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Is Flavorpill Practicing Age Discrimination?

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This showed up in our inbox today, oddly enough labeled "contest," although if you're honest with yourself, isn't every job a contest between you and the thousands of other applicants?

Either way: Flavorpill, the daily newsletter of fun things to do in your hometown, is opening up a branch in Melbourne, Australia and looking for a managing editor to oversee their content. Unfortunately, you don't just have to be hip and cool to apply for this job, you also have to fit into a predetermined age range of 18-30, which would seem to go against the Age Discrimination in Employment act of 1967, but Australia's passing of a similar bill only happened 5 years ago, and is a little more lax about pigeonholing their employees. Unfortunately, Flavorpill's HQ is based in New York, meaning if someone wanted to take the the company to court over not getting the Melbourne position, they might have a fair shot at the case.

Unless by calling it a contest, instead of a job opening, the daily listings guide has found a way to bypass that tiny little hiccup.

Any HR gurus or employment attorneys out there want to weigh in?

GawkerTV Launches With Intern Workforce, Optimistic About Ad Sales

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Today's launch of Gawker.TV is the product of Richard Blakeley's three years as Nick Denton's video editor. Now the This Is Why You're Fat co-author is manning his own satellite site, which will be posting videos throughout the day, with the help of the 16 or so interns currently working under Blakeley.

The fact that so much (unpaid) manpower is going into this spin-off site isn't exactly a surprise. Gawker's largest-generating posts have almost always been candid videos: Tom Cruise ranting about Scientology, the Eric Dane/Rebecca Gayheart/Kari Ann Peniche sex tape, and the video shot by Blakeley of Heath Ledger's body being wheeled out of the apartment he was staying in Soho when he died in 2008.

Denton has also admitted that it will be easier to sell ads on a site that is not as specifically themed as some of his other off-shoots like Jezebel (for women) or Fleshbot (Gawker's sex Web site). Sales of Gawker's other sites -- Wonkette, Idolator, and Gridskipper -- were similarly explained to be the result of poor ad revenue.

Gawker.TV currently has a tip box at the top of the site for users to submit videos. We have yet to hear back from Gawker Media if the tip box will automatically filter into the new open forums, as they do on Gawker's main site.

See More: Gawker.TV

WSJ's Hook'em and Sink'em Mobile Plan

marketwatch-logo.jpgNews Corp.-owned Wall Street Journal is pretty confident about the choices its made in regards to selling content on the Web. It was one of the first pubs to put its articles behind a pay wall, a system that's now being seen as the only option by papers such as Newsday.

But when it comes to iPhone applications, The Wall Street Journal seemed surprisingly lackadaisical about making their users pay to read the news on their phones, by first launching a free version of its site as an app back in April.

Of course, all good things must end, and that includes Wall Street Journal's "free" iPhone content. In September, WSJ.com announced that it would be charging users either $2 or $1 a week (depending on whether readers were actually subscribed to the print version of The Wall Street Journal) for a subscription on their mobile device. Still though, the application would be "free" to download...you'd just have to pay to get any service on it.

This "offering you a free lunch and then taking it away" is not a new business plan, even for the Web. And today's announcement of a free Wall Street Journal "MarketWatch.com" application, which lets you check your stocks, get real-time updates on the ticker index and has a customized feature for companies seems like just another gimmick to get smartphone users dependent on WSJ's online services before making them pay. On the other hand, several publications offer certain columns or content for free in the form of applications, without giving away the entire publication to download. Sort of a tiny taste to get your mouth wet, so you'll buy the subscription cost at a monthly charge.

Either way, we wouldn't get too comfortable with MarketWatch's new free app. You might just end up paying more than you bargained for.

4 Questions For Texas Tribune's Evan Smith

The Texas Tribune, a new Texas-based non-profit journalism Web site, will launch tomorrow -- one year before the state's 2010 general election, which includes the gubernatorial race, among others. There has been a lot of talk about the project since longtime Texas Monthly editor Evan Smith left his day job to launch the Tribune, and even though it will cover only Texas political and policy news, we here at FishbowlNY are fascinated by the prospect of non-profit journalism no matter where its based.

