Mediagazer: Tim Davie to head BBC Worldwide (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

10:20 AM ET, October 19, 2012

Top News:

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Newsweek CEO: Dumping Print ‘Liberates Us’ — Plans to Charge $24.99 For an Annual Digital-Only Subscription — There's been a deathwatch for the print edition of Newsweek ever since IAC CEO Barry Diller hinted in July that print would go away or be scaled back in 2013.

Discussion: MediaShift, Media Decoder, mediabistro.com, Poynter, New York Post, Corporate Intelligence, Jon Slattery, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, Reuters and Quartz

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

After Newsweek, Is Writing on Wall for Newsweeklies? — Newsweek, now facing a digital-only future, isn't the only newsweekly that's struggling in print. Fellow mass-audience title Time is down 19 percent in ad pages in the first half of the year, per Publishers Information Bureau.

Discussion: Adweek, Digiday, Wall Street Journal, MarketingVox News & Trends and BuzzFeed

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Turning the page on Tina Brown — When Newsweek relaunched in 2011, editor Tina Brown promised frugality and humility. — “I think that big, sort of theatrical relaunches tend to set you up for failure and hype,” Brown, the ex-Vanity Fair, ex-New Yorker, ex-Talk editor whose name …

Discussion: Guardian, FishbowlDC, The Huffington Post, msnbc.com, NPR and The Atlantic Online

Andrew Sullivan / The Daily Dish:
Out Of The Ashes Of Dead Trees

Discussion: Media News, One Man & His Blog, The Huffington Post, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day, magCulture.com/blog, Dead Tree Edition, Economist, FishbowlNY, Daily Download, Media Nation and The Atlantic Wire

Felix Salmon:
Why keep Newsweek on life support?

Discussion: AllThingsD, Medacity, paidContent, BtoB Magazine, Wall Street Journal, WWD Media Headlines, Gawker, TUAW, Capital New York, CJR, The Week and The Daily Beast

Amita Sharma / KPBS San Diego:

U-T Owner Manchester Shows Interest In Tribune Company — Hotelier and U-T San Diego owner Doug Manchester wants to buy the Tribune Company, which owns the Los Angeles Times. — Since Manchester bought the U-T more than 10 months ago, he's launched a television channel and purchased The North County Times.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and FishbowlLA

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune sets pay wall on some content at $14.99 per month — Online access to remain free for subscribers … The free ride is over for online users of the Chicago Tribune. Four months after launching a redesigned Web site requiring registration to view premium content, the newspaper is putting the …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Google News faces mass newspaper boycott in Brazil — This will sound familiar to anyone who has watched Google News' relations with news publishers over the years.. — The next country in which tension has erupted is one of the world's fastest-growing economies.

Discussion: Search Engine Land

BBC:

Google threatens French media ban over proposed law — Google has threatened to exclude French media sites from search results if France goes ahead with plans to make search engines to pay for content. — In a letter sent to several ministerial offices, Google said such a law “would threaten its very existence”.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Techdirt, FRANCE 24, Bigmouthmedia Search …, CNET, The Verge, TechCrunch, Telegraph and The Next Web

Jim Brunner / Seattle Times:

Seattle Times news staffers protest company's political-ad campaign — More than 100 Seattle Times news staffers - including reporters, photographers, columnists, artists, editors and online news producers - signed a letter Thursday protesting the Times Co's decision to sponsor newspaper ads …

Discussion: Poynter, Media Decoder, Guardian, Slog and The Seattle Times

Jim Romenesko: Seattle Times political ad campaign ‘absolutely takes the cake’

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Tim Davie to head BBC Worldwide — Appointment of new chief executive marks end of John Smith's 23-year career with corporation — Tim Davie, the head of BBC's director of audio and music, has been appointed as the new chief executive of BBC Worldwide. — The appointment of Davie …

Discussion: Digital Spy, Media Week and Radio Today with RCS

William Launde / Wall Street Journal:

CBS's Les Moonves Says TV Channel Shakeout Could Remedy Squeeze — CBS Corp. CBS -0.12% Chief Executive Les Moonves has an answer for cable and satellite operators who complain their profits are getting squeezed by continually rising content costs: eliminate low-rated channels from their lineup.

Discussion: Deadline.com

Richard Horgan / FishbowlLA:

Penske Puts a Woman in Charge at Variety — This is pretty sweet. After 15 years with Variety, Michelle Sobrino-Stearns can add a new title to go along with sales director, managing director of features, vice president and associate publisher: the trade publication's first-ever female publisher.

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

The Telegraph's much-delayed digital paywall appears to have taken another step back, following the departure of the senior executive responsible for the strategy. Steve McLaughlin, Telegraph Media Group's chief commercial officer, held responsibility for digital strategy and revenues …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Twitter, Reddit and the battle over freedom of speech — Where should freedom of speech begin and end when you are a web-based entity with a global audience? That's the question raised by a couple of recent events, including the furor over a Reddit moderator's creepy behavior …