No, News Corp. hasn’t snapped up Digg, but the social networking site has a new alliance with the (for now) pay-to-read WSJ.com. From Digg the Blog:
The Wall Street Journal Online is adding Digg buttons across the entire site, and you’ll now have full (free) access to the articles submitted to Digg. The Digg buttons have started appearing on WSJ.com articles tonight.
A Digg PR rep. added this note at News.com: “You’ll notice that it is the only button on their site.”
The writing team behind CBS’ Late Show with David Letterman have started an “interwebblognetwebblog.” It features video, strike observations - even what food the writers would like to see from celebs (Meat Loaf from Meat Loaf, of course). And this:
The NBC owned-and-operated stations (also known as TVSD) now have a new name to reflect the changing times: NBC Local Media Division. With the renaming comes two new digital appointments: Brian Buchwald has been named SVP, Local Digital Media and Multiplatform, and Mark French has been named SVP and GM of NBC Everywhere, a new unit focusing on the company’s growing digital place-based network. (Thanks, Ian for the tip!) Press release below…
Soon to be TruTV, the cable network Court TV is moving its trial coverage to CNN.com/crime (which was previously CNN.com/law). In the process, it’s letting go 16 of the 31 people working online. CNN.com has no plans to staff up to handle the change, which takes place on January 1st. Meanwhile, the plan is to build TruTV.com with “an abundance of video content and materials exclusive to the web.”
Yahoo has been having a little PR meltdown on Capitol Hill after lawmakers accused the company of collaborating with an oppressive regime for illegally helping the Chinese government jail and torture two journalists. Yahoo settled the lawsuit agreeing to pay the attorneys fees of Shi Tao and Wang Xiaoning and the family member who sued on their behalf. Yahoo also said it would “provide financial, humanitarian and legal support to these families.”
Not surprised, are you? Rupert Murdoch says plans are underway to make WSJ.com a free site. “We are studying it and we expect to make that free, and instead of having one million (subscribers), having at least 10 million-15 million in every corner of the earth,” Murdoch said. The idea is that the increased traffic will yield more incremental ad dollars than the $50 million the site is taking in now in user fees. As far as a timeline, Murdoch’s News Corp. is holding a special shareholders meeting on Dec. 13th.
Alright Lost Remote readers, where do you come down on this?
Whoa, in the recent excitement, this one slipped by me.
The [FCC] is preparing to impose significant new regulations to open the cable television market to independent programmers and rival video services after determining that cable companies have become too dominant in the industry, senior commission officials said.
Also expected is yet another plan to relax ownership requirements of newspapers and television stations in the same markets. All of this and more may happen before the month is out.
Update: Chairman Kevin Martin just held a conference call to propose a “modest” reform of the media cross-ownership rule. “The rule changes would go some way to removing the regulatory obstacles to the completion of the sale of the Tribune Co. to real estate magnate Sam Zell,” explains Dow Jones.
As we previewed earlier, CNN’s I-Report hub in Second Life is up and running, and they also started a blog about it. Here’s their own coverage of it. The first in-world training session is today at 5 p.m. ET.
Update:Crowd forms at CNN’s new virtual hangout (Thanks, Rob!)
The toolkit is out, now “the Google” is offering big bucks to crafty coders who get creative with it. As part of the Android Developer Challenge, a panel of judges will pick 50 winners from people who submit original software to enhance the company’s upcoming cell phone operating system. Those winners will each get $25,000 and be eligible for ten awards of $100,000 and another ten $275,000 awards.
Last Friday, Cory Bergman announced that Steve Safran is stepping down from Lost Remote. The following are excerpts from Mr. Safran’s three-hour farewell speech to the employees at One Lost Remote Plaza, delivered on Monday. Because he insisted on holding the address outdoors in the Boston-Seattle cold, several staffers came down with pneumonia and had to be hospitalized. Others quit and went to work for PaidContent. The full speech included histrionics which cannot properly be captured in text, nor can his 37 minutes of whining. We have also left out the names of the people he slandered, insulted or just plain called “dorks.” Here, instead, are some of the printable, intelligible passages. The editors apologize for this as they do for most of his career.
Sleepless nights and sweat-equity are the hallmarks of the new breed of online startups, according to this article that profiles a young entrepreneur working day and night out of her small studio apartment to launch a mobile coupon service. Even though they keep costs low and try to be realistic about projections, venture funding still seems necessary to break out to the next level.
Called a “tentative move onto the Internet” and also “perhaps the comics industry’s most aggressive Web push yet” in the same article, Marvel comics is posting online versions of the original runs of franchises like, Spider-Man, X-Men and Fantastic Four online to reach younger audiences who have only encountered the characters through recent movies. About 2,500 issues will be available at launch of the subscription-based Marvel Digital Comics, with 20 more being released each week, and newer issues will be posted at least six months after they first appear in print. The move is hoped to stimulate sales of the ‘bread-and-butter’ books, which used to be available freely at dime stores and other kid haunts, but now are increasingly only available in limited distribution via specialty shops.
No, News Corp. hasn’t snapped up Digg, but the social networking site has a new alliance with the (for now) pay-to-read WSJ.com. From Digg the Blog: 
Not surprised, are you? Rupert Murdoch says 
Last Friday, Cory Bergman announced that Steve Safran is 
