Mediagazer: Conde Nast Booms Overseas But Future is Unclear (Lucia Moses/Adweek)

4:00 AM ET, August 22, 2012

Top News:

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Newsweek ditched its fact-checkers in 1996, then made a major error — “We, like other news organisations today, rely on our writers to submit factually accurate material,” Newsweek spokesman Andrew Kirk told Politico's Dylan Byers. — Byers had asked whether Newsweek has fact-checkers.

Discussion: The Week, bookforum.com, The Maddow Blog, PopWatch, Salon and Politico

Paul Krugman:

Kinds Of Wrong — Looking at the comments on my Niall Ferguson takedown (see Ezra Klein, Matthew O'Brien, James Fallows, and Noah Smith for more), I found my memory jogged about a point I've been meaning to make about the nature of error in economics. It seems to me that when readers declare …

Discussion: SECONDED, The Atlantic Wire, @juliemmoos, FAIR Blog, The Huffington Post, Pressing Issues, The Atlantic Online, Noahpinion, news.firedoglake.com and Mother Jones

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

Is Tina Brown serious about Newsweek anymore? — Yesterday, my colleague Joe Pompeo called up Newsweek to ask whether the company was planning to issue any corrections or clarifications of Niall Ferguson's cover story, “Hit the Road Barack,” in which countless manipulations and outright misrepresentations …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Mediaite

Ta-Nehisi Coates / The Atlantic Online:

In Praise of Fact-Checkers — In the wake of Niall Ferguson's dishonesty, Dylan Byers decided to contact Newsweek to see what controls the magazine had in place to prevent authors from lying to them. As it turns out, none: “We, like other news organisations today, rely on our writers …

Discussion: GigaOM and Politico

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Newsweek: Niall Ferguson story ‘opinion’

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Online, The Daily Dish, Brad DeLong and Business Insider

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Niall Ferguson ducks, nitpicks, vilifies

Discussion: @evgenymorozov, @jonathanshainin, Bloomberg, Capital New York, CJR and The Daily Beast

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Niall Ferguson: ‘Credibility’ not undermined

Discussion: The Daily Beast, The Daily Dish, New York Magazine, Business Insider, Guardian, The New Yorker Blog and New York Magazine

Reuters:

Exclusive: Barry Diller's IAC offers $300 million for About.com — (Reuters) - Barry Diller's IAC/Interactivecorp submitted an offer in excess of $300 million to buy the About.com information website from the New York Times Co, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: The Wrap, CNET, AllThingsD, Media Decoder, Deadline.com, New York Magazine and Forbes

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

ABC News wants to talk to Tony Scott's family before deciding about retraction — ABC is waiting to hear back from Tony Scott's family or a family representative before determining whether its initial report about Scott was incorrect, a network spokesperson told Poynter.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Slate, The Daily Beast and Vanity Fair

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
After Tony Scott error, will news orgs now think twice about following ABC News scoops?

Discussion: ABCNEWS, newsfeed.time.com, Business Insider and Media Decoder

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Huffington Post, Newsweek use coat-hanger imagery for GOP platform — On Tuesday the Republican Party approved a plank to its convention platform opposing abortion in all cases. — Newsweek acknowledged Huffington Post's homepage — “Whoa there, Huffington Post!” — on its Tumblr.

Discussion: Mashable!, Rob Delaney, CNN, Erik Wemple and Gawker

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:
‘Newsweek’ Tumblr Adds to Publication's Woes

Discussion: Newsweek, Mediaite and Daily Dot

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Conde Nast Booms Overseas But Future is Unclear — Luca Dini, the editor in chief of Italian Vanity Fair, faces difficulties his peers in the U.S. would welcome. The Milan-based magazine has grown so much since launching as a newsweekly nearly 10 years ago that it's hard to imagine it getting any fatter …

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Jimmy Kimmel to Move to 11:30 in January, ABC Announces — Jimmy Kimmel will jump to the big stage in late-night television in January, moving to 11:35 p.m. where he will take on the two titans of that time slot, David Letterman and Jay Leno. — ABC announced the move Tuesday …

Discussion: Splitsider, TVNewser, Speakeasy, BuzzFeed, Tampa Bay Times, Radio & Television …, USA Today, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, AdAge, LA Observed, ExtraTV.com, FishbowlNY and Poynter

Rob Wong / Hulu Blog:

Launching a New Hulu: A Fresh Look for the Shows You Love — In 1992, the great comedian Phil Hartman threw on his Arkansas sweatshirt and walked into a McDonald's. He was on the set of “Saturday Night Live” and doing his best Bill Clinton impression, continuing the show's grand tradition of Presidential lampoons.

Discussion: CNET, GigaOM, The Verge and The Next Web

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Xbox Live Adds NBC News, Bringing Rachel Maddow, Hardball, And Meet The Press To The Game Console — Microsoft continues to add content partners for Xbox, pushing the game console into the center of the living room as more of a digital entertainment hub. The latest update, which goes live today …

Discussion: PC Magazine and WebProNews

Daniel D'Addario / The New York Observer:

Ghostwriting Accusation Leveled at Fareed Zakaria — Time editor-at-large Fareed Zakaria has lately been the subject of much chatter among colleagues past and present—some of it rather unpleasant for the marquee pundit. And while Time and CNN have done a review of his work and are satisfied …

Ann DeMatteo / New Haven Register:
Journalist Fareed Zakaria resigns from Yale Corporation (document)

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and GigaOM

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Hugh Grant joins Hacked Off board — Press standards campaign group, launched in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal, to establish itself as a full-time operation — Hugh Grant was cast in a leading role at the Leveson inquiry into press standards. Now the actor is becoming director …

Alec MacGillis / The New Republic:

At Least One Media Figure Is Calling Out Romney For His Welfare Lies: Joe Scarborough — Nearly one week ago, I made a plea of sorts: for the political press to do its job when it comes to the basic task of calling out blatant, repeated dishonesty on the campaign trail.

Discussion: The Fix and Washington Post

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Daily News’ hires fashion desk, repackages ‘Gatecrasher’ as ‘Confidential’ — Fashion coverage is coming back to the Daily News, Capital has learned. Starting this week, the News will run regular fashion features in its Thursday and Sunday editions, mirroring the popular style formula …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Michael Grunwald Compares Stimulus Coverage To Pre-Iraq War Media ‘Groupthink’ — NEW YORK — After two years reporting on President Barack Obama's nearly $800 billion stimulus package, a piece of legislation long derided by Republicans and barely discussed now by Democrats …

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

BuzzFeed with a press pass: What happens when the GIF kings try to take Washington? — WASHINGTON — You should know going in that this is a story about BuzzFeed that BuzzFeed would never run. This story is longer than the last 10 articles out of the new BuzzFeed Washington, D.C. bureau combined.