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We've got your morning mix of media Muesli after the jump...
Three years ago, the world said goodbye to Peter Jennings. In 1971, Apollo 15 returned to Earth. One year ago, Barry Bonds hit his 756th home run. It's Garrison Keillor's birthday. Talk pompously to honor him. Julie Ocean, the band that includes the musical stylings of Alex Daniels from The Arkansas Democrat Gazette, and Jim Spellman, a CNN producer, is playing a free show Thursday night at Fort Reno, near the Tenley metro. The show starts at 7:15. Francis Wilkinson, previously the blog editor at the Huffington Post, joins The Week magazine as executive editor. BLIND ITEM: Which three gossip columnists were yukking it up at IndeBleu last night?!? In other news, Amy Doolittle (now Amy Bushatz), freelancer for the Times, and formerly of Politico, got married last month. And today is her birthday! The next Washington Blogger Meet-Up is Wednesday, August 20, 2008 7:00 PM. To RSVP, click here. Politico's James Kotecki's "ongoing feud with MSNBC anchor David Shuster culminates" today in a face-to-face showdown on live TV at approximately 4:40 pm EST on MSNBC. In case you need to catch up on the feud, Koteki put together a video history. Olivier Knoxtweets, "My two-week stint in Waco in August starts soon. Last chance to do a cannonball into Pres Bush's pool. NSA intercepts this in 3, 2, 1..." The NYTimes.com helps you follow the Olympics. Find out who "The top 100 most popular Twitter users" are today. "AJR asked seven political writers and reporters to name their must-reads." The Buffalo News reports, "City honors Tim Russert by dedicating a street in his name." Emma Stone Mackinnontweets, "done with nbc, ms, npr, doing bbc now, then ctv, then fox biz, then bed before 3 morning shows tmrw. whew!" Eric Pfeiffertweets, "After nearly a decade as a professional journalist I have my marching orders: write about Paris Hilton. Kill me now." Brian Steltertweets, "Most students read college papers before class or in the dining hall though, places that are print-friendly, not web-friendly." And, "Students aren't accustomed to reading the papers online. Admittedly, the papers could steer them to do so, but are not." To which Jay Rosentweets back, "Okay, I grok that. So there's good reasons why college papers are so conservative innovation-wise and we should expect little?" A new feature: The Dumb Twitter Of The Day. Today's winner here. Today's "Angry Journalist" rant of the day: "Why would a sub-editor change the gender of people I had written about in an opinion piece without checking with me first?" Check out today's White House Photo of the Day from Time.
A release announced, "CNN.com has hired Brian Ellis Martin as its new executive creative director. Martin comes to CNN.com as an experienced executive in interactive multimedia features, brand strategy and online marketing. He will provide strategic visual, technical and conceptual guidance to CNN's digital properties as he leads the design and user-experience team. Based in Atlanta, Martin will oversee the site's design and functionality and will bring his skills and expertise in programming, technology, sales and marketing to help enhance the site's look and feel."
Townhall reports, "There's a curious story about John McCain in the Washington Post today I haven't been able to verify though normal FEC databases. ... Here's the rub. I can't find three out of these four donors on opensecrets.com, the online clearinghouse for donor information."
Portfolio's Market Movers looks at, "The WSJ's Broken Subscriptions System"
TNR's special correspondent Gabriel Sherman "goes inside the New York Times newsroom to decode the bizarre poll they ran last week asking readers how they felt about the paper's most crippling controversies."
His Extreme-ness brings you "Sex Like You've Never Experienced" via The Washington Post.
The New York Observer reports, "The Beijing Olympics May Be News, But to NBC, They’re $900 Million—What Will the New York Media Do If Tiananmen Trumps the Triathlon? Sudden New Rules: Application by Fax for Permission to Interview"
The AP reports, "Nine months after shareholders rejected the Dolan family's latest bid to take Cablevision Systems Corp. private, the cable operator said Tuesday it is considering several options to boost its stock price including spinning off some of its diverse holdings."
OJB reports, "How successful bloggers become bureaucratized too"
Poynter Online reports, "As we've mentioned in previous Poynterevolution posts, we're getting ready to enhance Poynter Online with a new way for you to connect with Poynter and one another using Poynter Online Groups -- our new online network."
Slate's Jody Rosentells the story of "How I investigated a suspicious alt weekly."
Poynter reports, "Gawker Media reports record traffic"
From HumanEvents.com: "The Evans-Novak Political Report, the popular political newsletter Evans and Novak started in 1967, continues to be published by Eagle Publishing, Inc. The newsletter's senior reporter and de-facto co-editor, Timothy P. Carney, is a long-time Novak protégé."
Register now for "a webinar hosted by Qorvis Communications featuring a discussion on The Washington Post's new iPhone application led by a Post executive, and a chat on trends in New Media led by a media expert with the nonprofit advocacy group, Free Press." The event is on August 19, 2008.
A release announced, "ABCNEWS.com continued to garner double digit traffic growth in July 2008 in unique visitors, page views and video views versus the same time the previous year. ABCNEWS.com reached 20.4 million uniques for the month, an increase of 60% compared with the same time last year, according to ABC's measurements. The site had 202.2 million page views, up 58% from the previous year and video views increased by 139% compared to the same time last year. ABC News' mobile site, m.abcnews.com, increased page views 77% versus the same time last year, according to ABC’s measurements."
Check out washingtonpost.com's Olympics package, complete with "reporters live blogging the events and talking with people outside the Games about China's role as host--media censorship, pollution, anticipated dissent, security and more. We'll have video and lots of other multimedia elements."
The New York Post reports, "The magazine industry is bracing for one of its worst beatings in years on the newsstand front as the Audit Bureau of Circulations prepares to release on Monday its full report on the first half of 2008."
A release announced, "Air America Media is traveling to both the Democratic National Convention in Denver, and, yes, the Republican National Convention in Minneapolis. Air America hosts Rachel Maddow, Thom Hartmann, David Bender and Sam Seder will be reporting live from both venues, featuring interviews and analysis with top newsmakers, opinion makers and bloggers. Chuck D., Richard Greene, and Jon Elliott will also be reporting from Denver, and the irreverent Lionel from Minneapolis."
The Pew News Interest Index shows, "Nearly half (48%) of the public says they have been hearing 'too much' about Obama lately. And by a slight, but statistically significant margin -- 22% to 16% -- people say that recently they have a less rather than more favorable view of the putative Democratic nominee."
Jay Rosentweets, "'What did you start this year?' should be just as important a question on annual evaluations as the journalism produced."
A release announced, "The Society of Professional Journalists is pleased to name Albert P. Smith, Jr., Charlayne Hunter-Gault and Tim Russert as Fellows of the Society. Being named a Fellow of the Society is the highest honor SPJ bestows upon a journalist for extraordinary contributions to the profession."
