Mediagazer: The Washington Post closes sale to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos (Paul Farhi/Washington Post)

9:55 AM ET, October 2, 2013

Top News:

The Washington Post closes sale to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos — Amazon.com founder and chief executive Jeffrey P. Bezos formally took over as the owner of The Washington Post on Tuesday, officially ending 80 years of local control of the newspaper by the Graham family.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Poynter, The Switch, Fast Company, @jfdulac, WebProNews, @jfdulac, AppNewser, MinOnline, @washingtonpost and Politico

Jia Lynn Yang / Washington Post:
The future of the Washington Post Co. without its flagship newspaper

Discussion: @romenesko

Dan Froomkin / Al Jazeera America:

Reporting on government shutdown has failed democracy … American news reports are largely blaming the government shutdown on the inability of both political parties to come to terms. It is supposedly the result of a “bitterly divided” Congress that “failed to reach agreement” (Washington Post) …

Discussion: Washington Wire, @manish_vij, @dustinslaughter, @binkytoes, @johnmcquaid and @dangillmor, Thanks:@jaredbkeller

John Hudson / Foreign Policy:
In Shutdown, Government-Funded News Declared ‘Essential to National Security’

Discussion: Bangor Daily News

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:
Is the government shut down? Quartz will tell you (and drive a little traffic in the process)

Discussion: @zseward

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:
Ranking the Best Newspaper Front Pages on the Government Shutdown

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser, Capital New York, @ohnorosco, @bob_ortega and The Huffington Post

Michael Carney / PandoDaily:

Intel exec Erik Huggers throws his hat into the (surprisingly crowded) Hulu CEO ring — Early this year, it seemed like no one associated with Hulu wanted to claim ownership of it. In January, the company's CEO and CTO both announced their resignation, moves that were followed by multiple high level executive departures.

Discussion: C21Media and Digital Trends

Tim Peterson / AdAge:
Hulu Ad Chief JP Colaco Is Latest to Depart Video Service

Discussion: Variety

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Another Key Hulu Executive Leaves

Discussion: Hulu Blog

Tara Conlan / Guardian:

BBC cuts: just four senior management jobs set for closure — NUJ official says journalists bear brunt of latest round of cuts to posts, with 75 earmarked for closure in news and current affairs — BBC News has earmarked 75 posts for closure, but there are concerns that only four are in senior manager positions.

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

Lessons from The Dallas Morning News's failed paywall — The paper shuns the meter model and flops — In May 2009, Dallas Morning News publisher Jim Moroney told the Senate that a paywall didn't make sense for his newspaper unless everybody else did one too:

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, AdAge, @ka_willey, @jbenton, Wall Street Journal and paidContent

Wall Street Journal:

Thomson Reuters Undertakes Review — Thomson Reuters Inc. plans a fresh review of the company's business units, in the latest sign the data provider is looking for ways to respond to weak demand from its financial services clients. — In a video emailed to staff on Tuesday …

Discussion: Corporate Intelligence, @keachhagey, @peterlauria3 and Talking Biz News

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Daily Beast's John Avlon rallies troops as roughly 20 colleagues lose their jobs — On the first day of its new life without Newsweek, Daily Beast executive editor John Avlon rallied the troops with an afternoon memo full of good news, like a 36-percent year-over-year traffic gain and a nomination to Adweek's annual “Hot List” poll.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Gawker, @daveweigel and New York Magazine

Greg Mitchell / The Nation:

‘NYT’ Fingers McClatchy for ‘Terror’ Leak—and Now McClatchy Hits Back — Yesterday morning the top story at the New York Times site reported on US analysts feeling that the early-August leak to the media on how Al Qaeda communicates had done more to harm our anti-terrorism effort than anything revealed by Edward Snowden.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

McClatchy DC:
Did leaks alert al Qaida leaders they were being monitored?

Discussion: @jonathanlanday, @markseibel, @jimasher and The Huffington Post

AdAge:

BtoB Magazine to Become Part of Advertising Age — BtoB Magazine, the leading publication for business-to-business marketers, will become part of Advertising Age, its sister publication on the consumer marketing side, Crain Communications announced Tuesday.

Discussion: BtoB Magazine, Thanks:@steverubel

New York Times:

Hollywood Advancing Clinton Film — LOS ANGELES — Two television projects about Hillary Rodham Clinton collapsed under political pressure this week, but she may yet get her close-up on screen, this time from Hollywood. — A third biographical portrayal of Mrs. Clinton …

Discussion: BBC, Los Angeles Times and Hollywood Reporter

Celestine Bohlen / New York Times:

In Syria, Advocates Step In to Sift for Truth — PARIS — What to believe? That's a key question in the diplomatic duel over Syria, as Russia continues to dispute evidence in a United Nations inspectors' report that points to the Syrian government's complicity in the Aug. 21 chemical attack on the Damascus suburb of Ghouta.

Megan McArdle / Bloomberg:

We Are Googling the New York Times to Death — This morning brought Eleanor Clift's reminiscence about 50 years at Newsweek to my Twitter feed. Those words alone seem to tell the story: Newsweek was a phenomenally successful product designed for a world that no longer exists.

Discussion: Capital New York

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

The Inside Story Of One Website's Defense Of Assad — A small Minnesota news outlet caused a storm when it ran a story claiming Syria's rebels carried out a chemical attack near Damascus in August. A look inside the murky world of Mint Press News. — As Mnar Muhawesh prepared to publish …

Discussion: @tomgara, @rosiegray, @buzzfeedben and Kirk LaPointe's …

Ryan Tate / Wired:

Twitter Founder Reveals Secret Formula for Getting Rich Online — Ev Williams has figured out the internet. — That's what he told the gathered tech heads at the recent XOXO conference in Portland, Oregon, and while he may have said this with tongue partly in cheek, he spent …

Wall Street Journal:

Phony Web Traffic Tricks Digital Ads — As Online Marketing Budgets Soar, Fraudsters Skim Millions with 'Botnets" — The website Songsrpeople.com looks a lot like other amateur-video sites. It is wallpapered with clips featuring “the most insane amusement park ever” and “your girlfriend's six friends.”

Discussion: @jeffjohnroberts and Corporate Intelligence