Mediagazer: Top 5 moments from Eric Schmidt's talk in Abu Dhabi (Jon Fortt/Brainstorm Tech)

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Big Media or Big SEO Spammers? — Faced with declining revenues and increasingly dismal prospects, some mainstream media outlets are adopting questionable tactics, specifically dead-end web pages stuffed with outbound links and pay-per-click ads. A liberally funded LA startup is only too quick to help them.

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

Facebook threatens to sue Daily Mail — Social networking site fears reputation permanently damaged by false claim that it let older men pressure teenage girls for sex — Facebook has threatened to sue the Daily Mail for damages after the paper wrongly claimed in a piece published …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Press Gazette, Journalism.co.uk, The Independent, The Spy Report, Silicon Alley Insider, Mashable!, Bloggasm and dot.Rory

Mercedes Bunz / Guardian:

Reuters sets up social media guidelines — Reuters has published some social media guidelines in its handbook of journalism. Dean Wright, Reuters' global editor for ethics, innovation and news standards, announced the new guidelines yesterday. — While the guidelines encourage Reuters journalists …

Discussion: For the Record, Reuters and Talking Biz News

Reuters Handbook of Journalism: Don't scoop the wire — As well as reminding journalists to keep the personal separate from the professional, it advises:

Reuters:

Smartphones will shake up paid content debate — (Reuters) - Media companies longing to bring a paid-for culture to the Internet might just get what they want if they pay more attention to the smartphone revolution that is changing the way people access the Web.

Discussion: paidContent

Jon Fortt / Brainstorm Tech:

Top 5 moments from Eric Schmidt's talk in Abu Dhabi — Google CEO Eric Schmidt answered questions from attendees at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit. Photo: Jon Fortt — ABU DHABI - Google CEO Eric Schmidt's speech and Q&A here was probably the most popular event at the Abu Dhabi Media Summit …

Discussion: ITP.net

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

Exclusive: CNN Developing New Morning-Show Pilot — CNN - which has been shuffling its weekend and evening lineups of late - is developing a new morning show pilot, with a format closer to MSNBC's “Morning Joe” and “Fox & Friends” than anything it has done, TheWrap has learned.

Discussion: The Wire, Chickaboomer and Inside Cable News

Felix Salmon:

Why did Nick Denton truncate Gawker's RSS feeds? — Yesterday, Gawker Media truncated its RSS feeds, and former Gawker editorial honcho Lockhart Steele immediately tweeted that “the only thing that excited me about Gawker's RSS truncation was picturing @felixsalmon's head explode when he heard the news”.

Discussion: State of the Fourth Estate

Tim Redmond / sfbg.com:

SF Weekly owes us half its ad revenue — The San Francisco Superior Court ruled March 9th that SF Weekly must begin making payments on the Bay Guardian judgment by turning over half of the revenues it receives from advertising sales. — Commissioner Everett A. Hewlett, Jr. …

Discussion: MediaPost, Editor and Publisher, The Latest Word, Editors Weblog, Fitz & Jen and San Francisco Chronicle

Laura McGann / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What makes a nonprofit news org legit? Three other questions to separate journalism from advocacy — Last week, Jim Barnett raised a question about nonprofit journalism: What makes it legit? How do we know if a nonprofit news outlet shares the ideals and culture of traditional journalism …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online

Karen Carmichael / American Journalism Review:

Investigations with Impact — The Huffington Post Investigative Fund aims to meld classic reporting with the power of the Web. — Karen Carmichael is an AJR editorial assistant. — Two months after its launch, the Huffington Post Investigative Fund published the story of Benjamin French …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Frederic Lardinois / ReadWriteWeb:

Sony Brings More Newspaper and Magazine Content to its E-Readers — Sony just announced that it is expanding its selection of newspapers and magazines in its e-book store. Starting today, users of Sony's e-readers will be able to subscribe to 20 new newspapers and magazines …

Discussion: Sony

Associated Press:

China orders reporters trained in Marxist theory — BEIJING — China will toughen requirements for reporters by launching a new certification system that requires training in Marxist and communist theories of news, a media official said, citing problems with the current crop of mainland journalists.

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

Newsday, Union Trade Proposals, But Agreement ‘Still Far Off’ — Michael Amon, one of the leaders of the Graphic Communications Council of The Teamsters, which represents seven units at Newsday — including editorial — released an update Tuesday that declared both sides in the contract negotiations …

Discussion: FishBowlNY

Nick Bilton / Bits:

TV May Be the New Google Reader Play's Best Venue — Google announced an experimental Web browsing feature on Wednesday that it will offer as an alternative view to explore content on the Google Reader Web site. The company is touting its simlplicity, but the advantage may be in the highly visual way it displays information.

Discussion: Official Google Reader Blog, Guardian, The Official Google Blog, 901am and The Next Web

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

Digital Ad Revenue to Rocket for Local Media — Digital revenue from mobile and Web platforms will grow at a 17.8 percent compound annual rate — The growth of digital advertising revenue for local TV and radio will outpace overall ad spending for those media between 2009 and 2014, according to a BIA/Kelsey study released yesterday.

Pete Wells / Diner's Journal:

Wall Street Journal Sheds a Restaurant Critic — Raymond Sokolov, who has reviewed restaurants for The Wall Street Journal since 2006, is leaving the paper. Mr. Sokolov said his editors had told him The Journal was abandoning restaurant criticism, and asked him to report on food trends instead.

Discussion: Romenesko, Mediaite, FishBowlNY and New York Observer

Drew Grant / Mediaite:

New York Times' Benefactor Carlos Slim Named Richest Man In World By Forbes — So why can't the Grey Lady scrape by with a little more profit? Forbes just announced it's annual rankings for the wealthiest people world-wide, and Carlos Slim Helu - who in 2008 became the largest shareholder …

Discussion: LA Daily and Bloomberg

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Comcast Is Absent From Campaign to Change Retransmission Rules — On Tuesday many of the country's biggest television providers signed on to a petition that asked the government to revamp station retransmission rules. Cablevision, Charter, DirecTV, Dish Network Time Warner Cable …

Discussion: VideoNuze and New York Times

Georgina Prodhan / Reuters:

AOL sees $20 bln opportunity in quality gap on Web — * CEO sees $20 bln opportunity in quality Web content — * Turnaround currently focused on simplifying technology — Newly independent Internet company AOL (AOL.N) is selectively hiring journalists and engineers after cutting a third …

Discussion: Brainstorm Tech

Carl DiOrio / Hollywood Reporter:

MPAA: Domestic boxoffice up 10% in '09 — 3D helped Hollywood post an almost 8% boost worldwide — Movies released in 3D accounted for 11% of domestic boxoffice in 2009, up from just 2% in 2008. — A total 20 films were released in 3D last year, compared with 8 the previous year.

Discussion: The Wire

Mike Taylor / FishBowlNY:

CNN President Jon Klein More Afraid of Facebook Than Fox News — CNN President Jon Klein spoke with Bloomberg BusinessWeek Editor Josh Tyrangiel at the McGraw-Hill Building in Manhattan this morning. — In an interview with Bloomberg BusinessWeek editor Josh Tyrangiel at BusinessWeek's annual media summit …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Mashable!, Editors Weblog, eBookNewser and FishBowlDC

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Daylife And Demotix Partner On User-Gen Image Sales — News aggregator Daylife will begin reselling pictures posted by users of London-based citizen-photo journalism site Demotix to create an “open image wire service.” The arrangement is an expansion of Daylife's existing image programs.