Mediagazer: Two Journalists Freed by Islamic Fighters in Syria After Weeklong Ordeal (Rod Nordland/New York Times)

1:35 PM ET, July 27, 2012

Top News:

CNN chief Jim Walton resigns after 10 years leading CNN worldwide — NEW YORK — CNN chief Jim Walton said Friday he is quitting, saying the company needs new leadership at a time its flagship U.S. network is suffering through some of its poorest ratings ever.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable, Poynter, Politico, The Wrap, Capital New York, CNN, @andersoncooper and @michaelwolffnyc

CNN:

CNN Worldwide President Jim Walton announces he is stepping down at the end of the year — Jim Walton told the CNN organization today that he will step down as president of CNN Worldwide at the end of this year. He will continue in his current role until that time.

Discussion: Mediaite

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

Olympics coverage by NBC News questioned — To cover this summer's Olympic Games, NBC News will deploy a journalistic force of some 450 people, including 25 reporters and its lead anchorman, Brian Williams. The network has been featuring Olympic updates on the Williams-anchored “Nightly News” …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times and BBC

Twitter Blog:

Spotlight on Olympic stories — When it comes to events that capture the world's attention, the Olympic Games have long been the gold standard — and never more so than right now, when Twitter is on hand for every competition. Even today, heading into the Opening Ceremony …

Discussion: PSFK, The Verge, WebProNews and Guardian

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Streaming the Olympics: How YouTube and NBC do it

Discussion: Forbes and The Verge

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

New York Times' circulation revenue lags growth in digital subscriptions — Wall Street rewarded The New York Times Co. with a 10 percent stock price increase Thursday after a second-quarter earnings report with several significant bits of good news: — For a second consecutive quarter …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, CJR and Beet.TV, Thanks:@myersnews

Associated Press:
New York Times Stock Jumps After Revenue Report

Discussion: New York Magazine, Forbes, ValueWalk, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter, NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaPost, New York Times, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, Reuters and Guardian

Wall Street Journal:

New Orleans News Organization to Be Created by NPR, University of New Orleans — NPR, Other Nonprofits Band Together to Provide an Alternative to Local Paper — National Public Radio, the University of New Orleans, and a group of business and community leaders will announce Friday …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit, New Orleans Times-Picayune, Poynter, Current.org Blog and mediabistro.com

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

Denver TV stations pool interviews with theater shooting victims, families — Kevin Torres is a multimedia journalist for KUSA-TV, the NBC station in Denver. Usually he shoots, writes and edits his own stories. — On Tuesday, the key interview in his story was shot by the ABC station in town.

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

In new ad downturn, subscription salvation for some, gold rush for others — By now, the world was supposed to have emerged from the worst of the global economic storm that dampened advertising dollars through 2008 and 2010. But lingering European concerns suggest the ad dip is back …

Discussion: production.investis.com and Guardian

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

YouTube founders' new magazine-focused Web curation app Zeen opens in beta — Back in April, AVOS, the company started by YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, quietly launched a teaser for a new project called Zeen. Today it's gone live to people who applied for early beta access.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Financial Times: Our Digital Subscribers Now Outnumber Print, And Digital Is Half Of The FT's Revenue — A milestone reached as the world of old media continues its push in a digital direction: the storied, pink-sheeted daily newspaper the Financial Times, read by 2.1 million readers daily …

Discussion: GalleyCat, Pearson, Media Week, Reuters, Telegraph and Guardian

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

McClatchy to expand paywalls across chain in fourth quarter — McClatchy says it intends “to roll out a metered plan in the third quarter in five of our markets” in its press release about the company's second-quarter earnings, and it will start charging at the rest of its papers in the fourth quarter.

Discussion: MediaPost, Wall Street Journal, Sacramento Bee, The McClatchy Company and AllThingsD

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

Universal Offers a Sweeping Sell-Off to Win Approval of EMI Purchase — In a significant retreat from Universal Music Group's ambitions of adding EMI's record labels to its already dominant position in the music market, the company has offered sweeping concessions to the European Commission …

Discussion: Media Decoder and Wall Street Journal

Owen Bowcott / Guardian:

Twitter joke trial: Paul Chambers wins high court challenge to his conviction — Accountant says he feels ‘relieved and vindicated’ as court rules his joke tweet about blowing up an airport was not menacing — Paul Chambers, who was found guilty of sending a menacing tweet, has won his high court challenge against his conviction.