Morning Reading List, 12.13.07

Patrick — Thu, 13 Dec 2007 10:05:40 +0000

Good morning Washington.

Quickly navigate Morning Reading List:

Your coworkers shouldn’t expect any gifts from you this year.

Regarding this, a reader writes in, “Other young reporters at the Post, just fyi: Philip Rucker, who just covered the Maryland General Assembly special session, 23. Megan Greenwell, who just returned from Baghdad, 23. Metro reporter Jenna Johnson, 22″

The Huffington Post takes on Politico: “Obama Questionaire Exposes Publication’s Bias”

The New York Times reports, “In the last few months, Rupert Murdoch has moved into an office at Dow Jones & Company, publisher of The Wall Street Journal. He has pushed the paper’s editors for shorter articles and more hard news. He has personally wooed reporters he wants to keep out of his competitors’ hands. And last week, he oversaw the replacement of top executives, including The Journalâ€™s publisher, with his own lieutenants. And he hasn’t even bought the company yet. That will change on Thursday, when in all likelihood shareholders will vote to approve the sale of Dow Jones to Mr. Murdoch’s company, the News Corporation. But Mr. Murdoch has already seized the reins of Dow Jones and The Journal, setting in motion what amounts to an overhaul of the look, content and staff of one of the world’s most prized newspapers.”

Bloomberg reports, “The U.S. Federal Communications Commission plans to vote next week on rules that would let companies own a newspaper and television station in the same market, defying members of Congress who wanted a delay.”

The New York Post reports, “A budding feud is developing between Vanity Fair columnist Michael Wolff and Wall Street Journal reporter Sarah Ellison, both of whom now have book deals to write about Rupert Murdoch and News Corp.’s takeover of Dow Jones.”

The Hollywood Reporter reports, “Wall Street continues to turn sour on media and entertainment stocks heading into 2008, even though several sector biggies already are seeing their stocks near their 52-week lows.”

MarketWatch’s Jon Friedman writes, “I’m naming David Halberstam and Norman Mailer, who died in 2007, as my Journalists of the Year.”

Regret The Error brings us, “The Year in Media Errors and Corrections”

Crains New York reports, “The advertising marketplace really is as gloomy as it looks. Total measured advertising expenditures grew just 0.2% to $108.2 billion in the first nine months of the year, according to TNS Media Intelligence.”

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MSNBC will present live coverage of the Des Moines Register Democratic presidential debates tomorrow, as will C-SPAN.

TVNewser reports, “CNBC and Yahoo! are getting into the content sharing business. CNBC announced an agreement to distribute video and text stories from CNBC, CNBC Europe, CNBC Asia, and CNBC.com to Yahoo! Finance users in the United States and worldwide.”

TV Board writes, “It’s been a while since I’ve contributed a post to this board, and much of that time has been spent thinking about some recent developments taking place at Google, and how they may ultimately reshape the way we plan, buy, watch and think about television. The development that’s had me thinking the most was Google’s deal to license demographic ratings data from Nielsen. This surprised me for several reasons. First and foremost was that I thought the industry was heading in the opposite direction, that demos were doomed, and that it would be Nielsen that would ultimately need to license data from Google — not the other way around.”

Check out WETA’s Bethanne Patrick’s recommendations for top titles for the holidaysâ€“books to put under the tree, around the menorah, or near the Festivus pole.

PRWeek reports, “Talking head Chris Matthews is a former political operative acting as a consultant to news mediaThe day may come when the ‘news’ is an all-out battle of competing political factions, each trying to insinuate its position into the mind of the populace by using the media as a giant host, just as viruses use the human body. Who are we kidding? That day came long ago. But the media does not seem to be in a hurry to discourage the transition.”

“FOX News Channel’s E.D. Hill started ‘Operation Holiday Thanks’ this season to deliver holiday greetings to wounded soldiers at various military hospitals around the world. In just a few weeks, Hill has already received 30,000 cards from viewers wanting to send holiday wishes to the soldiers.”

A Comcast release announced, “plans to build out a 92,000-square-foot, 500-seat regional call center in Largo, Md. at 1301 McCormick Drive. The new call center will primarily house customer service agents who will provide technical support for Comcast High-Speed Internet (CHSI), Comcast Digital Voice (CDV) and various advanced video products. Comcast currently employs more than 4,000 local employees throughout the Region, supporting the company’s 1.1 million Potomac Region customers.”

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ONLINE MEDIA

Wonkette wants to know what you think about the site’s redesign.

Reuters reports, “‘w00t,’ an expression of joy coined by online gamers, was crowned word of the year on Tuesday by the publisher of a leading U.S. dictionary. Massachusetts-based Merriam-Webster Inc. said “w00t” — typically spelled with two zeros — reflects a new direction in the American language led by a generation raised on video games and cell phone text-messaging.”

Regret The Error brings us, “The Year in Media Errors and Corrections”

Romenesko has a lot to offer on the Bacon-Daly situation.

Seth Mnookin writes, “Can you hear me now? The Daly fiasco echo chamber, day two.”

Information Week reports, “Google accounted for more than six of 10 online searches in the United States in November, more than triple the amount of its closest rival Yahoo, a Web metrics firm said Tuesday.”

“The Obama story, Perry Bacon and the ‘thin blue line’ of American journalism.”

“Dotards and Maybe Fools: Bacon Gate Turns Into a Brawl”

The Los Angeles Times reports, “The Writers Guild of America is under new and mounting pressure from its ranks to get back to the bargaining table. A number of union members are unhappy that the negotiations with the major Hollywood studios that broke off Friday night were sidetracked by issues secondary to the one the writers see as central: how they will be paid when their work shows up on the Internet.”

Check out The Rags Show, a blog written by “a written word activist who comes from that not-so-fictional community called Homelesstown USA.”

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RADIO

Did you miss US News and World Report’s Ken Walsh on NPR’s On the Media program this weekend? Listen to it here.

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REVOLVING DOOR

TVNewser reports, “David Pogue, personal technology columnist for The New York Times, is joining CNBC as a contributor.”

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JOBS

LegiStorm is looking for a Project Manager for the LegiStorm Web Site.

National Press Foundation is seeking a Program Assistant.

Congressional Quarterly is looking for a Researcher and a Schedules Researcher.

The Atlantic Media Company is looking for a Staff Correspondent to cover the White House for National Journal.

The American Prospect is looking for a Staff Writer.

Carnegie Endowment is looking for a Web Director.

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Hat Tips: DCRTV, TVNewser, IWantMedia, Romenesko, MediaBistro, JournalismJobs, JournalismNext

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Morning Reading List, 12.13.07