Mediagazer: Why tablet magazines are a failure (Jon Lund/GigaOM)

8:45 AM ET, October 8, 2013

Top News:

Exclusive: Internal Documents Tell the Tale of Inquirer Editor Bill Marimow's Dismissal — Inquirer editor Bill Marimow was fired after many months of infighting with publisher Bob Hall, according to internal documents anonymously delivered this afternoon to Philadelphia magazine.

Discussion: Gawker, @dickpolman1, @bydanielvictor, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @carr2n, @romenesko, Philebrity.com and Erik Wemple

Dave Davies / NewsWorks:
Philadelphia Inquirer editor Bill Marimow ousted

Discussion: @garettwire, @davidfolkenflik, @lorriallentv, Philadelphia City Paper, @robinjp, Poynter, @davedavieswhyy and Politico

New York Times:
Publisher of Philadelphia Inquirer Fires Editor

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Philly.com and @chaughney

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

BBC Launches Playlister, A Social Music Service With Spotify, YouTube And Deezer To Tag Tracks Heard On BBC — On the heels of the BBC ramping up its iPlayer on-demand video and music player as the go-to place for all its digital assets, the UK's public broadcaster is also gearing up to take its music service up another notch.

Discussion: bbc.co.uk, Digital Spy, Engadget, The Next Web, Pocket-lint and blogs.ft.com

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

The BBC announces BBC Store, letting you pay to download and keep shows — It has been a tumultuous twelve months at the BBC, with scandal after scandal finally leading to a new Director General in the form of Lord Tony Hall who took over at the helm in April, replacing George Entwistle who had held fort for just fifty days.

Discussion: Telegraph, @peterbazalgette, BBC, @psmith and broadcastnow.co.uk

Bloomberg:

iTunes Radio to reach UK and Canada before Pandora, also expanding to Australia and NZ in early 2014 — Apple Said to Expand ITunes Radio to U.K. Before Pandora — Apple Inc. (AAPL) plans to expand iTunes Radio to English-speaking countries outside the U.S. by early 2014 …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Softpedia News, AppleInsider, SlashGear, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, The Next Web, hypebot, Digital Spy, App Advice and Engadget

Jon Lund / GigaOM:

Why tablet magazines are a failure — “We're starting a new magazine,” the entrepreneur told me. “We have a potent niche to cover, and advertisers are dying for us to deliver interactive ads.” — Another woman I met with wanted to launch a tablet magazine about renewable energy.

Discussion: @travelfish, @bdomenech, mUmBRELLA, Nxtblog and TeleRead

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Media Matters Gets Some Right-Wing Competition — A new group called TruthRevolt, run by radio host Ben Shapiro, launched Monday with calls to boycott Ritz Crackers if it doesn't stop its sponsorship of Al Sharpton's show on MSNBC. — A nonprofit group that bills itself as a right-wing version …

Discussion: TruthRevolt.org, The Raw Story, The Huffington Post and FishbowlDC

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

Has putting up a paywall at The Guardian become a moral imperative rather than a choice? — The Guardian newspaper in Britain is one of the most prominent papers without a paywall, and some media-industry observers argue that it should erect one soon or potentially lose its ability to create great journalism.

Discussion: @beppesevergnini and @ali_gharib

Hilary Mason:

What Mugshots Mean For Public Data — The New York Times has a story this morning on the growing use of mugshot data for, essentially, extortion. These sites scrape mugshots off of public records databases, use SEO techniques to rank highly in Google searches for people's names …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, @mathewi, @ibmanalytics, @hmason, WebProNews, The Rural Blog, The Huffington Post, Forbes, @ftrain, @mikeolson, Search Engine Land, GigaOM, @dannysullivan, Kirk LaPointe's …, Softpedia News and CNET

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
First they came for the mugshot websites, but I said nothing...

Discussion: @gigaom, Businessweek, SlashGear, WebProNews, Forbes and @trevortimm, Thanks:@mathewi

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Judge Allows Broadcasters to Examine Aereo's Patents — The plaintiffs suing for copyright infringement want to find out why Aereo's patent applications state there is no simple way to access TV programming on digital devices. — Over objections made by Aereo's lawyers …

Discussion: Hillicon Valley and Courthouse News Service

Guardian:

Press plans for post-Leveson regulation rejected by ministers — Privy council delays final decision on royal charter as efforts to find common ground are dogged by distrust — Plans on how to regulate the press industry have been delayed until later this month after a difficult meeting …

Discussion: Guardian, @lisaocarroll, @newsviewer, @richpeppiatt, Spectator and The Drum

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Don't say the B word: DVRs, VOD, ratings and the binge viewing threat — New York Times writer Brian Stelter penned an interesting piece this weekend about the growing delay between the time an episode of a TV show is broadcast and the time people actually get around to watching it.

Discussion: @jasonwstein and New York Times

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Beats says its new Beats Music streaming service will launch ‘within the next few months’ in the US — Beats will launch its long-awaited music streaming service, Beats Music, “within the next few months” in the United States. Luke Wood, president and COO of the company …

Discussion: Softpedia News, AppleInsider, The Verge, PhoneArena, MacRumors, SlashGear, App Advice and 9to5Mac

Max Blau / Mashable:

How Spotify Engineered the New Music Economy — Steve Cooper didn't expect much from Spotify. — When the New York-based band Spirit Animal released “The Black Jack White” last spring, the band's frontman didn't have high hopes about the streaming music service.

Claire Peracchio / The Atlantic Online:

Why Facebook and Twitter Are Fighting Over Your Television — Inside the campaign to take over your living room, screen by screen — When the new season of ABC's hit political thriller Scandal premiered Thursday night, fans cataloged each moment of melodrama in the worldwide living room of Twitter and Facebook.

Discussion: Businessweek, SocialTimes and Digits

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

7 tumultuous years for Tribune newspapers — A directive to cut up to $100 million in spending at the Tribune Co. newspapers is but the latest challenge to a group of iconic titles that have been twisting in the wind for seven of the most tumultuous years ever experienced by the publishing industry.

Discussion: @newsosaur

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

NAHJ leaders cite Unity's ‘financial disorganization,’ ask board to vote to leave — National Association of Hispanic Journalists representatives on Unity: Journalists for Diversity's board “are asking the NAHJ national board to vote in favor of leaving UNITY,” they write in a statement on NAHJ's site.

Discussion: UNITY Journalists … and Columbia Journalism Review

Dylan Byers / Politico:

NYT Washington reporter: 'This is the most closed, control-freak administration I've ever covered' — Sanger: 'This is the most closed, control-freak administration I've ever covered' — David Sanger, the New York Times reporter who has spent two decades reporting in Washington …

Discussion: @dylanbyers and TruthRevolt.org

Salvador Rodriguez / Los Angeles Times:

EveryBlock founder advises Twitter not to hire NBC News digital chief — EveryBlock founder Adrian Holovaty advised Twitter not to hire Vivian Schiller for its Head of News opening. — It seems there are still sore feelings about the closing of hyper-local news start-up EveryBlock.

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:

Bloomberg Media CEO Outlines 100-Day Strategy — The relatively new CEO of Bloomberg Media Group, Justin Smith, has sent out a memo announcing a “100-day strategy.” He doesn't reveal exactly what that strategy is, but says employees will be hearing more specifics on it in the next few weeks.

Discussion: Adweek and Talking Biz News