Welcome to the 16th episode of “The Mediatwits,” the weekly audio podcast from MediaShift. The co-hosts are MediaShift’s Mark Glaser and Rafat Ali, the founder of PaidContent. This show looks at the week’s big news, including the head-turning buyout of Motorola Mobility by Google for $12.5 billion. What was driving the search giant to become a hardware maker? Was it the patents, the handsets, the set-top boxes? Special guest Tim Carmody of Wired has been on the story all week and gives his excellent perspective.
Plus, the show looks at one of the biggest, most explosive in-depth investigative reports in quite awhile — by Yahoo Sports, of all places. Joe Lago, managing editor of Yahoo Sports, explains why the company is committed to doing long-form investigative reports, including its recent 11-month report on a rogue booster at the University of Miami. Lago says Yahoo might begin doing more investigative reports outside of sports after the success of this expose.
Check it out!
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Intro and outro music by 3 Feet Up; mid-podcast music by Autumn Eyes via Mevio’s Music Alley.
Here are some highlighted topics from the show:
Back from vacation
1:10: Mark connects from the Big Island
2:10: Rafat will be heading to India for a post-Ramadan feast
What happened during the break
3:45: Role of social media in London Riots
5:10: Rise of e-books and cord-cutting
6:40: Rundown of topics for the show
Google gets Motorola
7:40: Pays $12.5 billion, will get 20,000 patents and pending patents
10:10: Motorola cable boxes could be interesting for Google
11:10: Tim Carmody from Wired joins the show
12:30: Motorola had a full dance card
15:49: What does the deal mean for average consumer?
19:00: Deal should get through antitrust concerns
Yahoo Sports’ big story on University of Miami
21:00: Background on Joe Lago from Yahoo Sports
23:10: Told story with text, photos, audio and video
26:10: Yahoo Sports makes commitment to investigative reporting
30:10: Yahoo considering doing more investigative reports outside sports
More Reading
Google + Motorola = Android Patent-Troll Repellent at Wired
Behind Google’s Huge Breakup Fee in Motorola Deal at NYT DealBook
Microsoft Feels Quake Of Google’s Motorola Gobble-Up at Forbes
3 Ways Google-Motorola Doesn’t Make Sense at MediaShift
Presto, Change-o! The New Google at Huffington Post
Google’s Big Mistake – Buying Motorola to Save Android at Forbes
Renegade Miami football booster spells out illicit benefits to players at Yahoo Sports
Yahoo’s Miami Investigation Is Their One Shining Moment at Awful Announcing
Death penalty is an option for NCAA in University of Miami scandal at Miami Herald
Yahoo sports reporter wins praise for probing story at TheWrap
Yahoo Sports reporter Charles Robinson details how he attacked Miami story at Orlando Sentinel
Weekly Poll
Don’t forget to vote in our weekly poll, this time about who won in the Google-Motorola deal:
Mark Glaser is executive editor of MediaShift and Idea Lab. He also writes the bi-weekly OPA Intelligence Report email newsletter for the Online Publishers Association. He lives in San Francisco with his son Julian. You can follow him on Twitter @mediatwit.
