Mediagazer: The Man With Two Brians! Can NBC's Personality Industry Save the Anchor from Irrelevance? (The New York Observer)

3:40 AM ET, February 4, 2012

Top News:

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

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

The NYT needs a lot more than just a paywall — If there was a bright spot in the latest quarterly results from the New York Times, it's the fact that the newspaper's metered paywall has attracted almost 325,000 subscribers willing to pay a monthly fee for the site.

Discussion: paidContent, The Awl and Paul McMorrow

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The newsonomics of the next New York Times CEO

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Felix Salmon, Mother Jones, Newsonomics and New York Times

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: Committee to Protect …, @poynter and @brianstelter

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

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: The New York Observer, @dancow, SocialTimes.com, @niemanlab, @mathewi, Poynter and @jeffsonderman

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

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: GigaOM, Media & Entertainment, The FJP, FishbowlLA, Future of Journalism, The Huffington Post, Mixed Media and NewsLab

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: Telegraph, WebProNews and Marketing Pilgrim

Maryclaire Dale / Associated Press:

Business mogul mulls new bid for Philly newspapers — Business mogul Raymond Perelman is mulling another bid for Philadelphia's two largest newspapers, more than a year after creditors outbid him at a bankruptcy auction. Perelman bid $129 million, mostly cash, for The Philadelphia Inquirer …

Discussion: New York Post, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Philly.com, The Huffington Post and Poynter

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: The Scoop, Capital New York, Jezebel, Forbes, AdAge and New York Times

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Halifax lays off more than half of staff reporting to former NYT Regional HQ in Tampa — About 30 employees of the former New York Times Regional Media Group were notified Friday that their new employer, Halifax Media Group, has decided to lay them off and offer severance packages.

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, AllTwitter and @twitterfornews