Mediagazer: Is The Daily Beast Becoming a Halfway House For Wayward Hacks? (Hunter Walker/The New York Observer)

10:05 PM ET, October 9, 2012

Top News:

Variety bought by Deadline owner Penske Media, Third Point — The Hollywood trade paper Variety has been acquired by Penske Media Corp. and its financial backer, private equity firm Third Point, for about $25 million, in a power shift for the world of show business and a transformation of the industry's most famous news brand.

Chris Staiti / Bloomberg:

Columbia's Lemann Said to Step Down as Journalism Dean — Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia University's Journalism School, plans to step down after almost a decade in the post, according to a person familiar with the situation. — The announcement could come as early as tomorrow.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and @evgenymorozov

Guardian:

Jimmy Savile: Panorama to conduct investigation into sex abuse allegations — The BBC's Panorama is preparing an investigation into Jimmy Savile, as the broadcaster deals with the fallout around its controversial decision to drop an earlier Newsnight report on the late Jim'll Fix It star.

Discussion: Guardian

Michael Holden / Reuters: BBC star may have abused girls over four decades

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Jimmy Savile: Lord Patten says behaviour can not be excused

Discussion: @lucymanning, @timescrime and Guardian

AllThingsD:

Twitter Buys Vine, a Video Clip Company That Never Launched — If Twitter ends up running its own video service, this should help: The messaging service has bought Vine, a video-sharing start-up. — We don't have terms for the deal, but this looks a lot like an “acqhire” …

Discussion: Business Insider, The Next Web, Mashable!, WebProNews, TechCrunch, SocialTimes, The Verge, VatorNews and Softpedia News

Jim Romenesko:

‘The anger is getting worse’ at New York Times — New York Times science correspondent Donald G. McNeil Jr. tells Romenesko readers that between 375 and 400 Times staffers participated in today's walkout. “Plus there were 23 out at the Washington bureau,” he writes.

Discussion: LA Observed, Capital New York, Media Decoder, The Huffington Post, The Newspaper Guild, Chickaboomer and Guardian

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Jack Welch Quits Columnist Gigs Over Tweet Blowback. Too Bad He Wasn't Fired. — In the end, Fortune and Reuters didn't have to grapple with whether to fire Jack Welch for spreading conspiracy theories on Twitter. Welch did them a favor and fired himself.

Discussion: Fortune, AdAge, Mediaite, 9to5Mac, FishbowlNY, Reuters, The Huffington Post, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter and Media Decoder

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Founder Tim Westergren Says Some Musicians Earn Up To $3 Million A Year From Pandora — Pandora founder Tim Westergren denied claims that musicians earn peanuts from streaming services and said today at SF MusicTech that lower royalty rates would bolster innovation.

Discussion: GigaOM, Pandora, CNET, Business Insider, The Next Web and SocialTimes

Hunter Walker / The New York Observer:

Is The Daily Beast Becoming a Halfway House For Wayward Hacks? — Newsbeast editor in chief Tina Brown seems to have developed a redemptive streak, at least when it comes to the bad boys and girls of the media world. Her website has recently published several pieces by otherwise disgraced journalists.

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

Stop attacking ‘web-first’ as if the world is going to stand still — This week feels very much like 2009. That year I published a post titled ‘How the web changed the economics of news’, a brief overview of some of the economic factors impacting on publishing which has recently experienced …

Discussion: GigaOM, Editor & Publisher ®, nujnewmedia.org.uk, @johncthompson, @jeffjarvis and @jayrosen_nyu

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

NBC News Shakes Up Management Team, New EP at ‘Rock Center’ — NBC News has shaken up its leadership team, promoting DC bureau chief Antoine Sanfuentes (left) to senior VP of NBC News, promoting David Verdi to senior VP of newsgathering, upping Ken Strickland to DC bureau chief and naming Alex Wallace (center) EP of “Rock Center.”

Discussion: Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable and TVSpy

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Hulu, Viacom Expand Content Partnership; SpongeBob (And Nickelodeon Friends) Join Hulu Plus — In a bid to beef up the kid-friendly credentials of its Hulu Plus online video streaming service, Nickelodeon programming is being added to the service for the first time.

Discussion: Hulu Blog, BBC Worldwide Americas, AllThingsD, Broadcasting & Cable, VentureBeat, Deadline.com, The Verge, MediaPost, Home Media Magazine and Media Decoder

Melodie Warner / Wall Street Journal:

Dish, Gannett Reach New Deal — Dish Network Corp. reached a deal with Gannett Co. that ensures uninterrupted retransmissions of television stations. — The companies didn't disclose financial terms or other details of the long-term agreement. — Dish's earlier pact to carry Gannett's 22 TV stations …

Discussion: Variety, Variety, WebProNews and MediaPost

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Borrell predicts digital revenue will rise 30% next year at small, mid-size newspapers — Gordon Borrell, newspaper reporter turned digital advertising analyst, has been tough on his old profession through the years. After holding their own in the first wave of digital growth from 2002 to 2006 …

Discussion: CJR