Anderson vs. Gladwell: The Battle Over Free

Co-founder is one of 4 staffers let go

(NEWSER) - Slate co-founder Jack Shafer, who has been with the online magazine since before its official launch in 1996, is being laid off, it was announced yesterday. The media critic is one of four staff members being let go; Timothy Noah , June Thomas , and Juliet Lapidos are the others, reports the Washington Post . (The Washington Post Co. bought Slate in 2004 from Microsoft.) Some reactions:

• "If you weren't reading [Jack, Tim, June, and Juliet's] stuff, you're in luck—it'll be online 'til the Internet dies," writes Slate colleague David Weigel. "If you write, you should study it, because these people think and write circles around most everyone in the job-formerly-known-as-the-Life-of-Kings."

(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»

(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»

Microsoft boss says papers, TV won't bounce back

(NEWSER) - The ad revenue media companies lost in the downturn won't be coming back when things turn around, Steve Ballmer told an advertising conference yesterday. The Microsoft boss said the industry has been "reset" at a lower level, and media companies are going to have to learn to survive on less revenue as content continues to move online and traditional media fade, the Guardian reports. More»