Mediagazer: The newsonomics of near-term numerology (Ken Doctor/Nieman Journalism Lab)

6:55 AM ET, October 14, 2012

Top News:

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Amplification & the changing role of media — For the past few days, I have been thinking about the evolution of what media is and its expanded role in the information ecosystem. What got me thinking was Twitter co-founder and Square CEO Jack Dorsey's decision to blog his side of the story about his reduced role at Twitter.

Discussion: @zimbalist and @kevinmarks

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: CNET, Reuters and Ars Technica

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Suddenly everyone wants New Yorker style content. Only one catch: Who is going to write it? — One of our most popular stories all week has been David Holmes's report about how Tumblr wants to pay for journalism. And not just cat pictures, re-written press releases, or 300 word snark-fests by junior reporters paid $12 a post.

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of near-term numerology — Think about this. The Tampa Tribune, a paper that would have been worth hundreds of millions of dollars a decade ago, sold this week for $9 million. — Its seller, Media General completed the disposal of its newspaper properties …

John Herrman / @jwherrman:

Reddit's top admin tells me Gawker article ban “was a mistake on our part” http://www.buzzfeed.com/katienotopoulos / leaked-chat-logs-between-reddit- moderators-and-sta ...

Discussion: BuzzFeed and Gawker

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

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 …