Mediagazer: Lehrer's publisher runs ads telling bookstores to send back “Imagine” for a refund (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

11:50 AM ET, August 2, 2012

Top News:

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, FishbowlNY and Reuters

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

4 warning signs that a promising young writer may be developing dangerous habits — When it was merely a matter of self-plagiarism, some saw the coverage of Jonah Lehrer's transgressions as an overheated case of schadenfreude. — The fact that his previous books had previously come under fire …

Discussion: bookforum.com

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

Discussion: Poynter and VICE

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

Paul Tullis / The New York Observer:
L'Affaire Lehrer: In Defense of Jonah

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

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

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.

Washington Post:

The Washington Post Launches Crowdsourcing Platform — The Washington Post today announced it has launched a new platform for crowdsourcing. “Crowd Sourced” is The Post's special feature that allows Post journalists to ask questions about today's concerns and begin a conversation about these issues.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

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 …

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.

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

A Further Blow to Online Lurking: Quora Will Now Publicly Show Who Has Read a Post — Quora today is introducing a feature that shows which of its users have read each Quora post, and how they found it. It's another move by a social Web service to share passive activities …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Quora, broadstuff, GigaOM, VentureBeat, CNET and TechCrunch

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Time Out listings magazine goes free — Reviews and events mag begun in 1968 looks to advertising revenue based on circulation boost to 300,000 — Almost 45 years after Tony Elliott launched Time Out, charging a shilling an issue, the grandaddy of listings magazines is set to be reborn …

Discussion: paidContent and Digital Spy

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.

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 …

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Palestinian Remarks Furor: Romney Campaign Hits AP as ‘Irresponsible’ — A top Romney strategist tells Howard Kurtz the Associated Press ‘manufactured’ a controversy over the candidate's statements in Jerusalem on Palestinian culture. Howard Kurtz examines the campaign's complaint.

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.