Mediagazer: A History of Wall Street Journal Hedcuts (Brian Aguilar/Wall Street Journal)

3:45 PM ET, March 19, 2010

Top News:

Interview magazine: ‘The iPad is the future and we embrace it openly’ — For a device that's not even being sold yet - though we're told it is imminent in the US and UK - getting on the iPad has quickly jumped to the top of many news organisation's to do lists.

Discussion: GigaOM

Douglas MacMillan / Business Week:

Apple Swears iPad Partners to Secrecy — Developers must sequester the tablet computer in rooms with blacked-out windows, reflecting secrecy around a product that may mean billions of dollars in sales — Apple makes big demands of software developers who want an early crack at the iPad.

Discussion: Fast Company, Online, Gizmodo Australia, Silicon Alley Insider, Wall Street Journal, Engadget and All Things Digital

Foster Kamer / Runnin' Scared:

WSJ's New Union Contract: Wage Freeze to July 2011! — As the Wall Street Journal hurries to ready Project Amsterdam, Rupert Murdoch's bid to rock the New York Times dead with a big, splashy color metropolitan section before he kicks the bucket, staffers at the Journal are burning the midnight oil.

Discussion: Romenesko, Media Decoder, The Wire, FishBowlNY, IAPE 1096 and News Corp. Blog

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

FT.com Takes Free Articles Away From Unregistered Users, Except Via Search — Now the Financial Times is getting really bullish about its web access model. In another tweak, it's now ensuring that no free articles are on offer to non-registered users. — In 2007, the site introduced …

Discussion: The Wire

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

@ CMS2010: A Dose Of Wolff: Rupe's Mad As Hell, Newspapers Are Over — Nothing like a good, hard dose of scathing reality to scare the hell out of a media audience. Michael Wolff - the Vanity Fair columnist, Newser operator and Murdoch biographer - happily obliged at MediaGuardian's Changing Media Summit in London...

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Guardian

Michael Wolff / Newser:
Charge for News! Yes, Do It! C'mon! I Dare You.

Discussion: CJR

Matea Gold / Los Angeles Times:

Bill O'Reilly's indie instincts — In a time of political turmoil, can the Fox News commentator be seen as a moderate? — Fox News' top-rated host Bill O'Reilly has helped to make the network a ratings leader. (Carolyn Cole / Los Angeles Times) — Reporting from New York

Discussion: Romenesko, The Wire, Gawker and Mediaite

Michael Calderone / The Politico:

Amanpour: A surprise - and a risk — In choosing Christiane Amanpour to host “This Week,” ABC defied the Sunday show conventions that have resulted in a succession of hosts who were male political journalists steeped in Washington culture. — Passing over more traditional choices …

Discussion: MediaPost, Gawker, Company Town, blogs.tampabay.com, Journalism and the World, Romenesko, New York Observer, Mediaite, The Wire, Michael Calderone's Blog, Tuned In and TVNewser

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

More News about Omidyar's Peer News — I'm at the NewsMorphosis Conference in Hawaii today locked in a day of debates about the state of news quality and how the hell we find a business model to keep paying for it. It's a big issue locally- earlier this year three of Hawaii's five largest …

Discussion: Biz Bites, TechHui, /message, TEMPLE TALK and Star Bulletin

Brian Aguilar / Wall Street Journal:

A History of Wall Street Journal Hedcuts — When job-seeking illustrator Laura Levy first met the team of Wall Street Journal hedcut artists in the early 1980s, she was struck by their peculiar task. — “I saw what these people were doing and I thought, 'they're insane,'” says Levy.

Discussion: New York Observer, The Awl, The Stranger … and Charles Apple

Michael Corkery / Deal Journal:

A Guy Named Bob Wants to Buy Newsday — Who wants to buy Long Island's largest newspaper, Newsday? — Is it The New York Times' Arthur Sulzberger Jr.? How about News Corp.'s Rupert Murdoch? — No, it is Robert “Bob” Toussie, a real estate developer and investor.

Discussion: FishBowlNY and Romenesko

Claudia Eller / Company Town:

Carl Icahn launches hostile takeover bid for Lions Gate [Updated] — One week after Lions Gate Entertainment rejected his bid to raise his stake in the studio, investor Carl Icahn is launching a hostile takeover bid for the entire company. [For the record, updated 9:41 a.m. …

Discussion: Multichannel, MediaPost, PR Newswire, Crain's New York Business, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Deadline.com, Bloomberg, Reuters, Home Media Magazine, NBC Los Angeles, Financial Post, Stocks To Watch Today and DealBook

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

YouTube and Viacom Find Lots of Emails, but No Smoking Gun — The YouTube-Viacom documents released today are chock full of interesting morsels. Feel free to ignore most of them. — Because if you're trying to handicap the way the copyright lawsuit pans out, today's document dump won't do much to help you.

Discussion: Viacom, Publishers Weekly, Silicon Alley Insider, MediaPost, Technology & …, BBC, Electronic Frontier Foundation, fierceonlinevideo.com …, Media News, Associated Press, NewTeeVee, YouTube Blog, VentureBeat, paidContent and Company Town

Jay Yarow / The Business Insider:

The REAL Reason NBC, FOX, And ABC Execs Want To Kill Hulu (CMCSA, GE, DIS, NWS) — Hulu's sales team is “actively subverting” the ad sales of its parent companies that are also trying to sell ads for their shows on Hulu, according to a source at one of the parent companies.

Discussion: FierceOnlineVideo and NewTeeVee

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

Interview: Nicolas Kayser-Bril, head of datajournalism at Owni.fr — Past OJB contributor Nicolas Kayser-Bril is now in charge of datajournalism at Owni.fr, a recently launched news site that defines itself as an “open think-tank”. — “Acting as curators, selecting and presenting content taken deep …

Michael Mace / Insight+:

The future of publishing: Why ebooks failed in 2000, and what it means for 2010 — This post is adapted from a speech I gave at the O'Reilly Tools of Change publishing industry conference in February. — It's a great time for ebooks. There are at least six ebook reader devices on the market or in preparation.

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Major BSkyB shake-up sees Stephen Nuttall depart — Commercial director leaves Sky as company prepares for launch of crucial TV, web and mobile products — BSkyB is undertaking a major operational restructure that will see the departure of commercial director Stephen Nuttall …

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Fiori on firing line — HEARST Magazines President Cathie Black is said to have quietly begun a search to replace Pamela Fiori, the longtime editor-in-chief of Town & Country. — Like all magazines tied to the luxury market, Town & Country has been reeling, and Black, like all publishing executives, is under pressure to cut losses.

Discussion: The Wire