Mediagazer: For politically playful news orgs, the 2012 election means social interactivity (Adrienne LaFrance/Nieman Journalism Lab)

5:35 PM ET, October 13, 2012

Top News:

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

For politically playful news orgs, the 2012 election means social interactivity — Wanna make your own over-the-top Bobby Newport-style political attack ad? — PBS NewsHour is on it. This week it launched Ad Libs 2012, an interactive feature that has you pick quotes and photos …

Discussion: Guardian

Chris Davies / SlashGear:

Amazon to Kindle customers: There's an antitrust refund incoming — Amazon has begun notifying Kindle users that they may have a refund on ebook purchases in the pipeline, in the aftermath of the antitrust settlement around price-fixing by publishers. The message, sent out to users …

Discussion: Reuters, Ars Technica and CNET

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Founder Richard MacManus Departs ReadWriteWeb To Work On A Book — Richard MacManus, who founded tech blog ReadWriteWeb all the way back in 2003 and served as its editor in chief, has announced (through a post on his personal blog) that he's leaving the site.

Discussion: RicMac and ReadWriteWeb

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Lessons in how to crowdsource journalism from ProPublica — The idea of “crowdsourcing” has become more or less mainstream by now — thanks in part to the rise of social apps and services like Mechanical Turk and Kickstarter — and we've already seen how journalists can use Twitter …

Discussion: CJR, Thanks:@mterenzio

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Quartz Scores with Designers — Launched last month, Quartz, the Atlantic Media Company's foray into mobile-first publication, has gone all-in on responsive design. Quartz debuted as part of a crop of new publications designed for the post-desktop era, rather than retrofitted for it …

BBC:

UK to review social media laws — A freedom of information request revealed that there were 2,347 investigations after complaints regarding posts on social media in 2010. This number rose to 2,490 in 2011 - about 50 different cases across the UK each week.

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Time Out claims it is winning back lapsed readers — Distribution increases six fold after listings magazine abandoned cover price last month — Time Out is claiming lapsed readers have returned to the magazine after it went free last month and increased distribution six fold.

Alisha Azevedo / Chronicle of Higher Education:

Research Libraries Increase Spending on Digital Materials — Spending by research libraries appears to be rising, especially for digital materials, according to new data from the Association of Research Libraries. — The data are part of the association's Library Investment Index …

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

A Web survey isn't a poll, CNBC — The network's tweet creates a misleading media narrative on the veep debate — Whoever was running the CNBC Twitter feed last night didn't know the difference between a scientific poll and a Web poll: … As I'm writing this, that misinformation has been retweeted 4,838 times, favorited 405.

Discussion: Media Decoder, TVNewser, CNBC, Mediaite, The Daily Beast, Hot Air, The New Yorker Blog, Forbes, National Review, Cable Television News, Chickaboomer and Broadcasting & Cable

Felix Salmon:

Why Margaret Sullivan is right to be wrong — I was one of the “oxpeckers” quoted by Joe Coscarelli giving the new NYT public editor, Margaret Sullivan, a “rapturous reception” — not on the grounds that she was particularly spot-on in her judgments, but rather on the grounds …

Discussion: Forbes, Poynter, The Atlantic Wire, Gawker and Capital New York

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Comment Voting: Ars Technica's new solution to shills and kooks — For many news sites, reader comments add extra insight and a sense of community. Unfortunately, comment sections are also a playpen for cranks, hucksters, fanboys and conspiracy theorists.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

BookShout pulls users' Kindle, Nook books onto other platforms — BookShout, which is backed by book distribution company Ingram Content Group's CEO John R. Ingram and has gone through a number of iterations since its founding in 2010, is doing something that may make Amazon and Barnes & Noble mad …

Discussion: Forbes