4 Minute Roundup: Murdoch's Pay Gambit; WaPo/Gawker Tussle

Here's the latest 4MR audio report from MediaShift. In this week's edition, I look at the recent comments by News Corp. mogul Rupert Murdoch, who says he wants to make people pay to see content on all his news sites. The comment split people into two camps: those who think news sites will have to charge something; and those who think it's a bad strategy. Also, the Washington Post's Ian Shapira wrote about how upset he was that gossip blog Gawker had rerun the best quotes from his story without giving him enough credit. Plus, Amy Gahran leaves Poynter's E-Media Tidbits and apologizes for a lack of compassion.\n\nCheck it out:\n\n\n\n

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\n\nBackground music is \"What the World Needs\" by the \"The Ukelele Hipster Kings\":http://www.mevio.com/music/?artist_id=1930 via PodSafe Music Network. \n\nHere are some links to related sites and stories mentioned in the podcast:\n\n\"Murdoch signals end of free news\":http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/8186701.stm at the BBC\n\n\"Why Murdoch, the old media reactionary, is wrong to charge for content\":http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/greenslade/2009/aug/07/charging-for-content-rupert-murdoch at the Guardian\n\n\"Expert views on Rupert Murdoch's online pay-to-view strategy\":http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/charging-content-sunday-times-website at the Guardian\n\n\"Rupert Murdoch's move to charge for content opens doors for competitors\":http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/aug/06/rupert-murdoch-charging-for-content at the Guardian\n\n\"Boston Globe ponders charges for online content\":http://www.ajc.com/business/boston-globe-ponders-charges-110624.html from the AP\n\n\"The Death of Journalism (Gawker Edition)\":http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/31/AR2009073102476.html at the Washington Post\n\n\"Generational Consultant Holds America's Fakest Job\":http://gawker.com/5310986/generational-consultant-holds-americas-fakest-job at Gawker\n\n\"Did Gawker Rip Off The Washington Post? Yep.\":http://www.mediaite.com/online/did-gawker-rip-off-the-washington-post-yep/ at Mediaite\n\n\"Amy Gahran Leaves Tidbits, with Gratitude and an Apology\":http://www.poynter.org/column.asp?id=31&aid=168101 at E-Media Tidbits\n\nHere's a graphical view of last week's MediaShift survey results. The question was \"What do you think about Microsoft's revamped search engine, Bing?\"\n\n

\n\nAlso, be sure to vote in our poll about how you think newspapers should make money online.\n\nCORRECTION: I mistakenly identified the Washington Post reporter as \"Ira Shapira\" in the 4MR report, and in this blog post, instead of the correct spelling Ian Shapira. I have corrected that mistake on the blog and am sorry about the audio mishap.\n\nUPDATE: Amy Gahran, who I quoted in this episode, said in the comments below that she was not apologizing for being too critical, but for not promoting enough of the good work being done by journalists. I apologize for that misreading in the podcast.\n\nMark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and \"Idea Lab\":http://www.pbs.org/idealab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the \"Online Publishers Association\":http://www.online-publishers.org. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter \"@mediatwit\":http://www.twitter.com/mediatwit.