New Media Thwart Edwards, Olympics

Speed skating, hockey and Tanith Belbin makes Esquire list

(NEWSER) - If, like many, your interest in the Vancouver Games is lukewarm (kinda like the weather keeping the ski slopes snow-free), Esquire provides a list of the don’t-miss Olympic moments. Some highlights:

• Friday: Opening ceremonies. Vancouver’s spending less than half the $100 million Beijing did in 2008. Or you can rent Strange Brew.
• Saturday: See Apolo Anton Ohno go for a US-record sixth winter medal—as he and his fellow speed skaters sport the Stephen Colbert logo.

(NEWSER) - From Rupert Murdoch to Twitter founder Evan Williams, moguls old and young descend on Sun Valley, Idaho, this week for an annual summit on media and technology. This year, reports the Financial Times, the dominant question concerns paid content—a debate that has spread from the troubled newspaper industry to all sectors of media. With advertising dropping by a worse-than-expected 8.5% this year, the power brokers have little choice but to find new models. More»

Mainstream media overwhelmed by stories from the blogosphere

(NEWSER) - The onslaught of rumors, reports, and sometimes-true-sometimes-not stories about Michael Jackson has given a boost to new media sites like TMZ—which ran more than 150 Jackson stories in the week after his death—while mainstream press finds itself painstakingly sifting through stories to find the truth. “This is random people throwing things up against the wall to see what sticks,” Campbell Brown tells Broadcasting & Cable. “There’s all kinds of misinformation out there." More»

Anderson's new book sets off old-school journalists' feud

(NEWSER) - Chris Anderson's new book, Free, examining the repercussions the Internet trend of bringing costs to zero, triggered a mini-war with Malcolm Gladwell, who lambasted him for arguing that "the New York Times should be staffed by volunteers, like Meals on Wheels." In the London Times, Antonia Senior does play-by-play commentary, accusing Gladwell of ignoring Anderson's main argument—that consumers, particularly those under 30, "now fully expect to pay nothing." More»

(NEWSER) - TMZ left its more savory rivals in the dust yesterday, reporting Michael Jackson’s cardiac arrest and death before any other media outlet, the Chicago Tribune reports. The AOL gossip website reported Jackson’s death at 2:44 local time, less than 20 minutes after the singer expired. But many outlets were so leery of citing the paparazzi-fueled site that they instead credited the Los Angeles Times, which reported the story online at 2:51. More»