Mediagazer: Producer of ‘pink slime’ textured beef suing ABC and ABC News (Tim Carman/Washington Post)

2:00 PM ET, September 14, 2012

Top News:

USA Today explains its ‘cool balls’ — Gannett chief marketing officer Maryam Banikarim sent a memo to employees this morning with USA Today artist/illustrator Sam Ward's explanation of his paper's new logo and “cool balls.” — He writes: — “Just what are our balls? Well, they are what we will make of them.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Garcia Media, New York Times, AdAge and Charles Apple

Julie Moos / Poynter:
USA Today's new design debuts in print today

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, Charles Apple, The New York Observer, Gannett Blog, @mattmansfield, USA Today, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Adweek

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Google's Islam-Baiting Video Censorship: A Well-Meaning Mistake — The line between responsibility and censorship can be hard to make out at times. Google just tripped over it. — The decision to block access on YouTube to an inflammatory movie trailer in countries where it has already …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and The Huffington Post

David Nakamura / Washington Post:

White House asked YouTube to review anti-Muslim film — The White House has asked YouTube to review an anti-Muslim film posted to the site that has been blamed for igniting the violent protests this week in the Middle East. — Tommy Vietor, spokesman for the National Security Council …

Discussion: Mediaite

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

BuzzFeed Hires Web Video Pioneer Ze Frank — Here's a good chocolate/peanut butter combination: Buzzfeed, the click-factory that has figured out Facebook and Twitter, plus Ze Frank, the guy who figured out Web video back in its infancy. — Together they're going to try to figure out modern-day YouTube.

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:
BuzzFeed Makes Its First Acquisition To Tackle A Big Revenue Opportunity

Discussion: Fast Company, TechCrunch and Betabeat

Joseph Ax / Reuters:

Twitter surrenders Occupy protester's tweets — (Reuters) - Twitter handed over tweets from an Occupy Wall Street protester to a New York criminal judge on Friday after months of fighting a subpoena from prosecutors. — The company surrendered the micro-blogging posts …

Discussion: Forbes, PC Magazine, Bloomberg, Engadget, CNET, Marketing Pilgrim and GigaOM

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Study: Smaller news websites depend more on social media for traffic than larger sites — In any local market, the dozens or hundreds of available news websites make up a news ecosystem. — In any real-life nature ecosystem — think of the food chain diagram you learned in 5th grade — the many species develop their own roles.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Street Fight, The Huffington Post and Knight Digital Media Center

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Runnin' Scared: Was Tony Ortega Pushed Out at the Village Voice? — The Village Voice's EIC Tony Ortega announced in a blog post today that he is leaving the troubled alt-weekly to “pursue a book proposal about Scientology in its time of crisis.” Mr. Ortega attributed his departure to a desire to turn his …

Discussion: The Wrap and New York Magazine

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:
‘Village Voice’ editor Tony Ortega quits the paper; it's Maura Johnston's last day, too

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY, The Atlantic Wire, Gawker, @weareyourfek, @weareyourfek, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Media Decoder, @michaelroston, @camilledodero, @willsommer and paidContent

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Time Inc.'s CEO Aims to Unify Print and Online Fiefdoms — Time Inc. Chief Executive Officer Laura Lang, hired last year to revive the struggling magazine publisher, is forging a plan to unify its long-sparring online and print fiefdoms. — Lang wants to give customers the ability …

Tim Carman / Washington Post:

Producer of ‘pink slime’ textured beef suing ABC and ABC News — Of all the media outlets that have taken shots at Beef Products and its “lean, finely textured beef,” the South Dakota-based company apparently feels slimed by only one: ABC and its ABC News division.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, TVNewser, The Rural Blog and AdAge

Dean Starkman / CJR:

The hamster wheel vs. the quality imperative — The real problem with JRC/Advance free model and the unappreciated benefit of a paywall … The Journal Register Company has cast itself as an avatar of the future of news, making tough decisions now that other, less stout-hearted …

Discussion: It's All Journalism

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Glamour’ editor Emma Rosenblum moves to ‘Businessweek’ — Bloomberg Businessweek has a new editor for the features section at the back of the magazine. — Emma Rosenblum, an editor at Glamour, will oversee the closing section, called “Etc.,” which blends eccentric features about business trends …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Chicago Tribune combines local editions as Journatic suspension continues — The Chicago Tribune has cut the number of its local editions by “about half” since suspending work with journalism-outsourcing company Journatic, Lynne Marek reports. “For instance, coverage of Evanston formerly appeared …

Discussion: Chicago Business

Reuters:

NYTimes offers lump-sum pay or lower annuity option to ex-staff — (Reuters) - The New York Times Co said it informed some former employees that it will offer pensioners the option to receive a one-time lump sum payment or start a lower monthly annuity now, in a bid to reduce its pension liabilities.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Thomson IR, @edmundlee and @sdkstl

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Romney's Team Turns On The Press — A frustrating week in Boston. “The polls are close, and so the media starts cheering on their guy,” says one adviser. — DULLES, Va. — As Mitt Romney finishes his second week of dismal news coverage — with slipping polls and a combustible international crisis driving …