Mediagazer: CNN, NBC's “Today,” are big money makers. But you wouldn't know it. (Daniel Gross/The Daily Beast)

2:50 PM ET, August 1, 2012

Top News:

Charles McGrath / New York Times:

Prolific, Elegant, Acerbic Writer — Gore Vidal, the elegant, acerbic all-around man of letters who presided with a certain relish over what he declared to be the end of American civilization, died on Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills section of Los Angeles, where he moved in 2003, after years of living in Ravello, Italy.

Elaine Woo / Los Angeles Times:

Writer Gore Vidal, 86, has died — Gore Vidal, the iconoclastic writer, savvy analyst and imperious gadfly on the national conscience, has died. He was 86. Vidal died Tuesday at his home in the Hollywood Hills of complications of pneumonia, said nephew Burr Steers.

Discussion: Slate, Joe. My. God., New York Magazine, Reuters, New York Times, @pareene, Boing Boing, The Daily Beast, EW.com and Associated Press

Brent Lang / The Wrap:

NBC May Break Even on Summer Olympics Coverage — NBC may break even on its coverage of the Summer Olympics in London, NBCUniversal CEO Steve Burke said Wednesday on a conference call with analysts. — “We're way ahead of where we thought we would be,” Burke said.

Discussion: Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable and Reuters

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

The Truth About #NBCFail — For Starters, NBC Is Not, Last Time I Checked, a Charity — A few thoughts about NBC's Olympics strategy — and the operatic freak-outs about NBC's Olympics strategy: — It's been perverse fun watching ad-supported, for-profit media outlets freak the hell …

Discussion: Poynter, Los Angeles Times, TechCrunch and VentureBeat

John Ourand / SportsBusiness Daily:

Chairman Mark Lazarus defends NBC Sports' decision for tape delay — NBC Sports Chairman Mark Lazarus defended his network's decision to show some marquee Olympic sports, like swimming and gymnastics, on tape delay in NBC's prime-time window. Addressing the topic for the first time since …

Discussion: AllThingsD, Media Decoder, Bleacher Report, TVSpy, The Big Lead, Mediaite, Associated Press, Deadspin, Poynter and Newsweek

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:
NBC Takes Steps to Avoid More Spoiler Promotions

Discussion: Daily Mail, NY Daily News and The Huffington Post

Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times: NBC Olympic live streams aren't live, Phelps flub indicates

Rebecca J. Rosen / The Atlantic Online:
News Outlets: Only You Can Prevent Spoilers

Discussion: @tcarmody and @tcarmody

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Time Warner's New Strategy For CNN: To Find a New Strategy — Does Time Warner have a programming strategy for CNN at the ready to replace the failed one pursued by departing worldwide president Jim Walton? It sure didn't sound like it on the media conglomerate's second-quarter earnings call.

Discussion: Adweek, Home Media Magazine, Capital New York, The Wrap and TVNewser

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

So, what's next for CNN? — Even CNN's outgoing chief Jim Walton isn't sure about its future. What, if anything, could possibly put the channel back on track? — After way too many years, last week CNN got rid of its long time CEO Jim Walton. Even Walton - who bills the leave-taking …

Discussion: paidContent and TVNewser

Daniel Gross / The Daily Beast:
CNN, NBC's “Today,” are big money makers. But you wouldn't know it.

Discussion: The Corsair and Erik Wemple

Guy Adams / The Independent:

Twitter backs down at last - but why did I get banned? — In the green room at CNN's Los Angeles studio last night, a producer asked for my reaction to the still-breaking news that Twitter had decided, in their words, to “un-suspend” my account. “I feel,” I replied, “like Nelson Mandela walking through …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Poynter and MediaFile

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Is Twitter a publisher or a distributor? There's a crucial difference

Discussion: Forbes and International Business Times

Twitter Blog:
Our approach to Trust & Safety and private information

Paul Tullis / The New York Observer:

L'Affaire Lehrer: In Defense of Jonah — Amid the pile-on of denunciations of Jonah Lehrer, the New Yorker writer whose invention of a Bob Dylan quote was uncovered earlier this week by a contributor to the Tablet, his former editor steps up to defend him. I was Jonah Lehrer's editor at Seed magazine …

Discussion: @ethanwsj, The Daily Beast, @sisario, @dylanbyers, Poynter and Poynter

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:
Why Is America's Best Magazine So Bad At The Internet?

Discussion: Poynter, NY Daily News, @attackerman, @blakehounshell, WWD and Salon

Gavin Polone / Vulture:

Apocalypse Nikki: Polone Challenges the Power of the Vengeful Finke — Starting about six years ago, I, like most people I know who work in the entertainment business, checked Nikki Finke's Deadline Hollywood Daily first, before perusing the other trade websites for news on the industry in which I work.

Discussion: FishbowlLA

The Huffington Post:

2012 Election Gaffes Fuel Media Obsession, Leading To Scripted Campaigns — As Mitt Romney walked toward his motorcade Tuesday morning in Warsaw, Poland, Washington Post reporter Philip Rucker yelled a question in his direction: “What about your gaffes?” Rucker didn't specify which gaffes …

Discussion: The Hill and Politico

Jessica Roy / Betabeat:

The Digg Bang Theory: Can Betaworks Make a Run on Reddit? — In the winter of 2004, soon after the husks of once-great dot-com startups had dried and shriveled, a 27-year-old college dropout named Kevin Rose deployed a barebones new site, simply named “Digg.” — It was one of the first social networks in existence.

Discussion: The Next Web, The Snitch and Wired.co.uk

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
The New Digg Arrives Ahead Of Schedule, Features Tight Facebook And Twitter Integration

Discussion: Forbes, Digg Blog, The Verge, TUAW, iDownloadBlog.com, NYT Bits and PandoDaily

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

How the Financial Times achieved a digital milestone — Five years ago I recall listening to the Financial Times's chief executive, John Ridding, as he outlined his paper's digital strategy. It was under way by then, of course, but the FT was moving faster and more enthusiastically than many papers …

Discussion: Media Week and The Verge

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

The Daily Lays Off a Third of Its Staff — The Daily, News Corp.'s attempt to create a digital newspaper for the iPad age, is laying off nearly a third of its staff. — The publisher plans to tell its workers today that it will fire 50 of its 170 employees, according to people familiar with The Daily's plans.

Jesse Angelo / The Daily:
A Note to Our Readers and Friends

Discussion: PC Magazine

Rebecca Shapiro / The Huffington Post: The Daily Lays Off 50 Staffers, Announces Content And Design Changes

Steve Myers / Poynter:

NAA list shows newspaper paywalls typically allow 11 free articles — Research conducted by the Newspaper Association of America shows that some news organizations, like Gannett, vary their paywall thresholds at different papers, while others, like Digital First, stick with the same number across them all.

Discussion: paidContent, 10,000 Words and Ebyline Blog

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

Sun journalist in Tuleta arrest bailed until September — A 37-year-old Sun journalist has been released on bail following his arrest yesterday morning on suspicion of handling goods. — The journalist, who has not been named, was been bailed to return pending further inquiries in September.