Mediagazer: How Assignmint Will Change Freelance Journalism (Neal Ungerleider/Fast Company)

9:05 AM ET, April 27, 2012

Top News:

Nick Denton / Gawker:

Why Anonymity Matters — Gawker Media is flying in the face of conventional media wisdom. While other outlets are doing away with anonymity, we've built anonymous accounts into our new comment system. We'll accept some disorder if that's the price of freedom in one's personal life, in politics and the press.

Discussion: Guardian

Ross Neumann / rGn:

Corgis and Journalism Want to Coexist — A few hours ago, Nick Denton took a shot at BuzzFeed in Gawker's new commenting section. … Denton's main point is that meaty journalism like John Herman's excellent explainer on internet copyright simply can't sit peacefully alongside this stately frog.

Jay Yarow / Business Insider: Nick Denton Is Crushing BuzzFeed And Jonah Peretti Right Now In Gawker's Comments

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Gawker: We want to elevate the discourse about frogs who sit like humans

Discussion: Adweek, GigaOM, Gawker, Betabeat, Lifehacker, the Econsultancy blog and @fishbowlny

Jennifer Preston / The Lede:

Rupert Murdoch on the Future of News … On Thursday, the second day of Rupert Murdoch's testimony in London during a British inquiry into media ethics, he took a question about new regulations on the press to expound at some length on the future of journalism.

Discussion: Online NewsHour, New York Times, Big News Network.com, AdAge and Guardian

Erik Wemple:
Murdoch flatters Huffington Post

Discussion: Politico and Politico

Estelle Shirbon / Reuters:
Hunter turns hunted as Murdoch “harassed” by press

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Are you a young dude interested in news? All else equal, this study says you're a top paywall target — Here's a biggie: How do you get someone to pay for online news? A new study (PDF here) out of the University of Texas develops a theoretical model to begin answering that question.

Discussion: Journalism News and MarketingVox News & Trends

Guardian:

Jeremy Hunt to hand over all relevant BSkyB emails and texts — Culture secretary to give messages he sent to Adam Smith and News Corp executives about takeover bid to Leveson inquiry — Jeremy Hunt, the embattled culture secretary, is to disclose all his private correspondence over the BSkyB takeover deal to the Leveson inquiry.

Discussion: New York Times, Associated Press, BBC, Sky News, Journalism.co.uk and Big News Network.com

Press Association:
Ofcom extends BSkyB investigation

Discussion: Guardian, Journalism.co.uk, mnilive.com, Jon Slattery and Broadcasting & Cable

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

New York Times R&D Group Launches First Commercial Product (and It's for Brands) — Ricochet Helps Brands Drive Traffic to Relevant Articles, Surrounded by the Right Ads — The New York Times R&D Lab has spent the last six and a half years building what its chief calls the equivalent of “concept cars” for the media world.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, AdExchanger.com, paidContent, NetNewsCheck Latest and FishbowlNY

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Journatic founder: ‘Being based in the community is not beneficial’ — Brian Timpone sounded frustrated by press coverage of Journatic when he commented on a Mathew Ingram post this morning linking to a story that mentioned the Chicago Tribune had tapped his company to operate its TribLocal network.

Discussion: Chicago Reader and NetNewsCheck Latest

Jim Romenesko:
Journatic CEO answers critics

Discussion: Mathew Ingram and Poynter

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Phone hacking: Thurlbeck will not be prosecuted over witness intimidation claims — The former News of the World chief reporter, Neville Thurlbeck, will not be prosecuted over claims of witness intimidation relating to the phone-hacking scandal, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Discussion: BBC, Associated Press and Reuters

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

How tech's giants want to re-invent journalism — Some of Silicon Valley's biggest technology companies reject suggestions they are now news organisations. — But they nevertheless think they have the prescription for what news media must do next... First, the disclosures …

Discussion: Garcia Media and The Paley Center for Media

Bloomberg:

Providence Said Selling Hulu Stake at $2 Billion Value — Hulu.com owners Walt Disney Co. (DIS), Comcast Corp. (CMCSA) and News Corp. (NWSA) are close to buying out Providence Equity Partners Inc.'s stake at a price that values the company at $2 billion, said two people with knowledge of the matter.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, Media Decoder, C21Media, New York Post, paidContent, VentureBeat, Company Town, Mashable!, Reuters, Media Money …, AllThingsD, Digital Media Wire, Deadline.com and Business Insider

Neal Ungerleider / Fast Company:

How Assignmint Will Change Freelance Journalism — A new startup hopes their integrated freelancer workflow and financials system will change the media industry. — New startup Assignmint has an ambitious goal: To change freelance journalism as we know it.

Discussion: newsplexer

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Amazon's Q1 2012: Revenue Up 34 Percent To $13.2B, Net Income Down 35 Percent — Amazon just reported earnings for the first quarter of 2012. Net sales increased 34% to $13.18 billion in the first quarter, compared with $9.86 billion in first quarter 2011.

Discussion: Electronista, Fast Company, Business Wire, MarketWatch, GeekWire, Forbes, Home Media Magazine, VentureBeat, @tcarmody, @publisherswkly, ZDNet, Digital Book World, paidContent, The Next Web, GalleyCat and parislemon

Lauren Margolis / PhotoShelter Blog:

How The New York Times Does Social Media — To think that it's impossible to draw any parallels between your photography business and The New York Times is to be shortsighted. What makes or breaks your business these days is whether you stand out from the crowd, and both you and NY Times need …