Mediagazer: Will NBC's Olympic investment pay off? (Daniel Roberts/Fortune)

1:40 AM ET, May 26, 2012

Top News:

The cable news audience has peaked — CNN's rotten ratings have grown only rottener. The Time Warner-owned news network drew fewer prime-time viewers last week than any week since September 1991, the New York Times just reported. But CNN isn't the only network riding the down escalator when it comes to ratings.

Discussion: @rafat, Inside Cable News, @johnjcook and @alanfisher

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Dish Network Doesn't Want to Blow Up TV. It Wants to Pay Less for It. — Does Charlie Ergen really want to blow up the TV business, using his ad-skipping “Auto Hop” feature? — You can make that case, and if you want to hear an entertaining rendition of it, check out Peter Lauria's live-on-tape report from Times Square here.

Discussion: Multichannel, Home Media Magazine and New York Times

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Lawsuits Over Dish Network's Ad-Skipper Reveal Networks' Hypocrisy

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David Taintor / Talking Points Memo:

TPM Interview: New York Times Media Columnist David Carr — TPM Interview: New York Times Media Columnist David Carr — What is your writing/reporting day like? — Today, I spent far too much time on email and Twitter, and far too little time reporting a story I'm working on.

Discussion: @dkthomp and @rafat

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

Financial Times exec: iOS apps don't work for publishers — It's been close to a year since the Financial Times left the iTunes app store to launch a a web app for its paid content, and FT.com Managing Director Rob Grimshaw told the audience at GigaOM's paidContent 2012 conference that this move has more than paid off.

Discussion: Beet.TV

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Denver Post, Contra Costa Times revamp story editing with fewer copy editors — In some ways, the Denver Post and Contra Costa Times' cutbacks in copyediting, announced last month and now final, is a common story these days. Less common are the other changes they're making in how they handle print stories.

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Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Journalist asks: Why do we need editors? — Why do we need editors? — It's a provocative question to pose publicly if you're a journalist, and that's exactly what GigaOM's Mathew Ingram did today on Twitter:

Discussion: GigaOM

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Yahoo Kills Livestand After Just Six Months — Mobile Newstand App Had Trouble Gaining Traction — Has Ross Levinsohn put his first stamp on Yahoo as CEO? Yahoo is shutting down Livestand, its mobile newsstand app, only a little more than six months after it launched, the company just announced.

Discussion: Yodel Anecdotal, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Digits and Ubergizmo

Voice of America:

VOA Reporter Detained in Ethiopia — A Voice of America reporter has been detained in the Ethiopian capital while trying to cover a demonstration Friday. — Witnesses to the arrest said that reporter Peter Heinlein and his translator Simegineh Yekoye were detained while seeking …

Tim Carmody / The Verge:

The Indianapolis 500: a remarkable test-case in the future of transmedia programming — Sports and sports media compose a gigantic global business. Neither are untouched by technology. In many respects, sports are leading the way in bringing live video and information to alternate computing devices both inside and outside the home.

Daniel Roberts / Fortune:

Will NBC's Olympic investment pay off? — The Peacock stands to lose money on the big games, but small victories will help ease the pain. — FORTUNE — Last June NBC spent a reported $4.38 billion to secure Olympic broadcast rights through 2020. That's a hefty windfall for the IOC …

Journalism.co.uk:

NUJ may cut one fifth of staff in face of ‘severe financial crisis’ — A leaked report to the union's National Executive Council states the union has ‘around £300,000 in cash’ said to be the equal of ‘three weeks running costs’ — The National Union of Journalists is …

Discussion: Jon Slattery and Press Gazette

New York Times:

Albany Times Union Editor Says Police Targeted His Wife's Spa — ALBANY — In early spring, the police raided a spa near the Capitol, alleging that a masseuse was actually a prostitute. — It appeared to be a minor arrest, except that the spa's owner is the wife of the investigations editor at the local newspaper, The Times Union.

Discussion: Albany Times Union, New York Magazine, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter and Gothamist