Yesterday, we wrote about the battle of words between Newser’s Michael Wolff and The Wrap’s Sharon Waxman, the ethics of news aggregation, and what constitutes stealing. But shouldn’t a debate about new media like this really be waged in a more modern way than Waxman’s and Wolff’s long (and abridged) columns? This is perhaps why four journalists took to Twitter to battle it out with brutal 140-character punches.

“You get what you pay for” has become a truism of free online content of widely varying quality. But in a Twitter klatsch, Gizmodo editor Brian Lam, Editorialiste Andrew Nusca, and AllThingsD’s Peter Kafka examine the otherside of the equation: publishers with fewer resources are forced to lean on the reporting of others to a greater degree. Then again, as Lam points out, even in the pre-link era, there were plenty of ‘real’ journalists who rereported others’ work without attribution:

The “Hulu for magazines” joint venture spearheaded by John Squires officially has a name: Next Issue Media. According to Folio, the partnership has some real heavyweights behind it: Time Inc., Meredith, Hearst, Condé Nast and News Corporation. All of which represent some serious old media muscle, but will they be able to compete in the digital marketplace?

Who says corporate Q1 2009 earnings calls can’t make for a riveting show? In an earnings call regarding News Corporation’s performance this past quarter, Rupert Murdoch went beyond the balance sheet, opening up to shareholders and reporters about the broken truce with MSNBC and the battle with the White House:

During a discussion at University of Southern California’s Annenberg School for Communication, investor Gordon Crawford claimed that Time Warner would eventually sell-off their print unit Time Inc., renewing lots of speculation about the print giant’s future. The innocuous comment seemed like a throw away line to some; but it not only sent shock waves in media circles, it also forced many to predict a future that, frankly, no one really yet knows.

Does The New York Times want to be your new favorite Twitter search engine? The paper announced its plans to build a new set of smart search tools to zero in on “thousands of categories” worth of tailored information.

It’s yet another sign of the Times‘ shift from an entity fueled by paper, ink, and news trucks to a creature of the Web.

The NYT Co. is reporting that it made a profit last quarter. A PROFIT. In this media climate? Is that even possible? Well, sort of.

The story currently making waves in the online media fishbowl is that Twitter has been hacked. Not only that, the hacker sent TechCrunch’s Michael Arrington the documents, some of which Arrington published causing yet another stir to occur regarding the ethics of publishing information that was obtained illegally. Even more amazing? Twitter’s choice of passwords.

In an interview with Nieman Journalism Lab trailblazing ‘bad boy’ Nick Denton said that Gawker Media’s recent return to page view pay opens the door for “checkbook journalism.” Meaning? If you send Gawker a tip that gets picked up in a big way, you get a cut of the ad revenue.