Mediagazer: The MPAA's Joan Graves watches out for the movie watchers (Richard Verrier/Los Angeles Times)

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

TheWrap's Cease & Desist Letter to Newser — So, we weren't joking. Counsel for TheWrap sent a cease and desist letter Wednesday to Patrick Spain, the CEO of Newser. — It says: — “We demand that Newser, LLC ("Newser"), and any agent or affiliate of Newser, immediately cease …

Discussion: FishBowlNY, Mediaite, Adam Sherk, CJR, The Wire, paidContent and Romenesko

Sound and Fury: Here's What Sharon Waxman Really Wants — Follow him on Twitter @MichaelWolffNYC — Sharon Waxman, who runs a website called the Wrap, which covers show business, continues to accuse Newser of various ethical sleights of hand with regard to the way we present the news …

Discussion: MediaMemo and Newser

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Waxman to Wolff: Unhand My Content!

Discussion: Mediaite and The Wire

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

In Big Bet, Oprah to Become Nocturnal — The Queen of Daytime Is Becoming Nocturnal; A Big Bet for Her Network — Ms. Winfrey at a ‘Precious: Based On The Novel ‘Push’ By Sapphire’ press conference in 2009. — America's daytime talk-show queen is heading out at night.

Discussion: Multichannel, Media Decoder, TVWeek.com, The Wire, Tower Ticker, Washington Post, DailyFinance, PopEater, PopWatch, Gawker, The Huffington Post, Company Town and Newser

Nat Ives / AdAge:

USA Today Outsources New Web Section to Demand Media — But Don't Call Us a Content Farm, Supplier Says — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — USA Today's website has started running thousands of pieces of original travel editorial from the Demand Media content farm, making USA Today …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Editor and Publisher, Romenesko, Journalism.co.uk and Gannett Blog

Eliot Van Buskirk / Epicenter:

Will Columbia-Trained, Code-Savvy Journalists Bridge the Media/Tech Divide? — Photo of Columbia University at night courtesy of Flickr/Gustavo Faraon — Columbia University will soon offer a combined engineering and journalism degree. It's a unique program the Ivy League institution hopes …

Discussion: Agence France Presse, The Wire, FishBowlNY and Romenesko

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Wall Street Journal Pro Edition Now Available For Consumers ($49 per Month) — Back in October 2009, Dow Jones debuted a premium business news site dubbed The Wall Street Journal Professional Edition in an attempt to get companies to pay up $588 a year for access to more personalized, business-related news and analysis.

Discussion: The Wire, WebNewser, PR Newswire, Talking Biz News, Editor and Publisher, Romenesko and 901am

Lacey Rose / Forbes:

Glenn Beck Inc — In his empire there's the ideology—and then there's the money machine. — Five and a half hours before showtime Glenn Beck still isn't quite sure how he'll provide tonight's entertainment, “The Future of History”—two hours of monologue (and answers to preselected questions) …

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Think Progress, The Huffington Post, TPM LiveWire and Gawker

Business Week:

Conan O'Brien's Work in Progress — The former Tonight Show host is in play, but prospective TV and cable networks are struggling to find him the right time slot — The last time America saw Conan O'Brien, the red-haired, late-night talk show host was riffing on an electric guitar as comedian …

Helia Ebrahimi / Telegraph:

Gorkana founders online for £20m windfall — Online media business Gorkana has been sold to a private equity firm in a deal that will net its two entrepreneur founders a windfall of up to £20m. — Gorkana, an online jobs site with a database of more than 130,000 journalists …

Discussion: BusinessJournalism.org …, Guardian, FishBowlNY and paidContent

Guy Trebay / New York Times:

Paper Magazine Editor Is Powerful, but No Power Snob — DOES anyone remember that, long before Madonna was a zillionairess with a fake British accent, she used to dance at the Roxy with a posse of Latino b-boys? Kim Hastreiter does. Are there many who recall when Jean-Michel Basquiat's paintings …

Discussion: New York Observer

Mike Shields / Mediaweek:

Google to Go on Hiring Spree — The media recession is over—at least at Google. — The Web giant is looking to hire over 500 sales people, according to officials, as it looks to continue its momentum in the search business while deepening its strength in burgeoning segments like display advertising, mobile and video.

Discussion: Guardian, eMedia Vitals, FishBowlNY, UnBeige and Search Engine Land

Richard Verrier / Los Angeles Times:

The MPAA's Joan Graves watches out for the movie watchers — Graves heads the Motion Picture Assn. of America's ratings board, which grades movies to help parents decide what children can see. — Joan Graves has never published a movie review in her life, but she is arguably more powerful than any movie critic in the country.

