Mediagazer: How David Simon is wrong about paywalls (Howard Owens/CJR)

9:25 PM ET, June 5, 2012

Top News:

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 Buttry Diary, THE OUTSIDER, @jasonhirschhorn, @palafo, @jeffjarvis, @froomkin, @stevebuttry, @mathewi, @palafo and @jeffjarvis

Alysia Santo / CJR:

GOOD Mag to be ‘a Reddit for social good’ (updated) — 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 — On March 8, 2011, the day after I accepted the job as executive editor of GOOD, I sent a 5:15 a.m. Gchat message to my core lady: “woke up at 5am in a sweat about how hard it's gonna be to actually run a magazine.” — While it certainly wasn't the easiest year …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
GOOD magazine addresses editorial staff layoffs

Discussion: Erik Wemple, The Informer and The Atlantic Wire

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

What happens when a newspaper is just another digital voice? — The fact that print is declining as a medium for journalism, and that newspapers are going to have to deal with that in a variety of ways, was brought home with a thud recently when Advance Publications and Postmedia announced …

Discussion: Xark!, MediaShift Idea Lab and Crikey

David Carr / Media Decoder:
Rally and Open Letter Signal Pushback to a Less-Than-Daily Times-Picayune

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

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?

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: Gannett Blog, Politico and @peterlauria3

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

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

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.

Discussion: New York Magazine

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 and The New York Observer

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

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, TVNewser and Capital New York