Halloween on the web

Huffington Post launches paywall for New York Times employees

Writes Arianna Huffington: "Today marks a significant transition for The Huffington Post Media Group, as we introduce digital subscriptions for employees of The New York Times."

Did Melissa Leo change her story on the Oscar ads?

The Huffington Post is reporting in a story titled "Melissa Leo Changes Her Story On Oscar Ads" that the Stone Ridge actress and Academy-nominee "went along with Paramount's agenda."

This stems from the now controversial ads that she took and paid to have in the Hollywood trade press, promoting herself.

The Huffington Post bases its conclusion on a story reported by The Daily Beast, "Melissa Leo Breaks Oscar Silence," by Jacob Bernstein, in which Leo says:

“I’ve been busting my ass, trying to get the movie sold and seen, and now I show up where they ask, get put into hair and makeup that they pay for, so I can promote this thing [and campaign]. So I’m a little confused. I thought this is what we’re doing. This is what all the girls are doing.”

The Huffington Post uses the aforementioned quote, but fails to notice THE VERY NEXT SENTENCE:

Leo adds that she conceived the ads before she was nominated—and if she had known she would wind up in contention for Best Supporting Actress, she might have done things differently. “It didn’t seem so nomination oriented,” she said. “It was fun.”

Emphasis mine. FAIL by Huffington Post.

However, note that the both the Huffington Post and the Daily Beast write that Leo was a frontrunner, and that things are not so clear anymore. Bottom line is, we'll find out on Sunday.

Yet, one comment on the Huffington Post sums up all this pretty neatly:

“I thought the Academy Awards were supposed to be about talent, not good or ill-concei­ved ad campaigns? Why is the focus on her ads and not on the quality of her acting in her role?”

Why, indeed.

JRC Chat at noon

As it is now becoming tradition, members of the Journal Register Company Idealab (yours included) and anyone interested are going to be holding our weekly Twitter/CoverItLive chat at noon.

Today will be talking about the AOL/HuffingtonPost deal, since it potentially can or may affect and/or influence smaller news organizations. We'll also be brainstorming some ideas for super reporting - meaning how to accomplish covering an event in a variety of platforms if there's only one of you.


 
The feed is also posted below.

As always, don't forget to bring your links. 

Upcoming O+ Festival in Kingston shows artists don't have health care. Who knew? Everyone.

The upcoming O+ Festival in Kingston (pronounced "O what? festival"), which we are featuring in Preview this weekend, has a nice, unbiased write-up in the unbiased Huffington Post, written by unbiased O+ festival founder Alexandra Marvar, who says Kingston neighbors are very nice.

That's very nice. This unbiased journalist would like to ask her to tell my neighbors to stop leaving their dog poops in my garden.

But I digress. Before our unbiased preview of the festival, here's a video that shows why artists need health care, or a chill pill.