The project is was founded by Texas-based venture capitalist John Thornton. Smith, who believed in Thornton's vision from the beginning, was helping to look for a suitable editor-in-chief for the site before realizing that he would make the perfect leader. "It was sort of like Dick Cheney helping George Bush find a vice president," Smith said. The team went on to hire a staff of eleven reporters, plucked from the top echelons of Texas' political journalism world.

"We hired the best reporters away from for-profit journalism in Texas," Smith said. "We put together our fantasy football list, and we got everybody we wanted."

The Texas Tribune (www.texastribune.org) will be unlike any other non-profit journalism organization. In addition to traditional news reporting, there will be columns, blogs aggregating content from other news sources, original audio and original video content, all available for free for newspapers, radio and television stations to use. There will also be 80 gigabytes of public information, like data about Texas' elected officials, that the Tribune assembled into databases for the public to access. "I'm kind of amazed that in just a couple of months we've been able to build this with a relatively small staff," Smith said.

As he prepared to reveal The Texas Tribune to the world, Smith took a minute to talk to FBNY about his reason for leaving Texas Monthly to start the new project, how he's worked to fund it and what the reaction from the Texas journalism community has been so far.

continued...

FCC Appoints WSJ Contributor Waldman New Media Advisor

153346689_3823fcad42.jpg The FCC has named Steven Waldman as an adviser to the chairman in its office of strategic planning. According to MediaWeek, Waldman will "lead an open, fact-finding process to study the impact of technology and a weakened economy on the future of media, and make policy recommendations."

If these policy recommendations have anything to do with the FCC's recent proposed Net Neutrality Principles outlined by FCC chairman Julius Genachowski last month, Waldman's past job experience puts him in a good position to weigh both sides of the argument for new Internet regulations.

continued...

Money Starts To (Hopefully) Flow Towards Online Magazines

logo2007.gifWell here is finally some good news for print journalism: Godengo, a magazine-to-website service platform has raised $2.16 million in funding for continuing project development.

The Silicon Valley company uses a publishing system that is completely browser-based, meaning that you're not just uploading your magazines' text onto a Web site and letting readers engage the same way they would a print version. Instead, Gondengo also brings applications to the table, allowing publishers to interact with their readership in an entirely new way: whether it's polls, message boards, calendars, or comments.

But let's not get ahead of ourselves. Any great blog with an active readership has implemented many of those features two years ago, with the whole Web 2.0 boom. But it's encouraging to see print publications being offered a system that could let them compete with their Web-based competitors without having to sacrifice their original content. Let's just see if Gondengo can make good on the advertising revenue side of its program, where inevitably all publications, print and Web, are groping around blindly, waiting to strike gold.

For a countering viewpoint, Alarm Clock has a more skeptical reaction: Magazine Site Publisher Godengo Raises $2.1M

A Thin Line Between Marketing And Journalism

innovate.jpgThe Innovation International Media Consulting group, like other media consultancies, used to have a place in the media field. It was not unusual for papers or magazines to bring in outside agents to help identify issues and drive content, with an emphasis on marketing strategies and advertising. And it's also not unheard of in publishing to have consultants push editorial in a certain direction to maximize readership. None of this is new business.

What is new, however, is when consulting companies like Innovation decide to rebrand themselves as a news org, without creating a clear distinction between their marketing services (and the clients who may have this company on their payroll), and objective journalism. Then things start to get a little bit complicated.

continued...

Daily Beast Launches Socially Conscious Site Giving Beast

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Last week, The Huffington Post launched a new philanthropically focused vertical, HuffPost Impact, and this week Tina Brown's online publication The Daily Beast unveiled a socially conscious page of its own: Giving Beast.

Just as HuffPost paired with Causecast.org, Daily Beast has launched Giving Beast in partnership with Global Philanthropy Group. The site currently features stories about important social issues like Nicole Kidman's support for the International Violence Against Women Act and the experiences of Afghan businesswomen. The articles include links to non-profit organizations supporting the causes described, like the United Nation's Development Fund for Women.

