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

11:50 AM 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 — USA Today's new design debuts today with a front page note from new publisher Larry Kramer, who joined the paper in May. All eyes are on the dot. “USA TODAY's new logo — a large circle in colors corresponding to the sections …

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

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

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: Poynter, New York Magazine, FishbowlNY, Gawker, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @zinoman, @willsommer and @choire

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 …

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: GigaOM

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: Thomson IR, mediabistro.com and @sdkstl

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

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

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Wall Street Journal removes two Jonah Lehrer essays from archives — 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: New York Magazine

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:

The Verge Sets Traffic Record With iPhone Intro — Any Web editor will tell you that iPhone rumor stories are traffic godsends. So in anticipation of the iPhone 5 announcement yesterday, tech sites braced for mammoth traffic and took to their liveblogs to compete for clicks throughout the much-hyped announcement.

Arif Durrani / Brand Republic:

News Int's chief unveils ‘groundbreaking’ print to digital ad conversion — News International's chief executive, Tom Mockridge, has revealed The Times, the Sunday Times and The Sun newspapers are preparing to implement a “groundbreaking” automated system that will convert prints ads into digital iterations.

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 …

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Public Editor's Journal, Capital New York, Forbes, RedState and The Daily Dish