Mediagazer: A Blow for the Press, and for Democracy (Margaret Sullivan/New York Times)

2:30 PM ET, July 29, 2013

Top News:

Bloomberg Media Recruits a New Chief From the Atlantic — Justin B. Smith, whose digital strategy swiftly transformed The Atlantic, one of the statelier media vessels around, is about to get a bigger boat. — On Monday, Bloomberg will announce that Mr. Smith, the president of Atlantic Media …

Discussion: AllThingsD, JIMROMENESKO.COM, BuzzMachine, TVNewser, MediaPost, GigaOM, MinOnline, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, The New York Observer, Trust But Verify, @carr2n, @atlblog, @jeffjohnroberts, @justin_b_smith, eMedia Vitals and New York Magazine

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Cumulus planning to drop Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity — In a major shakeup for the radio industry, Cumulus Media, the second-biggest broadcaster in the country, is planning to drop both Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity from its stations at the end of the year, an industry source told POLITICO on Sunday.

Discussion: Forbes, Mediaite, NY Daily News, TVNewser, Deadline.com, @cenkuygur, The Week, msnbc.com, FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, @charliespiering, The Huffington Post, @passantino, The Raw Story and Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Why the time is right for The Washington Post & others to boost video initiatives — The Washington Post will formally launch PostTV today — a big gamble that it can widen audience and win significant advertising revenue by producing digital video programs and distributing the segments to various partners.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Washington Post, NetNewsCheck Latest and @abeaujon

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post: Washington Post Launches New Political Web Shows

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

A Blow for the Press, and for Democracy — SOMETIMES James Risen feels like Jean Valjean, the beleaguered protagonist of “Les Miserables,” hounded for years by the authorities. — “They just keep coming at me,” Mr. Risen, a Times reporter in Washington, told me by phone last week.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, Firedoglake and The Huffington Post

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Sinclair to buy Allbritton TV stations for $985 million — Sinclair will buy Allbritton's TV stations for $985 million, the company announced Monday. The stations purchased include WJLA-TV in Washington, D.C., WSET in Lynchburg, Va., and WCIV in Charleston, S.C.

Discussion: Politico, New York Times, sbgi.net, Broadcasting & Cable, Los Angeles Times, Erik Wemple, Arkansas Blog, Arkansas Times and TVSpy

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Hearst Poaches Todd Haskell From New York Times to Lead Digital Revenue — And Names Publisher For Still-Untitled Dr. Oz Magazine — Hearst Magazines has hired Todd Haskell away from The New York Times, where he had been group VP-advertising since 2007, to become senior VP and chief revenue officer …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Folio and WWD Media Headlines

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

AP, Meltwater end litigation, will ‘collaborate on innovating new products’ — Associated Press will partner with news-aggregation service Meltwater, which it sued last year, the news co-op announced Monday. — “There is more to be gained by working together to develop new markets …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Journalism.co.uk and NetNewsCheck Latest

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

News Corp's Les Goodstein, who captained company's New York community newspaper efforts, has resigned — News Corp. executive Les Goodstein, a major figure in local New York City newspaper-publishing, has resigned, Capital has learned. — Goodstein, who'd been with News Corp. for more than seven years …

Dylan Byers / Politico: The bigger Col Allan story

Liana Aghajanian / Public Spectacle:

Boing Boing Editor Xeni Jardin Talks About Her Ongoing Recovery From Breast Cancer — Xeni Jardin live-tweeted her cancer diagnosis — and all the pain that followed. — “I have breast cancer and I'm in good hands.” — Those are the words Xeni Jardin, tech journalist …

Discussion: @trevortimm and @adamslisa

Marc Tracy / New Republic:

How a Terrible Fox News Interview Became a Traffic Bonanza for BuzzFeed — There is much to be said about the interview Reza Aslan did Friday on Fox News' online show “Spirited Debate.” Aslan, a Muslim writer who converted from Christianity (to which he had converted from Islam) …

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Are Magazines Blowing iPad Sales? — Last week, the Association of Magazine Media released some unsettling, albeit not surprising, numbers for news magazines. It found that many mags had significant drops in ad pages in the first half of this year compared to the first half of last year.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Bloomberg:

Publicis to Merge With Omnicom as Biggest Advertising Company — Publicis Groupe SA (PUB) and Omnicom Group Inc. (OMC) agreed to merge in an all-stock deal to create the world's largest advertising company, toppling market leader WPP Plc. (WPP) — Shareholders of Paris-based Publicis …

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

NBC News Partnering With GlobalPost For Foreign Coverage — As American TV news outlets continue to cut back on overseas bureaus, each are finding creative ways to deliver international news to viewers. Many partner with broadcasters overseas on content and correspondent sharing agreements …

Discussion: GlobalPost, Broadcasting & Cable and Lost Remote