Mediagazer: Inside billionaire Joe Ricketts' dreams of media empire (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

9:05 AM ET, August 1, 2012

Top News:

Our approach to Trust & Safety and private information — We want to take a moment to explain some of our general Trust and Safety policies and procedures, and address the specific case at hand that has unfolded over the past 48-hours (we normally don't address matters pertaining …

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Twitter restores reporter's account, tweet with NBC email remains — Two days after his account was suspended, the U.K. reporter who touched off a media kerfuffle about corporate control of speech is back on Twitter. The Independent's Guy Adams, who made his name bashing NBC's Olympic coverage …

Discussion: Forbes, Media Decoder, AdAge, professional.wsj.com, @producermatthew, @ianbetteridge and AllThingsD

Kashmir Hill / Forbes:
NBC Is The Real Loser In Guy Adams v. Twitter

Discussion: International Business Times and The New York Observer

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:
Guy Adams suspension, now lifted, punctuates Twitter censorship evolution

Discussion: The Independent, New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, GigaOM, Forbes, Business Insider, VentureBeat and LA Observed

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.

Discussion: Speakeasy, Associated Press, Mediaite, AlterNet.org, The Week, FishbowlLA, Towleroad News #gay, LA Observed, Crikey, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day, NY Daily News, The Atlantic Wire, Pressing Issues and bookforum.com

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

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 — A note to our Daily readers and friends: — The Daily was born of change. A changing technological landscape - the beginning of the tablet and smartphone revolution - made us want to rethink how we create media. And we believe that a healthy product …

Discussion: PC Magazine

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

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: Bleacher Report, Associated Press, The Big Lead, Mediaite, Poynter, Deadspin and Newsweek

Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times:

NBC Olympic live streams aren't live, Phelps flub indicates — NBC's Live Extra app doesn't exactly stream live. The app's streams experience a delay. (NBC / July 31, 2012) — A blunder during one of Michael Phelps' races Tuesday has confirmed that NBC's live stream of Olympic events is not actually live.

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

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

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:
The Truth About #NBCFail — For Starters, NBC Is Not, Last Time I Checked, a Charity

Discussion: TechCrunch and VentureBeat

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

Discussion: @tcarmody and @tcarmody

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.

Guardian:
News Corp directors could face charges

Discussion: CJR and New York Magazine

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:
News Corp. Asks To Keep Allegations In Phone-Hacking Case Secret

Discussion: Guardian

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Inside billionaire Joe Ricketts' dreams of media empire — Joe Ricketts. Courtesy Chicago Cubs. — Joe Ricketts, the Nebraska-born mogul, fiscally conservative political donor and founder of the online brokerage titan TD Ameritrade, spent much of his life on the plains, where everything is flat.

Discussion: Street Fight

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 …

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: Ebyline Blog

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

paidContent 50: The world's most successful digital media companies — Digital media is exploding. Half of us now read news on tablets, virtually all music tracks are bought electronically, and nearly a tenth of Americans are ditching cable for internet TV.

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, MediaPost, Felix and The FJP

Daniel Gross / The Daily Beast:

CNN, NBC's “Today,” are big money makers. But you wouldn't know it. — From all the bad press, you'd think CNN and NBC's ‘Today’ are financial sinkholes. Guess again. Daniel Gross reports on why media types love to say the sky is falling. — Have you heard about the big crises at two of America's most established media brands?

Discussion: Erik Wemple