Mediagazer: Another Big Social Marketing Exit: Gannett Will Buy BLiNQ Media For Up To $92M (TechCrunch)

7:05 PM ET, August 10, 2012

Top News:

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:

Fareed Zakaria Apologizes For ‘Lapse’; Time Suspends Writer Over Column — Update 4:18 p.m.: Despite his apology, Time has suspended Zakaria for his offense. Here's the official statement from Ali Zelenko, a spokesman for Time: … 3:45 p.m.: The statement from Fareed Zakaria …

The Huffington Post:

Fareed Zakaria Suspended For Plagiarism: Time, CNN Pundit Apologizes For ‘Terrible Mistake’ — Time columnist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria has apologized profusely for apparently lifting a paragraph out of The New Yorker for a recent Time column. — Conservative media watchdog Newsbusters …

Discussion: Politico, TVNewser, The Wrap, Poynter and Chickaboomer

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Fareed Zakaria apologizes for plagiarism — Time Magazine columnist and CNN host Fareed Zakaria has apologized “unreservedly” to Jill Lepore for plagiarizing her work in The New Yorker. — “Media reporters have pointed out that paragraphs in my Time column this week bear close similarities …

Discussion: The Wrap, @dylanbyers, New York Magazine and Gothamist

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Yahoo's Mayer Aiming for Twitter's Stanton for Big Media Role — Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer has been trying to recruit Katie Jacobs Stanton, Twitter's head of international markets, to take a major job on the media side of the Silicon Valley Internet giant, according to multiple sources close to the situation.

Discussion: Business Insider, Forbes, VentureBeat and ZDNet

AllThingsD:

With Billions Burning a Hole in Her Pocket, Here Are Some Companies Yahoo's Mayer Might Be Eyeing (And Buying) — Now that she could have $4 billion more to play with from the proceeds of Yahoo's sale of its Chinese assets, here's a fun new Silicon Valley parlor game to enjoy: “What will Marissa Mayer buy?”

Discussion: CNET, Tech Trader Daily, Telegraph, Business Insider and Forbes

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Guardian sees 2.1% of iPad readers pay — Last month, Guardian Media Group used its annual financial disclosure to report it has, so far, attracted 17,000 paying iPad subscribers. — Friday's full annual report adds there have been 804,000 downloads of that app.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and Media Week

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
GMG chief executive takes pay cut

Discussion: The Drum, Press Gazette and Journalism.co.uk

TechCrunch:

Another Big Social Marketing Exit: Gannett Will Buy BLiNQ Media For Up To $92M — On the heels of Google buying Wildfire and Salesforce nabbing Buddy Media, we have heard from two very reliable sources, plus a third anonymous source, that Gannett Co., the media giant that owns USA Today and other properties, is buying BLiNQ Media.

Discussion: Gannett Blog, ReadWriteWeb, GigaOM, Poynter, AdExchanger, Inside Facebook and NYConvergence.com

Barry Petchesky / Deadspin:

The New York Times Tries Its Hand At Animated Gifs. It Does Not Go Well. — If Buzzfeed and the Times made a baby, and it had epilepsy, it would look like this: “10 Animated GIFs From London 2012.” These gifs are different—they're constructed from rapid fire shots taken by the Times's photographers …

Discussion: New York Times, PAPERMAG, @joshsternberg and @steverubel

Andrew Tyndall / Hollywood Reporter:

How CNN Can Benefit From Being Bland (Analysis) — Andrew Tyndall writes for THR that its appealing online presence internationally should have it chasing YouTube, not Fox News. — When it was invented about 30 years ago, CNN solved one of the major shortcomings of television news in the broadcast era: It was on all the time.

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik and @jayrosen_nyu

Shalini Ramachandran / Digits:

Barrydriller.com Claims to Compete Against Barry Diller's Aereo — Lots of entertainment executives might aspire to follow in media mogul Barry Diller's footsteps. Few would go as far as Alki David. — The chief executive of FilmOn, an online video site, has started a new service …

Discussion: Betabeat, Radio & Television … and Deadline.com

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Study: Journalists' lousy understanding of fair use leads to self-censorship — Few journalists understand the rules of fair use, but they often successfully fake their way through the issues it raises. That's one takeaway from “Copyright, Free Speech, and the Public's Right to Know …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and Zero Percent Idle

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:

NPR Planet Money Host Adam Davidson Under Fire from Rogue Media Ethicists (Updated) — The NPR host and New York Times Magazine contributor gets panned for ethical misgivings. What—and how real—are they? — NPR's Planet Money—which was born out of the Peabody award-winning …

David Wagner / The Atlantic Wire:

David Rakoff, Essayist and ‘This American Life’ Contributor, Has Died — David Rakoff, a writer known for his funny, cynical essays and frequent appearances on This American Life, has died at 47. He had been battling a malignant tumor since 2010. — According to an essay he wrote …