WEDNESDAY'S LINKS: 'NYT' Joltin' Joe Lieberman, 'Observer' Owner on His Plans, Blogger Jailed for Contempt

By: E&P Staff in today's edition, new New York Observer owner Jared Kushner talks about his plans for the paper, an Observer writer wonders whether the New York Times ever supported Joe Lieberman, and a San Francisco blogger is jailed for refusing to reveal his sources.


***

Q&A With New 'Observer' Owner Jared Kushner
Metro NY: The New York Observer is the weekly newspaper of choice for those caught up in Manhattan media and real estate. Jared Kushner, an NYU law and business graduate student (and son of an incarcerated New Jersey developer) who just bought the paper for a reported $10 million, talks to Mike Ventura about his plans.


***

Blogger Jailed After Defying Court Orders
New York Times: The freelancer, Josh Wolf, 24, was taken into custody just before noon after a hearing in front of Judge William Alsup of Federal District Court. Found in contempt, Mr. Wolf was later moved to a federal prison in Dublin, Calif., and could be imprisoned until next summer, when the grand jury term expires, said his lawyer, Jose Luis Fuentes.


***

MSN Gets Strong Start In Race to Win Web Video Ads
Wall Street Journal: MSN's early success positions the portal to benefit from the explosion in online video advertising now under way. It also raises questions about Google Inc.'s ability to maintain its stranglehold on Internet advertising. Google, preferring to develop a search offering rather than license video from content owners, has even fallen behind Time Warner Inc.'s AOL and YouTube Inc., the amateur-video site.


***

Jotlin' Joe: Why Didn't 'NY Times' Back Lieberman?
New York Observer: Lieberman, accustomed to being praised for his centrist and conciliatory instincts, may have been shocked that The Times would turn on him for his lack of partisan vigor. But it was less a matter of someone moving the goalposts than of Lucy Van Pelt yanking the football away from Charlie Brown yet again. The question is less how Lieberman lost The Times than whether he ever had the paper at all. Throughout Lieberman?s Senate career, the establishment-minded Senator and the establishment newspaper have been in sync only intermittently, at best.


***

The Scoop on the Scoop
Baltimore Sun: Stars -- and the print publications that cover them - are going to have to get used to TMZ.com and its cousins, which are making over the realm of celebrity gossip. These online outlets, some of them with major corporate funding, maintain deep contacts in the entertainment industry, stake out nightclubs and post news at breakneck speed. The reaction in the gossip trades to the Gibson story recalls the disbelief of political reporters in the late 1990s when Matt Drudge's Web site broke ground on the Monica Lewinsky scandal. The online revolution is reconfiguring all brands of journalism.


***

Open Season on Journalists in the Middle East
CJR Daily: The pen may be "mightier than the sword," but in recent years, the sword has left a trail of spilled ink - and blood. It is time for an international law banning targeted attacks on the media. The targeting of "enemy" broadcasts is nothing new. It dates back at least to World War II. Nor are reporters around the world strangers to retribution. The history of journalism in Lebanon itself is littered with the bodies of reporters who angered the powers-that-be. Even foreign reporters sometimes fall victim.


***

More Companies Trying to Profit From Online Video
Marketwatch: "Now that people are starting to spend time watching videos online, media companies and marketers are grappling with how best to capture that audience," writes Bambi Francisco. "Until there is a better sense of what works, advertisements tied to video will remain a small portion of the total online ad pie."


***

Wilmington 'Star-News' to Place Ads on Section Fronts
Wilmington Star-News: In the last couple of weeks, some of the nation's largest newspapers, including The Wall Street Journal, The Boston Globe and The New York Times, announced plans to sell advertising spots on section fronts. USA Today, the country's largest daily newspaper, has had Page One ads for years. Many journalists aren't thrilled with the idea. The Star-News will soon offer ad spots on some section fronts, although Page One and the local news fronts are not under consideration.