Mediagazer: Building the Great Newspaper Paywall (Peter C. Beller/Ebyline Blog)

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

Spin Magazine Is Sold to Buzzmedia, With Plans to Expand Online Reach — Spin Media, the company behind the alternative-music magazine Spin, has been sold to Buzzmedia, a portfolio of music and celebrity Web sites, in a deal that could expand Spin's reach online but also calls into question its future as a print publication.

Discussion: Folio, The Wrap, AdAge, paidContent, FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, eMedia Vitals and Forbes Real Time

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Donald Newhouse rebuffs request to sell Times-Picayune — Donald Newhouse has rebuffed a strongly-worded letter from a group of heavy-hitters in New Orleans to sell The Times-Picayune rather than cut daily printing. The Times-Picayune Citizens Group wrote in a letter delivered Monday:

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

In New Orleans, profit trumps readers — I appreciate the efforts of readers of the Times-Picayune to keep the New Orleans newspaper published seven days a week. Unfortunately, they will be unsuccessful. — Here is a simple, boiled down reason: Readers value the public service the newspaper produces.

Discussion: @annatarkov and DashThirtyDash

Steve Myers / Poynter:

NPR unpublishes intern's execution story after discovering parts were plagiarized — NPR has deleted a story from its website, an intern's first-person account of witnessing a public execution in Kabul, after learning that parts of it were plagiarized from someone else's story published in 2001.

Julie Moos / Poynter:

The Anniston Star to eliminate Monday print edition — Another Alabama newspaper has decided to reduce its days in print. This time, it is a smaller daily that has been praised for its commitment to community journalism. Starting in the fourth quarter of this year, probably in October …

Discussion: Anniston Star and NetNewsCheck Latest

Amy Sullivan / The New Republic:

Who Reported It First? Who Cares. — Can we talk about the nonsense of caring about which news outlet first reports a big piece of news? I'm not talking about a genuine scoop—a report that wouldn't have otherwise come to light—but about news that we're all eventually going to find out anyway.

Discussion: Adweek, The New Yorker Blog, Neatorama, @bobbymacreports, @antderosa and Politico

Discussion: The Billfold

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Next Issue brings 39 all-you-can-read magazines to iPad — Digital magazine joint venture Next Issue Media is finally available for the iPad, three months after it launched for Android. With the app, users can read popular magazines like People, Vogue, the New Yorker and Real Simple for a flat monthly fee.

Discussion: Engadget, ZDNet, PC Magazine, Journalism.co.uk, eMedia Vitals and TechCrunch

Peter C. Beller / Ebyline Blog:

Building the Great Newspaper Paywall — The beleaguered newspaper industry has finally settled on a digital revenue strategy—the metered paywall—and now everyone's pitching in to get it built. Paywalls have their critics, their boosters, more critics and then the critics-who-also-want-to-be- boosters.

Discussion: TheMediaBriefing and Poynter

Dylan Byers / Politico:

David Callaway named EIC of USA Today — USA Today will name MarketWatch editor David Callaway as its new editor-in-chief, POLITICO has learned. USA Today president and publisher Larry Kramer, who founded Market Watch, will announce the news today at 11 a.m. ET.

Discussion: USA Today

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

HuffPost Preps for Video Launch — As the Huffington Post prepares for an Aug. 13 launch of its full-day online video network, it is hoping to tap a fast-growing advertising market by offering marketers something akin to sports naming rights in addition to traditional online video ads.

Discussion: Capital New York, TVNewser and Los Angeles Times

Adam Tinworth / One Man & His Blog:

Why traditional publishers can't soothe the crying baby — I feel rather bad for my colleagues in the national newspaper business this morning. As they trek into their plush central London office, sipping their lattes1, they find the world predicting their doom and destruction.

Discussion: Street Fight, The Huffington Post, The Corsair, Guardian and Forbes Real Time

Steve Smith / MediaPost:

Bloomberg Businessweek: Yep, You Can Put A Magazine On A Phone — Most magazine publishers have been so obsessed with the tablet in the last two years that their smartphone app programs seemed to have been pushed to the margins. The lure of print-like engagement on the iPad was as powerful as chum thrown to starved sharks.

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Two Guys Made a Web Site, and This Is What They Got — What if this article began with a link to a chart on media consolidation? Would you click it? — What if, instead, this article began with a promise that it would tell you “The Real Reason They Still Play ‘Mrs. Robinson’ on the Radio.”

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Betabeat

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

DirecTV-Viacom Dispute May Affect Access for 20 Million Customers — DirecTV customers may lose access to Viacom's 17 television channels, including Nickelodeon, MTV and Comedy Central, at the end of the day on Tuesday because of a dispute between the two companies.

Discussion: DIRECTV Viacom Dispute and Adweek