Mediagazer: Read Toronto Star staff memos from publisher, editor (Globe and Mail)

4:20 AM ET, March 5, 2013

Top News:

Twitter Reaction to Events Often at Odds with Overall Public Opinion — The reaction on Twitter to major political events and policy decisions often differs a great deal from public opinion as measured by surveys. This is the conclusion of a year-long Pew Research Center study that compared …

Discussion: CNN, Daily Download, Betabeat, @chrismegerian, @panzer, @mims, @emilysteel, @yahoo, Mashable!, VentureBeat, FishbowlNY and BuzzFeed

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Washington Post to Try Sponsored Posts — There was a time when putting ads on the front page of newspapers was considered risque. Those are over. The Washington Post became the latest publisher to quit worrying and learn to love sponsored content. — WaPo tomorrow plans to launch …

Discussion: @bmorrissey, @laurenweinstein and @bobbymacreports, Thanks:@steverubel

Pekka Pekkala / Online Journalism Review:

Copy-paste journalism wants to be free — Google News is a depressing read for a journalist. It shows you how many news outlets depend on copy-and-paste reporting, regurgitating the same press releases and quotes in an infinite loop. Who needs all these clones of the same story, with the same basic facts and sources?

Discussion: @dchieng, @ronrodgers and @mattwilliams84

Joel Johnson / Gizmodo:

Hold On Tight, Gizmodo Is a TV Show Now — If we made a Top Gear for gadgets, would you watch it? In two weeks, you'll have your chance. — Nearly ten years ago, when I first ran Gizmodo, gadgets were as niche of a topic for news and debate as could be.

Discussion: @papapishu, FishbowlNY, @joemfbrown, @joshpetri, @jennydeluxe, @alexweprin, @leshorn, @justinnxt and @kylenw

Globe and Mail:

Read Toronto Star staff memos from publisher, editor — MEMO FROM TORONTO STAR PUBLISHER — Today, the Star is announcing a series of restructuring initiatives to reduce our costs in the face of revenue challenges. These steps are being taken following careful review.

Steve Ladurantaye / Globe and Mail:

Toronto Star to cut jobs citing declines in ad revenue — Canada's largest newspaper is cutting dozens of jobs from its newsroom, outsourcing editing duties that are increasingly seen as too costly for cash-strapped dailies trying to cope with falling advertising revenue.

Discussion: Guardian, Canada NewsWire Group, Toronto Sun and Toronto Star

Rafat Ali / Skift:

Exclusive: BBC selling Lonely Planet to Kentucky cigarette billionaire Brad Kelley — EXCLUSIVE: Lonely Planet, the storied travel guidebooks publisher owned by BBC, is about to be sold, we have learned. And the buyer is a doozy: reclusive Kentucky billionaire Brad Kelley …

Discussion: @rafat, Quartz, Guardian, Telegraph and @jcstearns

Lisa Campbell / The Bookseller:
BBC says no deal done yet for Lonely Planet

Discussion: Skift

Dylan Byers / Politico:

The battle for Roger Ailes's legacy — Roger Ailes is used to being in control. For almost a half-century — from his days as Richard Nixon's media strategist to his creation and expansion of the Fox News empire — he has exerted incalculable influence over the public image of politicians, presidents, even the Republican party.

Discussion: @shawncp92, @mlcalderone and Inside Cable News

Reuters:

Special Report: Did Diane Sawyer smear “pink slime”? — (Reuters) - A year ago, Beef Products Inc. had four state-of-the art plants, more than 1,300 employees and was expanding aggressively. The meat company was the leading maker of “lean finely textured beef,” a low-fat product made from chunks of beef …

Discussion: Gizmodo

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

The New York Times has Prototyped a Link-Centric Search Engine — The New York Times R&D Labs has created a prototype search engine that provides Times article results with embedded links to sources outside of the paper, says Michael Zimbalist, VP for Research and Operations in this conversation …

Thanks:@beet_tv

Ted Johnson / Variety:

Google's Hush-Hush Hollywood Huddle … A top Google official met last week with select Hollywood execs for a broad-ranging conversation that touched on a touchy subject: piracy. — The off-the-record meeting was by no means an official negotiation, but the latest event from the Foreign Policy Roundtable …

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman Slams Cablevision's Lawsuit as ‘Frivolous’ — The exec says Cablevision would be better off saving tens of millions of dollars on lawyers and instead spending it on making cable customers happy. — Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman addressed the recent antitrust lawsuit filed …

Discussion: Deadline.com

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Monday Q&A: Raju Narisetti on designing for mobile, the paywall fallacy, and reinventing ads — Last February, Raju Narisetti had just returned to The Wall Street Journal after spending three years working on the integration of print and digital at The Washington Post.