Media News
Morning Media Newsfeed 07.09.12
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Pioneering Executive Estelle Ellis Rubinstein, Who Launched Seventeen Magazine, Dies At 92 (HuffPost / AP)
A pioneering marketing executive who helped start Seventeen magazine in 1944 has died at age 92. Estelle Ellis Rubinstein died July 1 at her home in Manhattan after battling lung cancer. Her son, Ellis Rubinstein, has confirmed her death. WWD / Memo Pad After working for Popular Science, Design for Living and Click magazines, Rubinstein helped Seventeen's founding editor in chief, Helen Valentine, to publish Seventeen. The Epoch Times With Valentine and Seventeen's art director Cipe Pineles, Rubinstein then launched Charm magazine in 1950. Charm was the first magazine to target women as a separate market.
Amazon's Next Kindle Fire Will Ship In Third Quarter With Improved Display (AllThingsD)
Sources familiar with Amazon's plans tell AllThingsD that the company hopes to debut the next iteration of the Kindle Fire in the second half of this year; the current launch window is late in the third quarter. VentureBeat Amazon is working on a next-generation Kindle Fire tablet that will have a 1,280-by-800 pixel screen.
Times-Picayune Reporter: 'I Can't Keep My Mouth Shut And Pretend Everything Is OK' (JimRomenesko.com)
New Orleans Times-Picayune weekend reporter Kari Dequine Harden has had it.
Hulu's Kilar 'Graciously' Bows Out Of Yahoo! CEO Stakes -- Will Yahoo! Finally De-Interim Levinsohn? (AllThingsD)
Hulu CEO Jason Kilar is bowing out of the Yahoo! CEO sweepstakes. He has been the main competition to interim Yahoo! CEO Ross Levinsohn, who now appears to be the last man standing to take on the tough job. LA Times / Company Town "As has been reported, Jason Kilar has been a focus of the Yahoo! CEO search committee," a Hulu spokeswoman said. "He has graciously declined to be considered." Fortune What does "graciously declined" really mean? Forbes / Mixed Media Did Levinsohn just sew up a job as Yahoo!'s next CEO?
'We're Getting Wildly Differing Assessments' (SCOTUSblog)
The announcement of the Supreme Court's decision largely upholding the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act on June 28 precipitated a genuine media drama. Millions tuned in to get the result in real time, and were rewarded with the spectacle of two major news networks reporting the story incorrectly. Indeed, the president himself was in limbo while his staff raced to find out whether the Court had struck down his signature policy initiative. I have taken a deep dive into those events; my first effort at real journalism.
Baseball's Long, Hot Summer (Adweek)
Negotiations for Major League Baseball's national TV rights deals are likely to be the knottiest in sports media history, as fundamental pricing agreements will be complicated by a host of thorny issues. Renewed interest from a former network partner and a bifurcated linear/digital rights structure could keep baseball at the table throughout the summer. The only certainty is that the cost of doing business with America's pastime almost certainly will soar.
New York Magazine To Expand The Cut Blog (NYT / Media Decoder)
It used to be that New York magazine's cheeky blog items expounding on fashion and politicians were accessories to the main attraction -- the articles in the flagship magazine. But next month, New York is shifting more attention online.
GMA, Today Tie In Ann Curry's Final Week (TheWrap)
Good Morning America continued to even the field with Today by tying the NBC broadcast in total viewers in Ann Curry's last week as Today co-host, according to preliminary numbers. TVNewser The neck-and-neck race between GMA and the Today show was as close as it gets, with both programs drawing 4.604 million total viewers during a week that saw Curry say goodbye and CBS This Morning put up the most growth of all programs. THR / The Live Feed ABC's Friday broadcast of GMA, which went up against Savannah Guthrie's Today debut as co-anchor, ranked as the most-watched morning newscast last week and topped NBC in total viewers (4.85 million over 4.19 million) and the coveted adults 25-54 statistic (1.86 million over 1.75 million). B&C It was the first time GMA could claim (or rather share) the No. 1 spot since the week of May 21, after Today won the last four consecutive weeks outright.
Badoo, The Wildly Popular Social Network Where Random Strangers Accost You For No Reason (Slate)
Since the dawn of the online era, we have found ways to socialize in virtual space. BBS. IRC. The briefly ascendant Chatroulette. Message boards devoted to chatter about Boston sports franchises and/or the music of Stephen Malkmus (I'm just generalizing here). The latest buzz phrase in the world of online kibbitzing is "social discovery." Badoo is perhaps the most successful social discovery site on Earth.
As E! Channel Rebrands Itself, It Introduces A More Ad-Friendly Website (NYT / Media Decoder)
The E! Entertainment channel, which is introducing an extensive rebranding on Monday, will use the occasion to overhaul its website, presenting both content and display advertising in new ways that are meant to re-engage readers.
Old Media: On Aaron Sorkin (Los Angeles Review Of Books / Phillip Maciak)
Aaron Sorkin is one of the only commercially bankable and socially conscious screenwriters now working; his writing style is fast, fluid, and instantly recognizable, and, since leaving television for feature films after his exodus from The West Wing, he has become possibly the most sought-after screenwriter in Hollywood. So while David Milch and Matthew Weiner might be likelier candidates for the screenwriting Shakespeare of the quality TV generation, if there is a contemporary canon, Sorkin is in it.
Document Magazine Debuts In September (WWD / Memo Pad)
Artist Francesco Vezzoli and photographer Collier Schorr have created separate covers for the debut issue of Document, a new semi-annual fashion, art and culture magazine that launches in September.
News Corp. After The Split: Bright Outlook For WSJ; The NY Post, Not So Much (Forbes / Mixed Media)
Employees of The Wall Street Journal, the New York Post and other News Corp.-owned newspapers are feeling nervous over the prospect of being severed from the parts of the media conglomerate responsible for the vast majority of its profits. Until now, the cash thrown off by Avatar, American Idol and Fox News Channel has largely spared News Corp. from the need for aggressive cost-cutting measures like the ones taken at Gannett, McClatchy, Tribune Co., The New York Times and other pure-play (or at least purer-play) news publishers.
Gawker's New Comment System: Will It Help Or Hurt The Site's Young Writers? (CJR / Behind The News)
Gawker Media publisher Nick Denton recently introduced a new commenting system, called Kinja, on his network of websites. Rather than showing all comments on a given article, Kinja shows only the most interesting thread of comments and replies. Denton hopes this will finally make reporters and sources pay attention to the comments instead of dismissing them; to help ensure that, he's ordered his staff writers to reply to interesting comments on their articles.
Why Links Matter: Linking Is The Lifeblood Of The Web (GigaOM)
Every so often, a controversy erupts over something that seems relatively simple: namely, the concept of linking to (and thereby giving credit to) the source of a news report.






