobs and damage the economy, the lobbyists insist.

Discussion: Techdirt, Techdirt, Gawker, Softpedia News and MetaFilter, more at Techmeme »

Sophia Hollander / Wall Street Journal:

Sex Essay Sparks Uproar at Yeshiva University — An essay about premarital sex published in a student newspaper has caused an uproar at Yeshiva University, the Orthodox Jewish college in Manhattan, prompting the student council to withdraw the paper's funding and igniting a campus-wide debate over censorship.

Discussion: YU Beacon, NY Daily News, Gothamist, New York Magazine, Gawker and Media Decoder

Rob Davis / Voice of San Diego:

Why Manchester Bought the Union-Tribune — The San Diego Union-Tribune's Mission Valley headquarters. — Doug Manchester, the new owner and publisher of The San Diego Union-Tribune, wants his new media outlet to be a booster. — The newspaper's new CEO, John Lynch …

Discussion: Poynter