Mediagazer: Drudge Report worth $375 million? (Jim Romenesko)

3:45 PM ET, October 10, 2012

Top News:

Kira Goldenberg / CJR:

Columbia J-school dean stepping down — Nicholas Lemann, dean of Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, will be stepping down at the end of the current academic year, the school announced on Wednesday morning. (The news broke in the media world on Tuesday afternoon.)

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Wrap, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter, @profjeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @chanders, @nytfridge, @romenesko, Columbia University …, FishbowlNY, @sree, @carr2n and @evgenymorozov

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

What's next for Columbia's Journalism School as Dean Nicholas Lemann steps down — The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism is about to choose its first new leader in a decade, after Dean Nicholas Lemann announced his impending departure from the post at the end of this academic year.

Discussion: Capital New York and Bloomberg

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Penske will tear down Variety's pay wall: sources — Variety's pay wall is going to come tumbling down, informed sources say, now that the 107-year-old Hollywood trade title has been acquired by Deadline.com owner Jay Penske. Penske, who is believed to have paid Reed Elsevier between $26 million …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Ben Fritz / Los Angeles Times:
Jay Penske discusses plans for Variety

Discussion: The Huffington Post and LA Observed

John Cook / Gawker:

Bain Capital Wants a Piece of Gawker — After we published nearly 1,000 pages of Bain Capital's confidential financial records—including audits revealing for the first time that Bain employed a potentially illegal tax dodge currently under investigation by the New York attorney general …

Discussion: New York Magazine, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Wrap, The Huffington Post and Business Insider

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Orange County Register is hiring dozens of reporters, focusing on print-first expansion — Why did the Orange County Register send reporters and photogs to cover 40 — yes, four-zero, 40 — high-school sporting events in one weekend? No, it's not another news mob. Nor is it a one-time thing.

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, NetNewsCheck Latest and The Newspaper Guild

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Anthony Shadid a finalist for National Book Awards — Anthony Shadid is a finalist in this year's National Book Awards' nonfiction category. The New York Times reporter's memoir “House of Stone” was published shortly after his death from an asthma attack in Syria this February.

Discussion: The Wrap and GalleyCat

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Willie Geist Is Named Co-Host of 9 a.m. Hour of ‘Today’ — NBC's “Today” show on Wednesday welcomed Willie Geist, the MSNBC newsman and occasional comedian, as the new co-host of its 9 a.m. hour. The network confirmed that Mr. Geist would become a permanent presence on “Today,” …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Inside TV and Broadcasting & Cable

Jim Romenesko:

Drudge Report worth $375 million? — Henry Blodget says The Drudge Report is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and that Matt Drudge's influence and wealth make him “one of the most successful digital media entrepreneurs in the world — the Rupert Murdoch or William Randolph Hearst of the digital age.”

Discussion: Business Insider

Ryan Kim / GigaOM:

Oyster gets $3M to become the Spotify of books — While Amazon launched its own lending library on top of its Amazon Prime service, there's still an opportunity for other competitors to create a Spotify or Netflix for books. That's the hope of New York City-based Oyster …

Discussion: PandoDaily

Kate Solomon / TechRadar.com:

Samsung adds Spotify streaming to Smart TVs — A new Spotify app is coming to Samsung Smart TVs so you can stream music through your television. As well as hitting Samsung's smart TV sets, the app will also be available on connected Blu-ray players and home theatre systems.

Discussion: @andysternberg

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Jimmy Savile: BBC's Lord Patten denies corporate cover-up — The chairman of the BBC Trust made his first public intervention in the Jimmy Savile affair, arguing that he was confident there had been no “corporate cover-up” when Newsnight dropped its planned investigation into allegations …

Jim Romenesko:

New York Times to make ‘final offer’ to guild on Thursday — A message sent to New York Times guild members on Tuesday evening says management answered staffers' “demonstration of profound unhappiness” — a brief Monday afternoon walkout — “by throwing a tantrum and taking two provocative actions Tuesday.”

Discussion: nyguild.org, Poynter, New York Magazine, LA Observed and JIMROMENESKO.COM