Mediagazer: New York Times launches US election Tumblr (Sarah Marshall/Journalism.co.uk)

11:50 AM ET, August 8, 2012

Top News:

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

The New York Times Is About to Say Goodbye to About.com — The New York Times' time with About.com may be coming to an end. The paper has been looking to get rid of the struggling Web site, which produces high-volume, low-cost content, and has a deal in place to sell it to Answers.com.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine, FishbowlNY, mediabistro.com, AdExchanger and NYConvergence.com

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

Obama Is an Avid Reader, and Critic, of the News — WASHINGTON — A few months after President Obama's $787 billion economic stimulus package passed, he began to notice news reports, but not about the jobs the bill might create or how much of the country's infrastructure it would repair.

Discussion: Media Decoder, TVNewser, Washington Wire, The Huffington Post, Prof Chris Daly's Blog and The Caucus

James Poniewozik / Time:

Politifact, Harry Reid's Pants, and the Limits of Fact-Checking — Fact: I do not know whether Mitt Romney paid federal income taxes, when, or how much, in any year before 2010, for which he publicly released his tax returns. Fact: You probably do not either, unless you are among …

Discussion: CJR, Capital New York, The Huffington Post and Mediaite

Brendan Nyhan / CJR:
Another factchecking fiasco

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, The Raw Story, Mediaite, The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast

Linda Holmes / NPR:

Good Business, Bad Quality: How NBC Is Both Right And Wrong On The Olympics — The following exchange has played out over and over in the last ten days: — Point: “NBC's coverage of the Olympics stinks, because everything is tape-delayed and cut to shreds, and also the announcers are awful …

Discussion: business.time.com, Poynter and Associated Press

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
BBC's Olympics Broadcasts Focus on Live Coverage

Discussion: Search Engine Land

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Mayer Will Extend Free Food to NYC Too, While “What Is Yahoo?” Question Is Hereby Banish'd — New Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer descended on two of its New York offices today, declaring that she would summarily be granting free food to all there as she had recently done to much acclaim at its Silicon Valley HQ.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and Business Insider

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

70 journalists killed in six months — At least 70 journalists and support staff were killed while on assignment in the first half of this year, making it one of the bloodiest periods of recent times. — Fifteen were confirmed dead in Syria alone between January and June …

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Big Data is a big deal for newspapers — Just when you thought you had a handle on digital publishing, here comes a paradigm shift that will be more counterintuitive and more disconcerting for newspapers than all the technological innovations that have come before.

Discussion: Digiday and eMedia Vitals

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Two years after the tipping point, papers' web readership is booming — As newspapers' print circulation continues to decline, publishers now get the majority of their readers online. But what does that look like in practise? — I crunched ABC and ABCe (UK) data for the last 12 years to discover the long view.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Judge orders Oracle, Google to disclose paid journalists and bloggers — In a surprise order, U.S. District Judge William Alsup said “the court is concerned” that Oracle and Google may have hired authors to comment about their ongoing court case. Now, Judge Alsup wants the parties to submit a list of their paid propagandists.

Discussion: Softpedia News, The Verge, CNET, Media News, BuzzFeed, NetNewsCheck Latest, GeekWire, PC Magazine, AllThingsD, TechCrunch and Betabeat

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Romney's VP Selection Process Prompts Memories Of Veepstakes Past — NEW YORK — In July 1988, CNN's John King was camped outside the home of Massachusetts Gov. Michael Dukakis when he got a sign the Democratic presidential nominee had just picked a running mate.

Discussion: ABCNEWS

Peter Preston / Guardian:

Digital-only Financial Times would still be a difficult trick to perform — As digital FT subscriptions outstrip its newspaper circulation, the printed version seems doomed, but the numbers don't add up — There's a predictable buzz of futurology as the FT announces that its digital …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

On a hiring jag, ‘Businessweek’ brings in a new tech editor, Doug Cantor — Bloomberg Businessweek appears to be on a hiring tear. — The latest addition to its masthead is Doug Cantor, who began a new job as Businessweek's technology editor on Monday. He replaces Barrett Sheridan …