Mediagazer: How CNN Can Benefit From Being Bland (Analysis) (Andrew Tyndall/Hollywood Reporter)

11:15 AM ET, August 10, 2012

Top News:

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: Yahoo's Mayer Eyeing 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: VentureBeat, Business Insider, ZDNet and Wall Street Journal

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, 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: Media Week and CyberJournalist.net

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
GMG chief executive takes pay cut

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

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

Howard Finberg / Poynter:

Knight report on training shows journalists want technology, multimedia, data skills — A new study by the Knight Foundation released today summarizes the state of journalism training. Some findings from “Digital Training Comes of Age”: … The report was authored by Eric Newton …

Discussion: Media News, Garcia Media and Knight Foundation

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 …

Discussion: The Awl, Reluctant Habits, GalleyCat, Gothamist, ArtsBeat, Slate and The Huffington Post

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:

Dish Chairman Says Subscribers Don't Like AMC Shows That Much, Anyway — Nor Has Anyone in Charlie Ergen's House Ever Watched WE TV — Nobody at Dish Network Chairman Charles Ergen's house has ever watched IFC, Sundance Channel or WE TV, Mr. Ergen said Wednesday as he discussed dropping AMC Networks …

Discussion: Fast Company, Deadline.com and Business Insider

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Publishers Turn to the Crowd — It's not everyday that a publisher is sold for $175 million. That's why Turner's purchase of Bleacher Report raised some eyebrows. — The lesson of Bleacher Report's success, and that of Huffington Post's as well, is it pays for publishers to take a page …

Nick Bilton / NYT Bits:

How to Make a Dead Cat Bounce on Twitter — I've been told that in the olden days, reporters would write articles on these things called “typewriters.” And get this: These machines weren't even connected to the Internet! — The tools have since changed. We have blogs, smartphones, digital cameras and Wi-Fi.

Discussion: Betabeat and NetNewsCheck Latest

Aviva Shen / ThinkProgress:

How The Media Made The Priorities USA Attack Ad Matter — Cable news is giving a controversial new ad attacking Romney an unintentional bump in visibility. Priorities USA, the super PAC supporting Barack Obama, released “Understands” on Tuesday in just five battleground states: Florida, Iowa, Pennsylvania, Virginia and Ohio.

Discussion: New York Times, The Page, The Daily Dish and Mediaite

Jim Romenesko:

Buy my newspaper, please! — The owner of the weekly Carrboro (NC) Citizen tells his readers that “my energy and enthusiasm for this newspaper have waned under the constant assault of all the worries associated with running a small business” and he's putting it up for sale.

Discussion: The Carrboro Citizen and The Newspaper Guild

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

BBC denies DG criticised Team GB news — Director general forced to issue clarification after news chief said he was ‘increasingly unhappy’ at focus on British success — BBC director general Mark Thompson has denied claims he ordered news executives to focus less on Team GB's Olympics success in bulletins.

Discussion: Telegraph, The Independent and Hollywood Reporter