Mediagazer: Amazon now renting old-fashioned paper textbooks (Sean Ludwig/VentureBeat)

8:35 PM ET, August 6, 2012

Top News:

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Time Warner Said to Buy Bleacher Report for Under $200M — Time Warner Inc.'s Turner Broadcasting System division acquired the Bleacher Report website for under $200 million, bolstering its online sports coverage, a person familiar with the deal said. The acquisition of the sports website Bleacher Report …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Wrap, paidContent, FishbowlNY, FishbowlLA and Top Digital Journal News

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Turner Buys Bleacher Report — Time Warner's Turner Broadcasting unit has acquired sports site Bleacher Report, according to people familiar with the transaction. — I'm told the deal, which we told you about in June, closed Friday, and is scheduled to be announced today.

Discussion: Business Insider, Media Decoder, Forbes, CNET, VentureBeat, Adweek, Multichannel and AdAge

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM: Bleacher Report and the evolution of the content farm

New York Times:

Robert Stolarik, Times Photographer, Is Arrested While On Assignment in the Bronx — A freelance photographer for The New York Times was arrested on Saturday night while on assignment with two reporters who were conducting street interviews in the Bronx. — The photographer, Robert Stolarik …

Discussion: Guardian, Politicker, Poynter, The Awl, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, Gothamist, Committee to Protect …, The Newspaper Guild and New York Magazine

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: National Press Photographers Association urges NYPD to ‘do the right thing’

A.J. Daulerio / Gawker:
New York Times Photographer Claims He Received NYPD Beat Down Last Night While Doing His Job

Discussion: New York Magazine and Gothamist

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

The New York Times Reports a Digital Success Story — The New York Times' paywall, long debated in and outside of the company, now looks like a bona fide success. — The company has more than 530,000 paying subscribers for its digital editions, and it credits the plan with a consistent increase in circulation dollars.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Los Angeles Times and Poynter

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Google records show book scanning was aimed at Amazon — Google has so far spent more than $180 million on book scanning and, at the outset of the project, one of its stated goals was to keep web searchers away from Amazon. — These are among the details set out in a new court filing by the Authors Guild …

Discussion: VentureBeat

Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:

Amazon now renting old-fashioned paper textbooks — Amazon now offers physical textbook rentals as a cheaper option for college students, a move designed to keep Amazon as a dominant player in textbooks. — While Amazon has offered digital rentals of textbooks for more than a year …

Discussion: paidContent, CNET, TechCrunch, Engadget, AllThingsD and PC Magazine

Luke MacGregor / Reuters:

Attempting to shoot the moon — With very little understanding of astronomy but with the aid of a phone app, I began a three evening attempt to capture the moon with the Olympic Rings. The rings have been hanging iconically on Tower Bridge for the London 2012 Olympic Games and it was suggested …

Discussion: Felix

Alyssa Rosenberg / Slate:

The New York Times Goes After Hurdler Lolo Jones and Gets Olympic Sexism Wrong … - The Sikh Temple Shooter Played in Hardcore White-Supremacist Bands - How Honest Do People Think Romney Is? Slate's Survey Results. — It's Outrageous That the Olympics Puts the Silver and Bronze Winners on the Same Podium Level

Discussion: New York Times, Jezebel, Bleacher Report, SBNation.com, Poynter, Deadspin and National Review

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Newsweek's Unfortunate Penn State Headline — Newsweek released its much -anticipated college rankings today, the compendium of lists of which colleges are most affordable, most stressful or most conservative. — One ranking might go down, however, as “most awkward.”

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Robert Mackey / The Lede:

Push by Syrian Rebels Opens Space for Foreign Journalists to Report on Conflict — As my colleagues Damien Cave and Hwaida Saad report, the White House claimed on Monday that President Bashar al-Assad's “grip on power is loosening,” amid continued fighting on the streets of Syria's commercial capital …

Discussion: New York Times and This Just In

Steve Beatty / The Lens:

Veteran editor and reporter joins The Lens for watchdog coverage — The Lens announces the addition of Steve Myers to its staff as deputy managing editor and senior staff writer. — Myers will help guide The Lens' development and digital strategy, ensuring that The Lens uses the latest tools …

Discussion: @abeaujon

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

At ‘The New York Observer,’ another account of the editor and president's departures — Aaron Gell, the newly appointed editor of The New York Observer, has hit the ground running. — In the paper's regular Friday editorial meeting, Gell, who was bumped up from executive editor several days ago …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Twitter's Succès De Scandale: Olympics Suspension Fiasco Drove Signups — There's no such thing as bad publicity. A source tells TechCrunch that mainstream news mentions of the temporary suspension of an NBC Olympics coverage tweeter / hater gave Twitter's signup rate a boost.

Discussion: Bigmouthmedia Search … and CNET