Mediagazer: There Is Something Fundamentally Wrong With AOL's Media Business (Henry Blodget/Business Insider)

3:20 PM ET, December 18, 2011

Top News:

There Is Something Fundamentally Wrong With AOL's Media Business — This note is from BI Research, a new tech-industry intelligence service. The service is currently in beta and free. To learn more and sign up, please click here. — Everyone piles on AOL all day, and we certainly don't mean to add to that.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Beyond Search, The Wrap, Erik Wemple and Business Insider

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Amazon Doesn't Care About Your Local Bookstore — True Colors Feminist Co-Op Bookstore in Minneapolis, formerly Amazon Bookstore. — Photo by Ed Kohler; Used Gratefully under a Creative Commons License — Here are two surprising holiday shopping season success stories.

Discussion: WebProNews, AdAge and TeleRead, Thanks:tcarmody

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

NBC stations partner with Instagram for viewer photos — Several NBC owned-and-operated stations have teamed up with Instagr.am to solicit viewer photos to use on-air and online. While the station sites have their own photo upload capability, the new partnership taps a thriving community …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Publishers still missing the point on e-book prices — When the major book publishing firms signed an agreement with Apple that allowed them to control the prices for their e-books — unlike the deal they had with Amazon, which gave the online retailer the right to cut prices if it wanted to …

Discussion: paidContent, Thanks:mathewi

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

Tony Maddox, CNN: ‘2011 is the most demanding year we can remember’ — Executive vice president and managing director of CNN on how the broadcaster coped during an extraordinary year for news — CNN correspondent David McKenzie in Somalia — It has been an extraordinary year for news.

Wall Street Journal:

Digital Strategy Undid New York Times CEO — For Janet Robinson, Growing Impatience Over Company's Future Course; Controlling Sulzberger Family Looked for a Change — This week's resignation of New York Times Co. chief executive Janet Robinson caught even senior executives by surprise.

Adam Penenberg / Fast Company:

Lessons From Serial Fabulist Stephen Glass On How Not To Reboot A Career — The writer who made up stories for The New Republic, Rolling Stone, Harper's and others (then tried to lie his way out) is fighting to become a lawyer in California. To the journalist who busted his original lies, Glass's tactics sound eerily familiar.

Brendan Nyhan / CJR:

When Newt Isn't Newsworthy — The problems with news pegs in campaign coverage — NEW HAMPSHIRE — Yesterday, former House speaker Newt Gingrich returned to New Hampshire for a foreign policy debate with former Utah governor Jon Huntsman. The trip marked Gingrich's first visit …

John Cook / Gawker:

Christopher Hitchens' Unforgivable Mistake — The outpouring of grief, goodwill, and teary encomia that has attended news of Christopher Hitchens' passing would—if he was anything like the persona he presented in print—have turned his stomach. He loathed sentiment, welcomed combat, and delighted in inflicting hard truths.

Discussion: Salon, The New Yorker Blog, New York Times, Erik Wemple, Slate, Washington Post, The Huffington Post and ArtsBeat

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Defining journalism is a lot easier said than done — The ripples continue to spread from a recent Oregon court ruling involving a blogger who was sued for defamation, and argued she should be covered by the state's “media shield” law. The judge decided that she didn't qualify as a journalist …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Free Press

Foster Kamer / Betabeat:

10 Questions for Drew Magary, the Most Actually-Read Writer on The Internet* — Drew Magary, The Most Actually-Read* Writer On The Internet. It's true. … Congratulations Drew. You're the most actually-read “Read Later” author on the internet. How does this feel? — I FEEL SO PRETTY.