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

1:05 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 graphic artist Sam Ward's explanation of USA Today's new logo and “cool balls.” — He writes: — “Just what are our balls? Well, they are what we will make of them.

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

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, The New York Observer, Garcia Media, Gannett Blog, @mattmansfield, JIMROMENESKO.COM, USA Today 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: Media Decoder, Poynter, FishbowlNY, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @michaelroston, @camilledodero, @zinoman, @willsommer, Runnin' Scared and @choire

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: New York Magazine and Gawker

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

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

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, Bloomberg, CNET and GigaOM

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 …

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: NetNewsCheck Latest

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 and @sdkstl

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Mass GOP bars Globe reporter from meeting — The Massachusetts Republican State Committee prevented a Boston Globe reporter from attending a meeting last night where the committee voted to table its decision on adopting the party platform until after the November election.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Wall Street Journal removes two Jonah Lehrer essays, corrects two others — Jonah Lehrer “inappropriately reused passages from articles he wrote for the Boston Globe in two essays that he later wrote for the Journal's Review section,” The Wall Street Journal reported in a correction Thursday.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘The Wall Street Journal’ pushes its glossy magazine to monthly (almost) — The Wall Street Journal's glossy luxury title, WSJ., may soon be losing its editor, Deborah Needleman, who—as we reported yesterday—has been offered a job editing rival magazine T: The New York Times Style Magazine.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, WWD Media Headlines and WWD

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 …