Mediagazer: What Jack Welch Could Learn From Rupert Murdoch (Jared Keller/Business Week)

6:20 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: The New York Observer, Media Decoder, Capital New York, Poynter, The Wrap, @profjeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @chanders, @romenesko, FishbowlNY, @nytfridge, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @sree, @carr2n, Columbia University … 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: Bloomberg

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 Times, The Wrap, JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, Venture Capital Dispatch 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

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, LA Observed and Los Angeles Times

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

New York Times Agrees To Mediation For Contract — The New York Times and the Newspaper Guild of New York will turn to an outside mediator to help hammer out a contract, it was announced Wednesday. Arthur Sulzberger Jr., the paper's publisher, broke the news to staff in an email.

Discussion: nyguild.org and New York Magazine

Jim Romenesko:
New York Times to make ‘final offer’ to guild on Thursday

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

David Carr / Media Decoder:

After Week of Big Political News, the Big Loser? Liberal Bias — Back when Barack Obama seemed to be in command of the race and had the poll numbers to back it up — that was just a week ago, wasn't it? — there were abundant suggestions that the fix was in, that a compliant …

Discussion: FiveThirtyEight, Reuters, Los Angeles Times, Gallup and Pressing Issues

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: Capital New York, The Wrap and GalleyCat

Jared Keller / Business Week:

What Jack Welch Could Learn From Rupert Murdoch — After the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its latest U.S. unemployment report on October 5, former General Electric CEO Jack Welch set off a social media firestorm with a single tweet suggesting the Obama administration had doctored the numbers for political gain.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Hit & Run, Slate and New York Post

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

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

No, giving away the news doesn't mean lower-quality journalism — Amid all the heated debates over whether paywalls and subscription models are the solution to the ongoing disruption of traditional media, one argument resurfaces again and again — namely, that a free or advertising-supported news model …

Discussion: The Buttry Diary

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