Mediagazer: SoundCloud expands its effort to become the YouTube of public radio and podcasts (Andrew Phelps/Nieman Journalism Lab)

2:50 PM ET, August 2, 2012

Top News:

Changes at the New York Observer — The Observer Media Group announced today that editor-in-chief and editorial director Elizabeth Spiers is leaving her post at the end of August to launch a new company. — “I'm incredibly proud of what we've built to date and will miss the fun of putting …

Discussion: @reidpillifant, Gawker, New York Magazine, WWD Media Headlines, FishbowlNY, Media Decoder, @reidpillifant, @pfro, @pkafka and Man About Town

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

‘New York Observer’ heads of business and editorial are leaving — The New York Observer is changing editors. Elizabeth Spiers, a founding editor of Gawker and of Dead Horse Media, original home of Above The Law and other popular blogs, will leave the top post at the local media organization owned …

Discussion: Observer

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Huffington makes her tablet magazine free, after five issues — When The Huffington Post launched its weekly iPad magazine, Huffington, a month and a half ago, executive editor Tim O'Brien explained why they had decided to make it a paid product at 99 cents an issue, $1.99 a month or $19.99 a year.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Lehrer's publisher runs ads telling bookstores to send back “Imagine” for a refund — Houghton Mifflin Harcourt is running digital ads telling booksellers to send back copies of Jonah Lehrer's Imagine for a full refund. — Earlier this week, Tablet magazine's Michael Moynihan reported …

Discussion: Poynter, Reuters and FishbowlNY

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Writer dares to defend Jonah Lehrer

Discussion: GalleyCat, Poynter, VICE and The Daily Beast

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
4 warning signs that a promising young writer may be developing dangerous habits

Discussion: bookforum.com

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Jonah Lehrer Was Going To Give A Speech On Ethics. It's Canceled, Obviously.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Investigative news channel ‘The I Files’ launches on YouTube — The Center for Investigative Reporting has launched a new investigative news channel on YouTube, The I Files, with the aim of acting as a “showcase for the best investigative news videos from around the world”.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Just Before Olympics, ‘Good Morning America’ Takes Crown Away From ‘Today’ — The last shred of morning television dominance owned by NBC's “Today” show came crashing down last week as ABC's “Good Morning America” won the ratings across the board, even among the group of viewers most prized by news advertisers.

Discussion: Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewser and The Huffington Post

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

NBC Says Live Online + Tape Delayed Olympics Are a Ginormous Success — OK, people who are furious about NBC's Olympics coverage. The network has thrown you a bone: On a press call today NBC sports head Mark Lazarus said the company is watching the criticism it's getting on Twitter and Facebook.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Verge is giving extra credit (and links) to primary sources — When technology site The Verge site launched last fall, Josh wrote a broadly laudatory review on the site's design and infrastructure. We had one quibble, though, about how The Verge gave credit to other sites …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Desktop, laptop use of New York Times' website drops over two years — People using computers at home and work spent less time on nytimes.com in April and May of 2012 than they did during the same months in 2010, according to Nielsen figures released to Poynter.

Simon Rabinovitch / Financial Times:

China keeps up block on Bloomberg website — (Financial Times) — Bloomberg's news website remains blocked by China's state censors a full month after it detailed the riches amassed by the family of Xi Jinping, the man who is expected to be the country's next president.

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Steve Snyder Names Assistant Managing Editor of Time — Time has promoted Steve Snyder from senior editor to assistant managing editor. Snyder has been with Time since 2009, when he joined as an associate editor and helped launch Time.com's Newsfeed. He was also the lead culture critic for Time's Techland vertical.

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

SoundCloud expands its effort to become the YouTube of public radio and podcasts — SoundCloud is arguably the biggest music-sharing community since MySpace, but now the company is eyeing a different kind of audio: the spoken word. — The website was founded five years ago by two sound guys …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

At Washington Post, some draft-sharing will continue — After Washington Post reporter Daniel de Vise drew national attention for sharing drafts of a story with a source, the newspaper tightened its policy on the practice. — “Some reporters share sections of stories with sources before publication …