Multichannel / paidContent:

Freedom Communications' Valley Morning Star Drops Its Pay Wall — The Valley Morning Star in Harlingen, Texas, which was a test-bed for Freedom Communications' plans to potentially charge users for online access to its papers, returned to a free site last week less than a year after beginning to charge for online content.

Discussion: Romenesko and Editors Weblog

Shane Richmond / blogs.telegraph.co.uk:

Does Rupert Murdoch understand copyright? — Rupert Murdoch has gone on the offensive to justify his plan to put his newspaper's websites behind a paywall. He told a National Press Club event at George Washington University: … In an interview with Martin Kalb for The Kalb Report …

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider, Beyond Search and TVNewser

Gillian Reagan / The Wire:

Yahoo Publishes A Style Guide For The Internet — Yahoo! is publishing its own stylebook for the Internet. — “The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, And Creating Content For The Digital World” will hit stores on July 6, 2010 at $21.99 for retail.

Discussion: Gawker

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

TV Sports: Woods's Nike Ad Provokes More Questions Than Answers — Nike could not wait to package the contrition of Tiger Woods in a 30-second ad. — In it, a mute Woods stares blankly at the camera. Speaking from the hereafter, his father, Earl, says: “I want to find out what your feelings are.

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Vuguru bulks up — Eisner's Internet banner hires creative, business execs — Vuguru, the Internet production shingle backed by Michael Eisner's Tornante and Canada's Rogers Communications, continues to beef up its exec ranks with the appointment of Miramax production alum Kristin Jones as chief creative officer.

Discussion: MediaPost and NewTeeVee

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Word of mouth trumps advertising for the kids these days — This chart sums up as well any the kind of shift that the “engagement editor” in your newsroom is trying to address. It's from the April issue of the book-industry newsletter Publishing Trends (copy posted here) …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Jason Fell / Folio:

944 Media Files for Chapter 11 — Self-proclaimed largest regional lifestyle media company faces several lawsuits. — Just last year, 944 Media CEO Marc Lotenberg called his magazine publishing and events company the largest and fastest growing lifestyle media conglomerate in the industry.

Discussion: MinOnline and FishBowlNY

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Source: Bids for Disney's Miramax range from $550 million to $650-million-plus — Details are starting to trickle in about who's bidding what for Disney's Miramax. — The biggest bid is from Pangea Media Group, which is headed by financier David Bergstein.

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

What is content, then? — In the discussion about the iPad, much has been made of its nature as a content consumption — versus creation — device. I lament its limitations as a tool of creation. Howard Owens, speaking for many, tells me that most people don't want to create content.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Atlantic Wire

Gene Lyons / Salon:

In today's media, substance is no match for BS — Drudge, Fox News, talk radio — and even Keith Olbermann: Too many media voices revel in baseless incitement … The average citizen hardly knows what to believe anymore. Due to the parlous state of professional journalism; the Internet …

Janko Roettgers / NewTeeVee:

Veoh Assets Sold to Qlipso — Los Angeles-based social video start-up Qlipso has bought the assets of San Diego-based video sharing site Veoh, according to a report from Socaltech.com. Veoh's web site already reflects the change of ownership, stating: “Now part of qlipso, so you can share the fun!”

Discussion: Multichannel, Venture Capital Dispatch, paidContent, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, socalTECH.com and blogs.ft.com

Mark Fitzgerald / Editor and Publisher:

Free Community Papers Supporting Net Neutrality — CHICAGO At least one part of the newspaper industry is not staying neutral on net neutrality — free community papers. — In filings with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), the Association of Free Community Papers (AFCP) …

Jim Milliot / Publishers Weekly:

Book Sales Fell 1.8% in 2009, to $23.8 Billion, AAP Says — Book sales fell 1.8% in 2009 to $23.9 billion, according to estimates released this morning by the Association of American Publishers. Figures are based on reports from 86 publishers who participate in the AAP's statistics program and Bureau of the Census data.

Discussion: DailyFinance

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:

Can This Blogger Unseat Barbara Boxer? — Hungry Beast Giving Beast Women in the World — Blogs and Stories — Mickey Kaus' last political race was for student body president, he's friends with Ann Coulter—and his opponent in the California Democratic primary is behaving as though he doesn't exist.

Discussion: LA Observed

Henry Blodget / The Wire:

CNBC Developing New Lunchtime Show Starring David Faber — CNBC is developing a new lunchtime show starring David Faber, says a source familiar with goings-on at the network. — The new show could further reduce the time allotted to the existing “Power Lunch” program, which stars Sue Herrera …

Discussion: TVWeek.com and Talking Biz News