Mediagazer: Is there a tomorrow for USA Today? (Alan D. Mutter/Reflections of a Newsosaur)

8:50 PM ET, September 19, 2012

Top News:

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Is there a tomorrow for USA Today? — USA Today celebrated its 30th anniversary last week with a plump commemorative edition and a meh facelift, but can it survive another 30 years? As a digital brand, potentially. As a print publication, probably not. — The third-largest newspaper …

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Stephen Colbert spends 3 minutes mocking USA Today's new logo — On Tuesday night's show, Stephen Colbert told Comedy Central viewers that his fears over USA Today's “dramatic” redesign were “for nothing.” Highlights from the segment: — “In a digital era where print media is struggling …

Discussion: Gannett Blog, Mediaite, Erik Wemple, C-Scape, JIMROMENESKO.COM and The Newspaper Guild

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

How Mother Jones got the Romney ‘47 percent’ story — Big scoops come in small increments. It takes some luck and some connections, some phone calls and e-mails, and the time to build a relationship. Just ask David Corn. Corn, the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine …

Discussion: Politico, Slate, Capital New York, Forbes, Election 2012, The Fix and New York Times

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Huffington Post offers job to James Carter IV after he facilitates leak of Romney video to competitor

Discussion: Associated Press, The Daily Beast, The Newspaper Guild and Politico

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Mitt Romney Makes ‘Redistribution’ Argument, Bolstered by Fox News, Conservative Media

Discussion: Mother Jones

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Following NewsBeast departure, Stephen Colvin joins Lerer Ventures — News broke in Ad Age this morning that Stephen Colvin has left his post as C.E.O. of the Newsweek Daily Beast Company and been replaced by advertising executive Baba Shetty. — And now we know where Colvin is going …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and mediabistro.com

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Newsweek Daily Beast Names Hill Holliday's Baba Shetty Its New CEO — Succeeds Stephen Colvin, Who Led Daily Beast Since Before Newsweek Merger — The Newsweek Daily Beast Company is naming Baba Shetty its new CEO, succeeding Stephen Colvin, who had president CEO at The Daily Beast since 2009 …

Discussion: Betabeat, @edmundlee and The Wrap

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

What's Next for GOOD Magazine? A Social Network. — GOOD Worldwide will today launch a new social activism site Good.is. — Famous for its printed magazine, GOOD has now turned its focus to a community site that allows members to publicly post stories and activities and to follow each other and their interests.

Discussion: Poynter, TechCrunch, @caitlindewey and Mashable!

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:
Good Relaunches, Opens Up About Layoffs

Discussion: @craigsilverman and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:@cwarzel

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Mitt Says Dave Hates Him. Not So, Says Dave, Who Invites Him to Appear. — Does David Letterman hate Mitt Romney? — Mr. Romney said so on the surreptitiously recorded tape of his comments at a fund-raiser in May, which have stirred a firestorm of reaction in the news media this week.

Discussion: The Caucus, TheBlaze.com, ABCNEWS, Pressing Issues and CNN

Kevin J. O'Brien / New York Times:

Agreement Could End Europe's E-Book Price-Fixing Inquiry — BERLIN — The European Commission said Wednesday that it was prepared to drop its investigation into the fixing of e-book prices by Apple and four European publishers after the companies agreed to let online retailers like Amazon sell e-books at a discount for two years.

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:
Apple, publishers offer EU e-book antitrust settlement

Discussion: TechCrunch

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Buzzfeed Hires Jeff Greenspan as First Chief Creative Officer — Buzzfeed has hired Jeff Greenspan, an exec with Madison Avenue and Silicon Valley experience, as its first chief creative officer. The hire comes as the fast-growing digital-media company aims to work with brands and agencies …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, The Wrap and FishbowlNY

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

BSkyB CEO Touts Original Content Push, Says Won't Need to Acquire Production Firm — Jeremy Darroch also discusses a new Warner Bros. film output deal and how the phone hacking scandal at big shareholder News Corp. has affected the U.K. pay TV giant. — LONDON - U.K. pay TV giant BSkyB expects …

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Vimeo, DailyMotion Court Filmmakers In YouTube's Shadow — It's a good time to be an independent filmmaker on the web. Hoping to differentiate themselves from YouTube and carve off some of its market share, two of the biggest online video sites are cozying up to creators …

Discussion: Vimeo Staff Blog, MediaPost, AllThingsD, PC Magazine, Betabeat and Journalism.co.uk

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

‘Innocence of Muslims’ Actress Sues Producer, YouTube — Cindy Lee Garcia demands that YouTube take the film off of the video-sharing site. — Innocence of Muslims, the controversial film that has sparked uproar across the Middle East for disparaging Muslims, has erupted into lawsuit.

Discussion: Movieline

Eva Galperin / TechCrunch:
Why Google Shouldn't Have Censored The Anti-Islamic Video

Discussion: Mediaite, Speakeasy and Hillicon Valley

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

The Guardian has a new chief digital officer — Guardian News & Media may be re-casting its whole self as “digital-first”, but it still has digital-specific leadership. On Wednesday, the news publisher announced the creation of its first chief digital officer role, a post which appears …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Guardian and Media Week

Erik Sass / MediaPost:

Newspaper Jobs Shrink 40% In 10 Years — While plenty of industries have shrunk over the last couple years, few have been hit as badly as newspaper publishing, which was already contracting before the economic downturn began. Since then, economic woes have simply reinforced the long-term trend.

Erik Wemple:

NBC responds to criticism on Obama-redistribution ‘authentication’ issue — NBC and MSNBC are sustaining heavy fire for sending mixed signals regarding the authentication of a video of Barack Obama from 1998 — when he was an Illinois state senator — talking about the merits of wealth distribution.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, The New Republic, Hit & Run, The Huffington Post, Politico and Mediaite

Jim Romenesko:

Talent exchange at the Washington Post — Washington Post executive editor Marcus Brauchli today announced “a talent exchange with our cousins at WaPo Labs” that “should accelerate the pace of digital innovation in the Newsroom and add editorial weight to the team at Labs.”