Mediagazer: Media General explores sale of its newspapers (Julie Moos/Poynter)

10:30 AM ET, February 23, 2012

Top News:

James Barron / New York Times:

Marie Colvin's Mother Recalls Her Determination to Get the Story — Marie Colvin got into Yale University the way she would later get into foreign countries, with grit and determination. — After spending a year in Brazil on a student exchange program, from January of her junior year …

Discussion: BBC, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Media Decoder, CNN and Freelance Unbound

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Syria Correspondent Wanted Her Reporting Read Outside Pay Walls — Before her death on Wednesday in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, the veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin voiced a common frustration for journalists who are reporting from distant areas about conflicts that can feel remote to readers back home.

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, Press Gazette, City Room, USA Today, Online NewsHour, BAGnewsNotes and At War

Expatica:
French paper trying to contact reporter hurt in Syria

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Erika Solomon / Reuters: Wounded French reporter at risk of bleeding to death - activists

Kerri Macdonald / Lens:
Parting Glance: Rémi Ochlik

Discussion: New York Times, Press Gazette and Media News

Telegraph:
Marie Colvin killed: Syrian forces had pledged to kill ‘any journalist who set foot on Syrian soil’

Discussion: Committee to Protect …, Bloomberg, Newsday and @ramsaysky

Todd Wasserman / Mashable!:

Google to Launch TV Service — Google is looking to get into the paid TV business. — The company filed an application last week to provide video service to residents of Kansas City, Mo., according to The Wall Street Journal. If approved, the service could launch as soon as a month from now …

Discussion: AllThingsD, Wall Street Journal, GigaOM, Business Insider, Media Week, business.time.com, C21Media, Los Angeles Times, VentureBeat, @PSFK and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Murdoch confirms Sun on Sunday will be 50p — Rupert Murdoch takes to Twitter to announce price of new Sunday edition, plus a price reduction for Saturday's paper — Rupert Murdoch has taken to Twitter to confirm that the Sun's new Sunday edition will cost 50p. He also announced a 17% cut in price for the Saturday Sun.

Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:

Ethical or Not, Silicon Valley Bloggers Hit Up VCs for Angel Funds — It's a win-win game: Bloggers write favorably about both sides' portfolios, and everyone exits with 100x returns. Even social media maven Robert Scoble is getting in on the game. But whatever happened to journalistic integrity?

Discussion: Real Dan Lyons, more at Techmeme »

Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times:
Are Silicon Valley tech bloggers truly objective?

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Uncrunched, Real Dan Lyons, parislemon and VentureBeat

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Scoble: hit man of Silicon Valley?

more at Techmeme »

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Charlotte Church settles phone-hacking case — Details of deal between star and News of the World publisher to be announced in court next week — Charlotte Church has settled her civil action against News International and the private investigator Glenn Mulcaire over alleged voicemail interception by the News of the World.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Cherie Blair to sue News International

Discussion: Press Gazette, BBC, Journalism.co.uk and Guardian

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Gannett's Big Paywall Play: Will It Work? — Gannett (NYSE: GCI) said it is “playing offense” again after years of cuts and contraction. Its touchdown strategy is a sophisticated paywall system that the news giant says will both bolster local news reporting and deliver an extra $100 million in profits.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Gannett.com and AdPulp

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Gannett Building Paywalls Around All Its Papers Except USA Today — The vogue for digital paywalls sweeping the news business has made it all the way to the top: Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper publisher, is planning to switch over all of its 80 community newspapers to a paid model …

Discussion: Media Decoder, 10,000 Words, Jon Slattery and @jackshafer

The Baron:

Reuters changes editorial priorities in quest for Pulitzers — Reuters is adopting a new editorial approach aimed at winning Pulitzer Prizes: long, in-depth, investigative special reports from all bureaux. In the longer term the organisation will have fewer journalists; they will be better paid.

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

The IRS and the Chicago News Cooperative — I wrote back in November that the tax man was making it harder for the nonprofit-news movement to flourish or even survive. — Now the IRS figures prominently in the downfall of a major nonprofit news organization, the Chicago News Cooperative.

Discussion: Reflections of a Newsosaur

Jim Romenesko:
CNC editor: No MacArthur Foundation interference

Discussion: Chicago Current

Jim Romenesko: Did CNC ‘cause problems’ for MacArthur's City Hall friends?

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Are aggregation and curation journalism? Wrong question — The battle between traditional media and the blogosphere over aggregation (or “curation,” if you prefer) continues to rage. In the latest skirmish, Forbes blogger Kashmir Hill got thrown under the bus by many for a recent blog post …

Discussion: Betabeat, eMedia Vitals and Journomel.com, more at Techmeme »

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Media General explores sale of its newspapers — Just after the market closed Wednesday, Media General announced it is “exploring the potential sale of newspaper operations.” The company, which owns 21 newspapers in five states, just two weeks ago got more time to ease a debt crunch it's been facing.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, St. Petersburg Times, Media General and Saint Petersblog

David Holmes / Fast Company:

Lindles: Jeremy Lin, Amazon Kindle, And The Rise Of Insta-Authors — Jeremy Lin has inspired a lot of rabid fans, magazine features, and six-figure book deal offers. But he's also fueled a new breed of lightning-fast e-book authors. Alan Goldsher, author of “Linsanity …

Discussion: ArtsBeat, Kindle Review and Speakeasy

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Sam Zell Blames Tribune Failure on ‘Greedy’ Journalists. — Sam Zell. Credit: Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images — Sam Zell must miss being the most hated man in the newspaper industry. Why else would the ever-pungent real estate billionaire be speaking up about his disastrous time running Tribune Co., all this time later?

Discussion: Gawker, LA Biz Observed and New York Times

Josh Halliday / @joshhalliday:

Other new hacking claims against News Group over alleged hacking about to be made public.

Evan McMorris-Santoro / Talking Points Memo:

Romney Campaign Scrubs Criticism from Editorial Before Sending It Out — Romney Campaign Scrubs Criticism From Editorial Before Sending It Out — There are a lot of kind words for Mitt Romney on the Detroit News editorial page Wednesday. But by trying to hide the few words that weren't very nice …

Discussion: Guardian, The Caucus and Online NewsHour