Mediagazer: Ralston leaving Vegas ‘Sun’, launching site (Dylan Byers/Politico)

2:45 PM ET, August 17, 2012

Top News:

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

Because That's Where The Content Is — When asked why he robbed banks, legend has it that Willie Sutton said, “because that's where the money is.” — I'm reminded of this quote today when reading the reports that Apple is in talks with the cable operators about their television plans.

Discussion: Business Insider, Techland, The Next Web, Daring Fireball and Fortune

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Apple, Microsoft, Google and the sad state of TV

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, CNET and CNNMoney.com

Wall Street Journal:
Apple's TV Vision: Sharing, Full On-Demand, Icons

Discussion: MacRumors, Forbes, Policy Blog and VentureBeat

Amanda Holpuch / Guardian:

Media take a prim view of Pussy Riot — News organizations pussy out of using controversial Russian punk rock band's name in coverage of their convictions — The conviction of three members of the punk band Pussy Riot has caused consternation throughout the world - and a dilemma for prudish news organizations.

Discussion: Guardian, The New York Observer, Gawker, BBC, Capital New York, Speakeasy, World Now, Los Angeles Times, ThinkProgress, PAPERMAG and GalleyCat

Storify:

Storify and Twitter's evolving developer guidelines — Some of our users wondered what Twitter's latest change for developers means for Storify. A top Twitter exec says we're fine - in fact, we're singled out as a good example. And the love we got from our concerned users? Priceless. Thank you.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, PC Magazine and The Next Web

Michael Lee / ZDNet:

Twitter edges out third party clients with tighter API rules — Summary: Twitter has revealed upcoming changes to the next versions of its API, which will tighten the restrictions around what a developers build for the microblogging platform can and can't do. — Michael Lee

Discussion: Marco.org, Techland, BBC, Anil Dash, Tapbots, The Next Web, Twitter Developers and The Brooks Review

Gail Shister / TVNewser:

For Female Journalists, Another Significant ‘First’ This Election Season On PBS — When CNN's Candy Crowley on Monday was named moderator for one of the Presidential debates, it drew headlines. Breaking a 20-year dry spell for women will do that. — So why the underwhelming response …

Discussion: mediabistro.com and The Huffington Post

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

Phil Griffin Talks MSNBC Convention Coverage, Says CNN Is ‘Desperate’ — The 2012 presidential election has already become a heated battle. It's no surprise, then, that the fight between rival cable news networks to capture viewer eyeballs is getting just as intense.

Discussion: Capital New York and Mediaite

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Olbermann Who? MSNBC Abandons Neutrality Pose For Convention Coverage

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Thrillist Raises $13 Million From Oak, Lerer Ventures, Pilot Group — In 2008, Fred Harman and Oak Investment Partners bet big on Ken Lerer and the Huffington Post, and that worked out pretty well. Now Harman is putting his money into another Lerer project.

Discussion: Betabeat, NYConvergence.com, PandoDaily, Digital Media Wire and paidContent

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Ralston leaving Vegas ‘Sun’, launching site — Some big news out of Nevada: Jon Ralston, the state's top political commentator, is leaving the Las Vegas Sun. — Ralston now plans to launch his own political commentary site. “There's about to be a new site in Nevada to get political info …

Discussion: Las Vegas Sun News, Las Vegas Review-Journal, Bloomberg and @ralstonflash

Reuters:

New York Times Co CEO stands to make $5 million next year — (Reuters) - Mark Thompson, the newly appointed chief executive of The New York Times Co (NYT.N), stands to make up to $5 million by 2013, according to a regulatory filing on Friday. — Thompson, outgoing director-general …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Guardian, Deadline.com, Media Decoder, FishbowlNY and @romenesko

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
New York Times Has Enough Cash To Go Private

Discussion: @edmundlee, Poynter and Capital New York

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Georgia student journalists begin producing alternate publication — Student journalists who walked out from the newsroom of the University of Georgia's independent student newspaper the Red & Black on Wednesday returned for an off-the-record meeting Thursday afternoon with publisher Harry Montevideo and a board member.

Discussion: Red and Dead, The Huffington Post, Athens Daily News, Gawker and splc.org

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Hartford Courant's Spanish site is Google Translate — Robert Downs reported Thursday about newspapers providing Spanish-language training for their employees. Clicking on the words “Courant en Español” on the Hartford Courant's website, though, opens a portal on a Spanish-language …

Discussion: The Newspaper Guild

Andrew Jacobs / New York Times:

China's News Media Are Making Inroads in Africa — NAIROBI, Kenya — China's investment prowess and construction know-how is widely on display in this long-congested African capital. A $200 million ring road is being built and financed by Beijing. The international airport is undergoing …

Discussion: The Lede and CJR

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

Fareed Zakaria Cleared By Time, CNN In Plagiarism Investigation — Fareed Zakaria is off the hook at both Time magazine and CNN after he was accused of plagiarism last Friday. — Zakaria, Time's editor-at-large, was suspended for a month over his most recent column, which shared suspicious similarities …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, CNN and NewsBusters.org