Mediagazer: New Orleans Group Backs Away From News Site Plans (Keach Hagey/Wall Street Journal)

7:20 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: Media Decoder, Gannett Blog, Garcia Media, FishbowlNY, AdAge and Charles Apple

Ken Doctor / Newsonomics:
The USA Today Redesign: Too Little, Too Early?

Discussion: Media Decoder and New York Times

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

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

Tom McGeveran / Capital New York:

‘Village Voice’ editor Tony Ortega quits the paper; it's Maura Johnston's last day, too — Tony Ortega, editor of The Village Voice, just announced on the weekly's news blog Runnin' Scared that he's leaving the paper. — “Next week will be my last as editor of the Voice,” Ortega wrote.

Discussion: paidContent, The Atlantic Wire, @camilledodero, @zinoman, @weareyourfek, @willsommer, @weareyourfek, @michaelroston, @choire and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Media Decoder:

Village Voice Is Losing Its Editor in Chief and Music Editor — After five-and-half-years as editor of The Village Voice, Tony Ortega announced in a by-the-way blog post that he will be leaving to work on a book about Scientology while music editor Maura Johnston took to Twitter to say she was leaving the paper as well.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared, Poynter and Gawker

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:
Runnin' Scared: Was Tony Ortega Pushed Out at the Village Voice?

Discussion: FishbowlNY and New York Magazine

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: Reuters, Mediaite, Mashable! and Los Angeles Times

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

Confirmed: The Director of Innocence of Muslims Is a Schlocky Softcore Porn Director Named Alan Roberts — The anti-Islam film that's set off a firestorm in the Middle East was directed by a 65-year-old schlock director named Alan Roberts, we've confirmed. He's the creative vision behind …

Discussion: Guardian, The Snitch, The Informer and BostInno

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
AP issues correction for misidentifying director of ‘Innocence of Muslims’ film

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and MediaShift

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, AllThingsD, CNET, Engadget, Marketing Pilgrim, GigaOM, Bloomberg, New York Magazine and Hillicon Valley

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.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Fast Company and Business Insider

Erik Wemple:

All Lehrer content must be Ghostbustered — First, it was the quasi-scandal over Jonah Lehrer's using his New Yorker blog posts to recycle material that he'd previously published elsewhere. — Second, it was further revelations on Lehrer's full recycling bin.

Discussion: Poynter

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Wall Street Journal removes two Jonah Lehrer essays, corrects two others

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
‘The Wall Street Journal’ pushes its glossy magazine to monthly (almost)

Discussion: FishbowlNY, WWD Media Headlines and WWD

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Topless Kate photos: royals sue Closer — St James's Palace confirms Kate and William are launching proceedings against Silvio Berlusconi-owned magazine — The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge have launched legal proceedings in France against the Silvio Berlusconi-owned celebrity magazine …

Discussion: Forbes, Media Law Prof Blog, The Daily Beast, AJE and Media Week

Stuart Kemp / Hollywood Reporter:
Topless Pictures of Kate Middleton Published in French Magazine

Discussion: Daily Mail, New Statesman, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Reuters, Guardian, The New York Observer, Guardian, Gawker, Mirror.co.uk, Agence France Presse, The Huffington Post, Guardian, Mirror.co.uk, Digital Spy, Mirror.co.uk, Sky News, BBC and Guardian

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, The Rural Blog, AdAge, TVNewser and Eatocracy

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: GigaOM and It's All Journalism

Patrick Lannin / Reuters:

Freed Swedish journalists say faced mock execution in Ethiopia — (Reuters) - Two Swedish journalists pardoned by Ethiopia after spending 11 months in jail for aiding a rebel group said on Friday they had been subjected to a mock execution, and accused the country of using anti-terrorism laws to stifle journalism.

Discussion: Big News Network.com

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 …