Mediagazer: ‘Slate’ Gets a New Publisher (Lucia Moses/Adweek)

1:35 PM ET, August 27, 2012

Top News:

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Star Correspondents Bolt Tampa For NOLA, As Isaac Approaches — Two TV news correspondents who made their marks covering Hurricane Katrina seven years ago are returning to New Orleans as another hurricane approaches. — Fox News Channel's Shepard Smith and CNN's Anderson Cooper …

Discussion: Multichannel, FishbowlDC, New York Magazine, Globe and Mail, Yahoo! News, Forbes, Associated Press, The Huffington Post, @andersoncooper and TVSpy

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

With Isaac Bearing Down, Networks Weigh Their Options — Put yourself in the shoes of a network news president for a moment. There's a tropical storm bearing down on the Gulf Coast, reviving memories of Hurricane Katrina seven years ago. But there's also a political convention beginning in Tampa …

David Carr / New York Times:
Political Conventions Can Learn From Reality Shows

Discussion: Gawker, Politico and Media Decoder

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

IAC Buys About.com From NY Times Co. For $300 Million — “Invest in the Times” is the watchword at The New York Times Co. these days. Now the publisher has another $300 million to invest in its core brand, thanks to internet mogul Barry Diller. Diller's IAC has completed a deal to buy …

Discussion: Folio, AdAge, The Wrap, PC Magazine, BtoB Magazine, NetNewsCheck Latest and New York Times

Jim Edwards / Business Insider:

Here's How Much Money The New York Times Was Losing On About.com — IAC has agreed to buy About.com from the New York Times for $300 million in cash, according to Bloomberg, and no wonder—the encyclopedia site was losing barrowloads of cash. But the sale won't fix NYT's overall digital problems …

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

Fox asks court to ban Dish's ad-skipping features — (Reuters) - Fox Broadcasting Company is asking a court to put a stop to two features on Dish's new digital video recorder that let consumers skip commercials because it is hurting the TV networks' business.

Discussion: VentureBeat and Los Angeles Times

Joe Schneider / Bloomberg:
Fox Seeks Ban on Dish's Ad-Skip Feature Pending U.S. Trial

Discussion: @alanmairson

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

‘Slate’ Gets a New Publisher — Online magazine Slate recently created a dedicated sales force to capitalize on its traffic growth, and now it's getting a new publisher to lead it. Matt Turck, the vp of sales and marketing who built up the new team, will start in the new role Sept. 10.

Discussion: The Wrap and FishbowlNY

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

CNN Looks for a Boost From HBO Shows — In a bit of corporate synergy, Time Warner is planning to dip into one of its strongest cable channels, HBO, to help revive the fortunes of one of its weakest, CNN. — As part of Time Warner's attempt to reinvigorate its 24-hour cable news channel …

Discussion: TVNewser, The Huffington Post and Los Angeles Times

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Book Reviewers for Hire Meet a Demand for Online Raves — TODD RUTHERFORD was 7 years old when he first understood the nature of supply and demand. He was with a bunch of other boys, one of whom showed off a copy of Playboy to giggles and intense interest.

Discussion: Betabeat, The Verge, Page-Turner, Gizmodo, bookforum.com, Business Insider and The Big Picture

Nilay Patel / The Verge:

Google discloses paid bloggers and journalists, says Stanford professor Mark Lemley is outside counsel — inShare Google has followed up with a judge's order to disclose anyone it might have paid to influence coverage of its trial against Oracle, and the list includes a well-known Stanford professor …

Discussion: Marketing Land and Gizmodo

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

Hijacking the news: how hackers are manipulating the press from the inside out — In May of last year, PBS reported online that “prominent rapper Tupac has been found alive and well in a small resort in New Zealand.” The U.K.-based The Sun devoted its front page in July to a report …

Erik Wemple:

Brisbane hammers NYT for ‘progressivism,’ Occupy bias — Outgoing New York Times Public Editor Arthur Brisbane made himself a hot aggregational commodity this weekend with a farewell column accusing his paycheck issuer of bias. The money graphs: … So the New York Times covered Occupy Wall Street like a cause, huh?

Discussion: Poynter, The Daily Beast and The Huffington Post

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Two moves that tell you everything you need to know about Twitter's future — We've been writing a lot lately about the transformation that Twitter is going through — one that has seen it shift from being a kind of real-time information utility to being a global media entity …