Mediagazer: Nola Media Group announces digital initiative one week before Times-Picayune reduces print days (Andrew Beaujon/Poynter)

12:55 PM ET, September 25, 2012

Top News:

Exclusive: Twitter Eyeing Media Bigs, Including Hollywood Mogul Peter Chernin, for Board Seats — Twitter is now interviewing a series of well-known media players for its board, as the San Francisco online social communications service seeks to increase its ties to the entertainment industry …

Discussion: Deadline.com, Betabeat, CNET, @yinkawrites and Fast Company

Margaret Wente / Globe and Mail:

Columnist Margaret Wente defends herself — Three years ago, I wrote a column about the controversy surrounding the introduction of genetically modified foods into Africa. It focused on the work of Robert Paarlberg, a U.S. academic who had written a book called Starved for Science.

Discussion: Media culpa, Guardian and Macleans.ca

Chris Selley / National Post:
On Margaret Wente, plagiarism, and the Globe's public editor-cum-union rep

Discussion: Dawg's Blawg, Poynter, Globe and Mail, Macleans.ca and John Gordon Miller's Blog

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
Canadian columnist accused of plagiarism

Discussion: Globe and Mail, GigaOM, Toronto Star, Canada's online magazine, Macleans.ca and Plagiarism Today

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

CNN crisis call: Time Warner eyes big guns to revive network — Time Warner execs have reached out to media heavyweights, including Sony Chairman Howard Stringer, as they cast about for a new chief to revive the moribund cable news network, The Post has learned.

Discussion: Radio & Television …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Indeed Investment Nets New York Times $100 Million Profit — Good week for the New York Times' balance sheet, which just plumped up by $400 million. — Yesterday, the Times closed its deal to sell About.com to IAC for $300 million. Today, the paper announced that it would net $100 million …

Discussion: Blog Indeed, Business Insider, GigaOM, Reuters and Associated Press

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Nola Media Group announces digital initiative one week before Times-Picayune reduces print days — Nola Media Group announced it will fund a half-million dollars worth of initiatives to increase access to digital media in New Orleans. The company publishes the Times-Picayune …

Discussion: WWL-TV, New Orleans Times-Picayune and Gambit New Orleans News …

Tracie Powell / Poynter:

Condé Nast appoints its first black editor-in-chief — For the first time in its 103-year-history, Condé Nast has named a black editor to head one of its magazines. — Keija Minor is now editor-in-chief of Brides, the world's largest weddings magazine.

Guardian:

BBC apologises to Queen for revealing private conversation about Abu Hamza — The BBC has apologised to the Queen after its security correspondent recounted a private conversation in which the monarch told him she had lobbied a home secretary to secure the arrest of Abu Hamza al-Masri, the radical Islamist cleric.

Discussion: BBC, PressGazette, The Daily Beast, @benfenton, @theroyaleditor and @dansabbagh

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Funded By $22M From Publishers, Wanderful Media Reinvents The Newspaper Circular — A startup called Wanderful Media wants to find a place for circulars (those printed flyers full of the latest deals and coupons) in the digital world. — Circulars have long been a staple of printed newspapers …

Discussion: Street Fight and Local Media Watch

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Willie Geist to Co-Host Third Hour of ‘Today’ — Willie Geist, a co-host of the rollicking MSNBC morning show “Morning Joe,” is moving over to NBC's flagship “Today” show as a co-host of the franchise's 9 a.m. hour. — The promotion is expected to be announced by NBC this week …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, TVWeek.com, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine, Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewser, Mediaite, Inside Cable News, Deadline.com and The Huffington Post

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

MIT and the Boston Globe: can universities reboot news outlets? — As old school news outlets struggle to find their footing in the digital world, a new partnership between two flagship Boston institutions presents some intriguing possibilities. The program will see MIT students embedded directly …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Phone hacking: judge reveals relative is among claimants — The high court judge presiding over 155 civil damages claims for alleged phone hacking being brought against News of the World's publisher has disclosed that one of his relatives is among the fresh cases.

Ben Fritz / Los Angeles Times:

Deadline owner Penske likely to buy Variety — Daily Variety will soon be acquired by Penske Media, the owner of Deadline.com. (Variety website / September 24, 2012) — Hollywood's 107-year-old industry trade publication Variety and 6-year-old online competitor Deadline …

Discussion: Media Decoder

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

Broadcasters get unlikely support from Cablevision in Aereo case — Cablevision has thrown its support behind major U.S. broadcast networks in their bid to stop Aereo Inc, an online television start-up backed by billionaire Barry Diller, from broadcasting TV programming over the Internet.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD: Cablevision Tells Aereo to Get Off Its Team

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Print Sex Ads Will Remain at Newly-Formed Voice Media Group — Backpage.com may be gone, but sex ads are here to stay at the alt weeklies formerly owned by Village Voice Media. Over the weekend, Village Voice Media announced it had reshuffled and separated its 13 newspapers from Backpage.com …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Capital New York, New York Post, New York Magazine, TechCrunch and paidContent

Michael Wolff / Guardian:
The Village Voice's synthetic solution to a synthetic sex ad scandal

Discussion: Poynter, The Atlantic Wire and Gawker

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Libya Consulate Not Secured Days After Attack, Journalists Say — NEW YORK — Since Friday, CNN has defended its decision to remove and report from a personal journal belonging to late U.S. Ambassador to Libya Christopher Stevens, found on the consulate floor three days after the deadly Sept. 11 terrorist attack in Benghazi.

Discussion: The Huffington Post