Mediagazer: SOURCE: AOL Faces Brutal Choice On Patch — Close It Or Double Down (Jim Edwards/Business Insider)

11:05 AM ET, June 21, 2012

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

NBC Prepares to Replace Ann Curry on ‘Today’ — NBC executives are readying a plan to replace Ann Curry on the “Today” show, only a year after she became the co-host of the iconic franchise. The planning — which is taking place in secret and has not been finalized …

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

NBC Made Contingency Plans, but Ann Curry Reports to Work at ‘Today’ — For a couple of hours on Wednesday, as Ann Curry's negotiations to leave the “Today” show were first reported publicly, NBC News officials believed that she would not be coming into work Thursday morning …

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser and entertainment.time.com

Jennifer Schuessler / ArtsBeat:

Lehrer Apologizes for Recycling Work, While New Yorker Says It Won't Happen Again — The science writer Jonah Lehrer, author of the runaway bestseller “Imagine: How Creativity Works,” has become the latest high-profile journalist to be caught up in a plagiarism scandal …

Discussion: Poynter, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Media Decoder, paidContent, The Daily Beast and New York Magazine

Jack Shafer:

Jonah Lehrer's recycling business — “Write every piece three times,” the late Richard Strout used to advise journalists who craved advancement in the profession. — Strout, who wrote the New Republic's TRB column for four decades and worked 60 years as a Washington correspondent …

Discussion: Poynter and The Huffington Post

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
Jonah Lehrer is the latest target of Google Game, crowdsourced investigation

Discussion: Erik Wemple, JIMROMENESKO.COM, JIMROMENESKO.COM and CJR

Felix Salmon:
How Jonah Lehrer should blog

Discussion: Poynter, bookforum.com, Gawker, GalleyCat and Noah Brier dot Com

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Phone hacking: Met refers files on four more journalists to CPS — Scotland Yard has referred the files of four more journalists arrested on suspicion of phone hacking offences to the Crown Prosecution Service. The CPS was passed the files for charging advice on Tuesday and is now considering …

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph: News Corp directors ‘allowed hacking cover up’

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

After Divorcing Sports Illustrated, Turner Wants to Hook Up With Bleacher Report — Bleacher Report and Turner, which have been circling each other for months, are edging closer to a deal. People familiar with both companies say they haven't agreed on final terms, but are now negotiating exclusively …

Discussion: Business Insider

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

‘Fox & Friends’ Finds Ratings and Controversy — When it comes to sitting for interviews Mitt Romney is not usually a willing and eager subject. But there is one invitation he rarely turns down. — “Fox & Friends” has had Mr. Romney as a guest 21 times in the last year.

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Erik Wemple and Inside Cable News

Donna Bowater / Telegraph:

Julian Assange: President of Ecuador Rafael Correa to rule on asylum decision today — The President of Ecuador, Rafael Correa, is expected to give instructions on the WikiLeaks founder's application today. Assange, 40, spent a second night at the Ecuadorean Embassy in London …

James Ball / Guardian:
Julian Assange's drama: in the third act, we still don't know what the story is

Discussion: fleet street fox, Guardian and Press Association

Michael Powell / New York Times:

Andrew Sarris, Influential Film Critic, Dies at 83 — Andrew Sarris, one of the nation's most influential film critics and a champion of auteur theory, which holds that a director's voice is central to great filmmaking, died on Wednesday morning in Manhattan. He was 83.

Discussion: Guardian, WebProNews, Runnin' Scared, The Wrap, LA Observed, The New Yorker Blog, ARTINFO, The New York Observer, /Film, Gawker, @joepompeo, Reviews and Gothamist

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Philly publisher Bob Hall to staff: ‘We will probably experience another substantial loss this year’ — In a memo to staff of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com, returning Philadelphia Media Network publisher Bob Hall says a report of $4 million profit didn't take into account …

Discussion: The Newspaper Guild

Bill Mears / CNN:

High court rules for broadcasters on TV ‘indecency’ — Washington (CNN) — Broadcast television networks won an important free speech fight Thursday when the Supreme Court said government regulators imposed unfair punishment for isolated profanity and sexual content during evening “prime time” hours.

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

SOURCE: AOL Faces Brutal Choice On Patch — Close It Or Double Down — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has a simple but brutal choice to make about Patch, a source close to the ad sales side of the local news business told us over lunch recently: Ditch it or double down and take the thing national …

Discussion: Street Fight