Mediagazer: Was 2011 the year of the great paywall? Not exactly (Bobbie Johnson/GigaOM)

7:05 PM ET, December 30, 2011

Top News:

Mark Guarino / Christian Science Monitor:

After deaths in Detroit, Backpage.com advertising comes under scrutiny — Four women in Detroit were found dead in two car trunks Sunday. Their connection to a website offering escort services is reviving an ongoing debate about the right of online media outlets to host advertising that many say enables criminal activity.

Discussion: Business Insider

Tresa Baldas / Detroit Free Press:

Backpage.com says 22 more websites are linked to dead Detroit women — Backpage.com, a classified advertising website, said today that computer and forensic evidence shows at least 70 different escort ads on 22 websites are linked to the investigation involving four women whose bodies …

Discussion: Detroit Free Press

WXYZ-TV:
Police investigate more than a dozen websites in women's murders

Discussion: Detroit Free Press

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Despite kingmaking expectations, Fox News seems neutral among GOP field — Even before the first Republican presidential candidates declared they were running, pundits and political operatives alike were debating the Fox News Channel's potential influence on the GOP race.

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Sunni leader denies NY Times byline — Iraqi parliament speaker Osama al-Nujaifi is denying his participation in a New York Times op-ed bearing his byline, Agence-France Press reports. — “The article published in the New York Times... has been written without the knowledge of speaker Nujaifi …

Ammar Karim / Agence France Presse: Iraq row festers as speaker denies penning op-ed

Chicago Tribune:

Tribune Co. bankruptcy case on hold until May — Tribune Co.'s long-running sojourn in bankruptcy shows no sign of ending soon. — A federal judge said in a ruling Thursday that he won't hold a confirmation hearing on plans to end the three-year bankruptcy until May at the earliest.

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA:
Sam Zell May Not Get Tribune Co. Bankruptcy Payout After All

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Richard Huff / NY Daily News:

Cable giants battle could leave locals without Knicks, Rangers and Islanders to start the New Year — Last games for Time Warner subscribers could be Saturday — Knicks fans who subscribe to Time Warner Cable may not have access to games after Saturday. The cable operator is in a payment dispute …

Ahmed Al Omran / NPR:

Basil Al-Sayed, Who Chronicled The Syrian Uprising, Is Dead — This was the last thing Basil al-Sayed, a citizen journalist in Syria, filmed before he was shot in the head by security forces: — According to activist Rami Jarrah, yesterday, al-Sayed succumbed to his injuries at a hospital in the restive city of Homs.

Discussion: The Lede, Guardian, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Iowa Media Plays On National Stage As Caucus Nears — NEW YORK — When Craig Robinson launched The Iowa Republican in March 2009, he hoped to bring his decade's worth of Republican campaign and fundraising experience into the coverage of state politics. And Robinson's been successful …

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Landing Romney — The Huffington Post landed an exclusive interview …

Discussion: @ledbetreuters and @gabrielsherman

Bobbie Johnson / GigaOM:

Was 2011 the year of the great paywall? Not exactly — As the year comes to a close, the media is stuffed with pundits proclaiming that 2011 was the year of something or other. For the most part, it's easy to ignore these trend pieces: Many of them are simply chum thrown in the water …

Discussion: PC Magazine

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

The New York Times Spamming Incident Wasn't That Big a Deal — The New York Times's Home Subscriber alert heard round the world on Wednesday is now enjoying a second, silly turn in the news cycle, mostly thanks to News Corp and Anonymous. Thursday morning, the cover of Rupert Murdoch's American tabloid …

Discussion: Mediaite

Erik Wemple:

Ron Paul's newsletters: Where was Texas? — The Houston Chronicle seems tired of the Ron Paul newsletter story. Richard S. Dunham, the Chronicle's Washington bureau chief, led his Dec. 27 story on the matter with these words: … Dunham adds that the “issue is old news in Texas,” where Paul has served 11 congressional terms.

Discussion: Mediaite

Eric Deggans / St. Petersburg Times:

Columnist Ernest Hooper to become Brandon Bureau Chief for Tampa Bay Times — It's a season of change at the soon-to-be Tampa Bay Times, as longtime columnist Ernest Hooper becomes chief of the newspaper's Brandon bureau full-time. Hooper will still write columns, only not as often …

Peter Schorsch / Saint Peters Blog: The last vestiges of the St. Petersburg Times

Corrina Lawson / GeekDad:

Why I Still Love Old Media — I have a bachelor's degree in print journalism from Boston University. I worked as a weekly and daily newspaper for seven years after graduation. I have print subscriptions to Wired, Entertainment Weekly, Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated and to my local newspaper, The Hartford Courant.

Paul Hitlin / PEJ:

Bloggers Argue Over The 2011 “Lie of the Year” — When a Pulitzer Prize winning fact-checking site announced its “Lie of the Year” for 2011, it set off a partisan firestorm in the blogosphere triggered by liberal critics of that choice. — According to PolitiFact.com …