Earlier this week, Arianna Huffington told FishbowlNY that it was more important than ever for Americans to work together, support each other and build communities. From the looks of Giving Beast, it seems like Brown would agree.

What do you think? Do you want to read about causes and philanthropy?

Related: Huffington On HuffPost's Impact Vertical

Gawker, The Business Insider Join Forces

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This morning we noticed something strange: a Gawker post written by someone named The Business Insider. Some digging revealed the exact same post written by Nicholas Carlson, a former Gawker employee, on Business Insider's Silicon Alley Insider.

Carlson confirmed to FishbowlNY that this article -- which cites an anonymous source claiming AOL CEO Tim Armstrong and Time Inc. CEO Ann Moore met recently to discuss a join spin-off of Time Warner -- was part of a new partnership between the two Web companies. The article's subject matter and tone make it a perfect pick up for Gawker, and we're told this is the first time the site has republished a Business Insider story, although TBI has been picking up Gawker pieces since last month.

Now the question remains, beyond clicks, is there any other benefit to either side in sharing content?

Related: Gawker Launches Open Forums

Huffington On HuffPost's "Impact" Vertical: "This Has Been A Passion Of Mine For Many Years"

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Last week, The Huffington Post launched a new socially conscious vertical, HuffPost Impact. The new section of the online pub, launched in partnership with Causecast.org, features cause-related news and opinion, with many stories including a call to action that connects readers to ways to donate time or money.

For example, during its launch week, HuffPost featured a story on its homepage about Monique Zimmerman-Stein, "a mother who shares a rare genetic disorder with her children that causes blindness." Rising medical bills forced Monique to sacrifice her own sight to save her daughters'. Huffington Post readers responded to the call to donate to the family, and the site raised over $30,000 in a matter of days.

"This has been a passion of mine for many years," HuffPost editor-in-chief Arianna Huffington told FishbowlNY in an interview yesterday. "Back when I was living in Washington in the early '90s I pitched the idea of creating a CSPAN3 because I thought we needed to have a 24/7 outlet to cover what is happen in communities, that can cover nonprofits and people giving money. At the time it wasn't clear the that the Internet was going to be the place where people would get their news 24 hours a day."

Huffington has extended this idea of 24/7 cause-related news to HuffPost, where anyone looking to donate to a cause -- or simply learn more about it -- can search the site any time of day. AllforGood.org, which claims Huffington as a board member, is helping power cause searching on the section.

More of our interview with Huffington, after the jump

continued...

Previously

Gawker Launches Open Forums

NPR Launches Online Local Journalism Project With $3M In Grants

Food Blog Eater To Launch Redesign, Expansion

New Fashion Season Means Some Alterations For WWD.com

Opinion Aggregator Atlantic Wire Launches

HuffPo Launches Denver Local Site

Food52's Founders Reveal The Ingredients For A Crowd-sourced Cookbook

Daily Beast Launches Entertainment & Fashion Section Sexy Beast

Former Time Editor Jim Gaines: Did You Get the Memo?

NYMag.com Launches Sports, TV Blogs

Finke's New Site Awaits New York Writer

What's Next In Multimedia: 4 Questions For Chris Cramer, Reuters' Global Editor Of Multimedia

NYMag.com, "MediaBytes" Share Video Content With 1Cast

Google Reveals What Happened To Gmail

Hearst Capitalizes On Beauty Advertising Market With RealBeauty.com

What Do You Think Of Slatest?

Will You Use HuffPo's New Social News Service?

