Mediagazer: Digital Drought Wrecks the Great American Content Farm (Felix Gillette/Businessweek)

12:30 PM ET, October 21, 2013

Top News:

Tech Wealth and Ideas Are Heading Into News — Producing serious news is an expensive enterprise with a beleaguered business model, one that remains tied to the tracks as a locomotive of splintered audiences and declining advertising hurtles toward it. — But just when it looked as if all were lost …

David Carr / New York Times:

An Interview With Pierre Omidyar — Pierre M. Omidyar, the founder of eBay and now a philanthropist, has been much in the news after it was revealed last week that he would be backing a general-interest news site to the tune of $250 million. — If the leak about the new venture came out of the blue …

Discussion: Reflections of a Newsosaur, Guardian, @michaelluo, Gannett Blog, @jenniferpreston, @brianstelter, @gregorydjohnsen, @dangillmor, @justinjm1, @paullewis, @carr2n, @jcstearns, @nasimzehra, @tweetsintheme, @dicktofel, @mlcalderone and TheBlaze.com

David Pogue / A Note from Pogue:

Goodbye—and Hello — It's true: After 13 years at the New York Times, I've accepted a new job. Leaving The Times is a big deal. My years there coincided with the explosion of just about everything important in today's tech — the Web, social media, e-books, smartphones, tablets, duck-faced selfies.

Discussion: Yahoo, GigaOM, FishbowlNY, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Business Insider, GeekWire, @jackmirkinson, @steverubel, @mattbuchanan, @mbyhoff, @acarvin, @adamostrow, @miriamgottfried, @nycjim, @peterlauria3, @pogue and Digits

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Yahoo To Launch Consumer Tech Site With Help Of New York Times' David Pogue — Yahoo is planning to launch a consumer tech website with the help of long-time NYT columnist David Pogue. — The news comes by way of Brian Stelter, long-time NYT writer, who reports via Twitter that Pogue announced …

Discussion: @brianstelter, Capital New York, The Wrap, The New York Observer, Politico, Gawker, @vivianschiller, @howardkurtz, @howardkurtz, The Next Web, @samfbiddle, @stevebuttry, Talking Biz News, @brianstelter and @pkafka

Ben Dimiero / Media Matters for America:

Fox News Reportedly Used Fake Commenter Accounts To Rebut Critical Blog Posts — NPR media reporter David Folkenflik writes in his forthcoming book Murdoch's World that Fox News' public relations staffers used an elaborate series of dummy accounts to fill the comments sections of critical blog posts with pro-Fox arguments.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, FishbowlNY, Talking Points Memo, @nprinskeep, @sarahw, @jason_cowell, @huffpostmedia, New York Magazine, @ericboehlert, @felixsalmon, @mlcalderone, The Raw Story, The Huffington Post and Inside Cable News

Geneva Overholser / Los Angeles Times:
'Murdoch's World' is a complicated one

Discussion: Huntington News and Media Law Prof Blog

Cliff Edwards / Bloomberg:

Netflix Poised to Pass HBO in Paid U.S. Subscribers — Netflix Inc. (NFLX) is poised to pass HBO in paid U.S. subscribers, showing Chief Executive Officer Reed Hastings is making progress toward a goal of transforming the streaming service to a Web-based television network.

Discussion: VentureBeat, The Verge, @iwantmedia, Engadget, @jonerlichman, @jimaley, Macgasm and CNET

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

The slow but inevitable decline of Netflix's DVD business — When will Netflix send out its last red envelope? The company is clearly focused on streaming, but executives have long maintained that DVDs, while declining, are going to be a part of its business for years to come.

Discussion: Businessweek, MarketWatch, GDP Insider and DailyFinance

Spiegel Online:

NSA Accessed Mexican President's Email — The NSA has been systematically eavesdropping on the Mexican government for years. It hacked into the president's public email account and gained deep insight into policymaking and the political system. The news is likely to hurt ties between the US and Mexico.

Discussion: @arusbridger, @shanewharris, Softpedia News, @doliaestevez, @ajcorchado, ZDNet, @thinkmexican, Business Insider, NBCNews, Hillicon Valley, CNET, TechCrunch, The Verge, Gawker, Mediaite, Gizmodo, New York Magazine, Globe and Mail and Boing Boing

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Publishing, broadcasting revenues down at Gannett — Revenues were down in most of Gannett's segments in the third quarter of 2013, according to the company's new earnings report. Advertising revenue at Gannett's publishing properties fell 5.9 percent compared with the same period the year before.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Broadcasting & Cable, USA Today and @poynter

Sue Zeidler / Reuters:

Murdoch re-elected Twenty-First Century Fox chairman — (Reuters) - Media mogul Rupert Murdoch was re-elected chairman of Twenty-First Century Fox Inc despite protests from shareholder groups who sought to separate the chairman and chief executive positions of the family-dominated company.

Discussion: Guardian, Bloomberg, FishbowlNY, UPI, Sydney Morning Herald, TheStreet.com, Reuters and Hollywood Reporter

Adam Popescu / Mashable:

Is Reposted Content the Secret to More Page Views? — The conventional wisdom among online publishers and creators is that volume equals traffic. The more content, the more clicks and page views. The problem is that in our 24-hour news cycle culture, outlets content has a short shelf life.

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Sinclair uses legal loophole to flout FCC rules on ownership — TV-Station King Uses “Sidecars” to Skirt Ownership Limits — COLUMBUS, Ohio—A modest brick building surrounded by parabolic dishes here by the Scioto River sports three signs: WSYX, WTTE, WWHO.

Discussion: @coppsm, @brianstelter, @keachhagey, @timkarr and @brianstelter