Mediagazer: Former TechCrunch Editor Erick Schonfeld To Run DEMO (Spencer E. Ante/Wall Street Journal)

3:00 AM ET, September 20, 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 …

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

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

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

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

Eddie Scarry / FishbowlDC:

Attribution Problem: AP Swipes Story From The Hill — It takes a certain amount of clumsiness to break something that's already broken. — The Hill's Alexandra Jaffe broke the news yesterday that Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was distancing himself from remarks made by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Discussion: Associated Press, Boston Herald and The Hill

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Scott Brown forces The Hill to change story

Discussion: The Daily Caller and Vanity Fair

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

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.”

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: mediabistro.com and The Huffington Post

Nat Ives / AdAge:
Newsweek Daily Beast Names Hill Holliday's Baba Shetty Its New CEO

Discussion: Betabeat, @edmundlee and The Wrap

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

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 …

Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Sky wins exclusive Warner Bros. movie rights, dealing a blow to Netflix and its rivals

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Engadget, Sky News, The Wrap and Deadline.com

TheLensNola.org:

The Lens hires prizewinner Tyler Bridges to cover public policy — Veteran prize-winning reporter Tyler Bridges will become a staff writer with The Lens on Oct. 1, focusing on state-level public-policy decisions that affect the New Orleans area. — Bridges is returning to New Orleans …

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

Spencer E. Ante / Wall Street Journal:

Former TechCrunch Editor Erick Schonfeld To Run DEMO — The technology conference wars just got a bit more dramatic. Former TechCrunch editor Erick Schonfeld is taking over the management of DEMO from VentureBeat editor in chief Matt Marshall, who is returning to the tech blog exclusively …

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, Mashable! and @caitlindewey

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

Discussion: @craigsilverman and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:@cwarzel

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

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.

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 …