FLYP's James Gaines Offers Old Media A New Way Of Thinking About Online Content

Time's Luscombe Weighs In On Murdoch's Pay Wall Plans

Former Time Inc. Staffer To Launch "My Little O"

NYT's Carr Dissects Murdochs Pay Wall Plans

Twitter Outage: What Happened

What's Next On The Web: 4 Questions For Dwell.com Associate Publisher Nancy Alonzo

Attack On Former Gawker-Owned Site Crashes Server

At Gawker, Traffic Graphs Only Tell Part Of The Story

What's Next In Online Publications: 4 Questions For The Faster Times' Sam Apple

Blip.tv Announces New Partnerships With NBC, YouTube, Vimeo

Denton: Gawker Revenues Actually Up 45 Percent This Year

Flavorpill Relaunches With "The Flavorpill 50"

AP Creates Registry To Protect Content Online

Team Behind DealBreaker Takes On Accounting Industry

Forbes.com Loses Its CEO

AP Settles "Hot News" Lawsuit With AHN Media

With A 35 Percent Increase In Ad Revenues, Gawker Reinstates Pageview Bonuses

NYPost.com Editor Calls Shenanigans On Daily News' Timestamping

Fighting For Credit In The Outer Borough

Mediaite Launches To Server-Crashing Traffic

What's Next In Citizen Journalism: 4 Questions For ProPublica's Amanda Michel

Get Your Resumes Ready, Nikki Finke's Looking To Hire NY-Based Reporter

HuffPo Launches New York Page

Observer Picks Up Majority Stake In Webby Winner Very Short List

What's Next In Blogs: 4 Questions For "Bloggers On The Bus" Author Eric Boehlert

New NYMag.com Feature Product Of New Media Deals

Internet Advertising Numbers Not Promising

The Best Mags On Twitter

Webutante Ball Coming To Internet Week

New York Times Tops Technorati Attention Index

Huffington Post Puts Internship Up For Sale

Ask.com CEO Steps Down, Kiplinger.com Names Managing Editor

Twitter News Of The Day

The Stimulist Puts Another Nail In Snark's Coffin

Online Women's Mag Double X Launches

San Francisco, We've Got You Covered

Personal WiFi Comes to a Pocket Near You

DailyCandy's Levy: CEO's Exit Won't Stop Growth

The Daily Beast Scoops the New York Post

Curbed Publisher Crafton to Sports Enthusiast Media

Ex-Star-Ledger Employees Start Local News Site

Boston Police Search for 'Craigslist Killer' Online

Laid-Off Newspaper Reporters Flock to Online Startups, Profits Still Elusive

Maureen Dowd Meets Twitter

Choire Sicha Happily Unaware of TheAwl.com's Traffic

Talking Social Media, Non-Profits, and New York Internet Week!

Should The New York Times Go Online-Only?

The Future of Newspapers Arrives Online in Seattle

How Much Are Your Social Media Connections Worth?

Microsoft Finally Fixing Zune

Glam it Up

Remember That Time the Internet Broke?

Fashionista.com Editor Departs

Abrams: 'I Have Not Offered the Job to Anyone'

CBS MMOD a Hit

Which Digital CEO Was Worth His/Her Salary?

Twitter Smashes Fourth Wall... Again

Technorati Now Ordering MSM, Too

Traffic to Newspaper Web Sites Up 11 Percent

ProPublica Taps OffTheBus Vet

Movieline Taps Defamer Writers For Spring Relaunch

MPA Announces Digital Award Nominees

CJR Seeks to Solve Magazines' Online Problem

The Onion Launches Decider

Wall Street Journal Expands Web Site into Europe and Asia

The Onion Sports Network Now at Least as Pretty as ESPN

TheWeek.com Bolsters its Columnist Roster

Financial Times Comes to Your Mobile Phone

Barrons.com Shows Editors the Money

Yahoo Gets Its Gal as CEO

Google Search Not Killing the Environment

Google Separates Further From Search Competitors

Consumerist Sale: The Release

WSJ.com Gets Technological

Former ElleGirls Launch I Heart Daily for Teen Girls

Online Advertising Revenue Still Not the Answer

Today in Web Site Redesigns: GardenAndGun.com

Today in Web Site Redesigns: CJR.org

Consumerist for Sale, Valleywag Now Part of Gawker

Bell Tolls for CNet Music Site

Today in Web Site Redesigns: Financial Times

Huffington Post Just Keeps Growing

Gawker Biting the Hand That Feeds?

Read more on FishbowlNY >

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