Mediagazer: Judge Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project (David Kravets/Wired)

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, New York Magazine, JIMROMENESKO.COM and JIMROMENESKO.COM

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: JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine, New York Times, The Wrap, 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 and The Newspaper Guild

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, CJR, New York Post and Slate

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, Politico and Pressing Issues

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Here's Business Insider's Crazy New Strategy to Boost Ad Revenue — Sponsored Content Business, ‘Brand Insider’ Expected to Generate 50% of Ad Revenue — Get ready for more slideshows on Business Insider, but this time with a twist: they'll be paid for by an advertiser and likely include some nod to a brand's product or service.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

David Kravets / Wired:

Judge Says Fair Use Protects Universities in Book-Scanning Project — A federal judge on Wednesday threw out a copyright infringement lawsuit against universities that participated in a massive book-digitization project in conjunction with Google without permission from rights holders.

Discussion: madisonian.net and The Laboratorium

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: The New York Observer, CJR, Capital New York, Media Decoder and @nytfridge

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

Julia Levy / TribecaFilm.com:

Storytelling, Audiences, and Social Influence, or Why Whoopi Goldberg Turned to Kickstarter — Storytelling won't die, movies will meet audiences on their own turf, and social influence will drive content. Welcome to the Future of Film, according to a panel of experts on last week's Advertising Week panel.

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

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 and Los Angeles Times