Mediagazer: How Online Paywalls Are Changing Journalism (NPR)

5:00 PM ET, February 3, 2012

Top News:

Mark Thompson / BBC:

The harassment of BBC Persian journalists — For those working for the BBC Persian service, interference and harassment from the Iranian authorities has become a challenging fact of life. — I am hugely proud of how they deal with that relentless pressure, and their unswerving commitment …

Discussion: @brianstelter and @poynter

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Reuters staff vote for first strike in 25 years — NUJ members ‘overwhelmingly’ back action over below-inflation pay offer of 1.75% — Journalists at Thomson Reuters have voted to strike - for the first time at the news agency in more than 25 years - over a below-inflation pay offer.

Discussion: Press Gazette

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Apple Tweaks iBook Language: Your Content Is Your Content — A couple weeks after introducing its new iBooks Author app, Apple has clarified legal language about what happens to books users create with the software. Apple continues to insist that users can only sell electronic books in the iBook format via its iTunes store.

Discussion: paidContent, The Next Web, Future of Journalism, ZDNet, CNET, MacStories, TUAW and @jcstearns, more at Techmeme »

NPR:

How Online Paywalls Are Changing Journalism … Read Clay Shirky's column “Newspapers, Paywalls, and Core Users” — Online media advocate Clay Shirky has long been a skeptic of newspaper paywalls. He now thinks 2012 could be the year that a critical mass of readers will be willing to pay for news online.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and @timmcguire

Mandy Jenkins / Zombie Journalism:

I'm more than a Twitter Monkey — So can I level with you guys? I'm relieved that I'm not going to be doing this same social media jam forever. — Not because I don't like it - actually, I still really love it. I live to send out a tweet and see a flood of reaction come in as mentions and retweets.

Discussion: SocialTimes.com, @dancow, Poynter, @jeffsonderman, @niemanlab and @mathewi

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Watch Out, TV: AOL and HuffPo Jump Into Live Video — AOL and The Huffington Post are readying a live video network that will have twelve hours of programming every weekday when it starts this summer. — The network, which is currently named The Huffington Post Streaming Network …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, GigaOM, Future of Journalism, The FJP, FishbowlLA, Mixed Media, The Huffington Post, WWD Media Headlines, NewsLab, AdAge and FishbowlNY

Wall Street Journal:

Advertisers' Free Ride May End On Facebook — For advertisers on Facebook Inc., the free ride may be coming to an end. — When the social network filed for its initial public offering on Wednesday, the spotlight shifted from the site's exponential user growth to a metric that may have more bearing on its market value: ad sales.

Discussion: WebProNews and Marketing Pilgrim, more at Techmeme »

Drew Olanoff / The Next Web:

Twitter prepares for election coverage by setting up an account aimed at journalists — Twitter CEO Dick Costolo recently said that 2012 would be the “Twitter election” and he might not be far off. — The micro-messaging service has become a source for news among many huge outlets …

Discussion: The Wall Blog and @twitterfornews

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Random House Will Keep All Its E-Books In Libraries, With A Price Increase — Random House is now the only big six publisher to allow unrestricted access to all of its e-books in libraries—and it said yesterday it will continue to do so, though it is raising prices.

Discussion: The Digital Shift and Melville House Books

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

How Dallas Morning News reporter got scoop that Komen was reversing its decision — When Dallas Morning News reporter Tom Benning called a Susan G. Komen for the Cure spokeswoman Friday morning, he got a heads up that something big was about to break. — “I literally called the person …

Discussion: AdAge, The Scoop, Jezebel and New York Magazine

Lisa Alter / AllThingsD:

Silence of the Lambs: The Missing Voice of Authors in the SOPA Debate — The recent media frenzy surrounding the Stop Online Piracy Act is perhaps most notable for the voice that is absent in the mainstream media debate: The voice of the individual creator of intellectual property.

Discussion: Media Matters for America and TeleRead

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

A Crowdfunded Approach To Setting E-Books Free — What do To Kill A Mockingbird, A Wrinkle in Time and Little House on the Prairie series have in common, besides being beloved? None of them are available legally as e-books. A new site aims to make these and other e-books available to the public …