Mediagazer: Kobo launches e-book self-publishing platform, “Writing Life” (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

6:05 PM ET, June 5, 2012

Top News:

Alysia Santo / CJR:

GOOD Mag to be ‘a Reddit for social good’ — Ex-staffers at work on a new publication — GOOD magazine fired six of its nine-person editorial staff on Friday—and two others accepted buyouts—as part of a move from being a journalism-focused outlet to a community engagement platform.

Discussion: TOMORROW, The Atlantic Wire and @clarajeffery

Ann Friedman: About GOOD and on to TOMORROW

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
GOOD magazine addresses editorial staff layoffs

Discussion: Erik Wemple and The Wrap

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:
What Happened to GOOD? — In five days, GOOD went …

Discussion: Poynter

Howard Owens / CJR:

How David Simon is wrong about paywalls — Let me count the ways. Ten, in fact. — David Simon is a talented writer and storyteller, but is he qualified to give advice to publishers about how to save their dying industry? — As qualified as anybody else, I suppose.

Discussion: THE OUTSIDER, The Buttry Diary, @jeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @palafo, @palafo, @mathewi, @froomkin and @stevebuttry

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Donald Trump is done with USA Today — Donald Trump tweeted this afternoon: … We have made it easy to comment on posts, however we require civility and encourage full names to that end (first initial, last name is OK). Please read our guidelines here before commenting.

Discussion: Politico and @peterlauria3

Dylan Byers / Politico:

The American Prospect doesn't need angels — GQ's Marin Cogan reports today on the fate of The American Prospect, which recently told readers that if it couldn't raise $200,000, it was going to die. — It's not a terribly pretty picture: “On a recent Monday afternoon …

Marin Cogan / GQ: “I'm sort of fatalistic ... It's in rich peoples' hands now”: The Last Days of The American Prospect?

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

New York Times' latest hire part of evolving social media team — The New York Times' social media team is expanding, and ProPublica's Daniel Victor is its newest hire. — Victor, who is currently social media editor at ProPublica, announced yesterday that he's joining the Times …

Discussion: Gawker

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:
New York Times Tacks on Two for Social Media, Values People Who Know Their Way Around Reddit

Discussion: The Commercial Observer

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Kobo launches e-book self-publishing platform, “Writing Life” — Digital reading company Kobo is launching a competitor to Amazon's KDP and Barnes & Noble's PubIt: Kobo Writing Life, a free self-publishing platform for independent authors and publishers. — Writing Life is in beta tests …

Discussion: PR Newswire, Digital Book World and Kobo

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Tribune search for CEO — Tribune Co. owners are again casting around for candidates to lead the troubled media outfit, which has been in Chapter 11 for more than three years. Former NBCUniversal boss Jeff Zucker is a leading candidate to run the debt-plagued newspaper and TV station company, sources said.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Capital New York and TVNewser

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Rally and Open Letter Signal Pushback to a Less-Than-Daily Times-Picayune — On Monday a rally was held and an open letter was issued from people in New Orleans who believe that Advance Publications' decision to reduce the publishing schedule of The Times-Picayune to three days a week …

Discussion: MediaPost, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Gambit New Orleans News …, AJE, Forbes, @mathewi, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post, theind.com and Gambit New Orleans News …

Kevin Allen / PR Daily News:

Reporter pressing charges against PR chief in Honeywell debacle — It's unlikely that many communications positions have the phrase “may be asked to falsely imprison reporters” in the job description, but perhaps Honeywell will want to consider it after this past weekend.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, In These Times and Big News Network.com

Daniel Frankel / paidContent:

Dish/AMC fight breaks bad, channels banished to the 9,000s — OK, so who's geeked up for the upcoming fifth and final season premiere of AMC's Breaking Bad? — Lets just put it this way: In Englewood, Colo., where Dish Network is headquartered, nobody seems to be circling July 15 on their calendar.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Radio & Television … and Deadline.com

Azi Paybarah / Capital New York:

Steve Kroft on Romney and Obama as TV guests, and the amazing challenge of filling job openings at ‘60 Minutes’ — Veteran “60 Minutes” journalist Steve Kroft, who, by his count, has interviewed Barack Obama a dozen times, said his show hasn't yet scheduled an interview with the Republican presidential candidate.