Mediagazer: Bright Lights, Big Secret (Michael Hastings/BuzzFeed)

10:30 AM ET, July 16, 2012

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Microsoft and NBC Complete Web Divorce — On Sunday night, MSNBC.com did something that successful Web sites almost never do: it renamed itself. — The site became NBCNews.com, signifying the end of a relationship between NBC and Microsoft that dates back to the earliest days of the commercial Web.

M. Alex Johnson / NBC News:

Msnbc.com becomes NBCNews.com — REDMOND, Wash. — NBC News has acquired full control of msnbc.com and its digital network from Microsoft Corp. and is immediately rebranding the site as NBCNews.com. Many details of the arrangement remain to be worked out, and financial terms weren't disclosed.

Discussion: TVNewser, MediaPost and Mediaite

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Latest Word on the Trail? I Take It Back — The quotations come back redacted, stripped of colorful metaphors, colloquial language and anything even mildly provocative. Related In Pawlenty, Romney Campaign May Find Down-to-Earth Appeal (July 16, 2012) The Election 2012 App The Election 2012 App …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Washington Post, Poynter, Washington Wire, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, @brianstelter, @peterlauria3, @jeffjarvis, @jayrosen_nyu, @chanders and @mlcalderone

New York Times:

Apple May Meet Tablet Competition With a Smaller iPad — The tech companies are at it again — trying to catch the blockbuster iPad in a race to win the tablet market. — Google on Friday began shipping its Nexus 7, which is smaller and less expensive than Apple's iPad …

Discussion: Betabeat, MacRumors, The Verge, TechCrunch, The Week, Fortune, Gotta Be Mobile, Know Your Mobile, Telegraph, 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, GeekWire, CNET, Forbes Real Time, Pocket-lint, Mashable!, App Advice and Business Insider

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Journatic published hundreds of stories under fake bylines on Houston Chronicle websites — Outsourcing company Journatic used previously undisclosed fake bylines on more than 350 stories published on behalf of the Houston Chronicle, Poynter has learned. — This news comes on the heels …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and MiamiHerald.com

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Tribune newsroom takes over TribLocal work done by Journatic — In a memo sent Sunday afternoon, Chicago Tribune Editor and Senior Vice President Gerould Kern told staff that the paper would once again be directly responsible for its suburban TribLocal content.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Julie Moos / Poynter:
Journatic claims it was about to fire editorial head who resigned

Discussion: Street Fight, Chicago Sun Times and Chicago Tribune

Lauren Ashburn / The Daily Beast:

How the Drudge Report, With Its Condoleezza Rice ‘Scoop,’ Again Rules the Media — His Condi Rice “scoop” went viral despite its utter implausibility. Lauren Ashburn on why the press is held captive by the conservative blogger's thinly sourced gossip. — The headline screamed across …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Daily Download and Reliable Sources

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Gannett print advertising down 8% in 2nd quarter — Gannett's second-quarter earnings report shows that print advertising revenue was down 8 percent compared to the second quarter of 2011, while digital revenue grew 13 percent, according to Gracia Martore, president and CEO.

Discussion: Thomson IR

Michael Hastings / BuzzFeed:

Bright Lights, Big Secret — “As a general rule it's not a crime for a removable alien to remain in the U.S,” says Jose Antonio Vargas, reading from Justice Anthony Kennedy's brief on the recent Supreme Court decision on immigration. “When I saw that I was like, 'Okay, well, I guess that means that I'm no longer illegal.”

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:

Fast Chat: Reuters' Social Media Maven Gives Up Twitter — Reuters' deputy social media editor, Matthew Keys, spent the better part of the last few years digging up stories and breaking news on Twitter, tweeting more than 46,000 times. Last week, he decided to leave Twitter indefinitely.

Jake Coyle / Associated Press:

Study: Viewers Turning to YouTube as News Source — A new study has found that YouTube is emerging as a major platform for news, one to which viewers increasingly turn for eyewitness videos in times of major events and natural disasters. The Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence …

Discussion: Journalism.org

Slate:

Why Does The New Yorker Publish So Many Pieces About The New Yorker? — This week's issue of The New Yorker features excerpts from writer Mavis Gallant's diary covering the spring of 1952, when she was “giving English lessons and anxiously waiting for payment for her New Yorker stories.”

Discussion: bookforum.com