Mediagazer: Twitter Acquires Atebits, Maker of Tweetie (Claire Cain Miller/Bits)

Michael Calderone / The Politico:

New pundits: Prodigies or pipsqueaks? — When Washingtonian magazine recently profiled the Washington Post's Ezra Klein, the story contained a tidbit that ricocheted around the Post newsroom: Klein has his own assistant. — An assistant? For that new guy with the blog? — Turns out to be true.

Discussion: The New Republic, Mother Jones and Politics Daily

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wire, Richard Prince's Journal-isms and Romenesko

Craig Silverman / CJR:

Inside the World's Largest Fact Checking Operation — A conversation with two staffers at Der Spiegel — Late last month, I had an experience unlike any other in my professional life. For two days, I was surrounded by people who work in, or have a specific interest in, fact checking.

Discussion: Romenesko, Regret the Error and The Huffington Post

Claire Cain Miller / Bits:

Twitter Acquires Atebits, Maker of Tweetie — Twitter, which has flourished thanks to tools built by outside developers, is taking more of those tools under its own wing. In a move that is sure to rattle its developers, Twitter has agreed to acquire Atebits, the start-up that makes …

Discussion: Mashable!, Twitter Mobile Blog, Gizmodo and Digits

Joseph Tartakoff / paidContent:

Paywall Brigade: The Newspapers That Now Charge For Online Access — In the mid-90s, at least 45 U.S. newspapers charged for online access, though almost all of them later hopped over the fence to the free side. Now, the paywall brigade is rising again—albeit slowly.

Discussion: Romenesko and NetNewsCheck Latest

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Citizen Journalism Platform AllVoices Sets Up News Desks In 30 Cities Around The World — AllVoices, a fast-growing citizen journalism platform, is announcing significant expansion today. The startup is launching global news desks in 30 different cities around the world …

Discussion: StarkSilverCreek, Romenesko and mediaelites

Jeff Eckhoff / Des Moines Register:

Meredith cuts 20 positions in realignment — Meredith Corp. shed roughly 20 jobs this morning in what the company said is a management realignment to better organize some of its online and offline components and better prepare for an increasingly digital world.

Discussion: paidContent

Gillian Reagan / The Wire:

Magazine Ad Revenue Plummets Again, Down 9% In First Quarter — Although some magazine editors were crowing about a grand return of advertisers, ad pages and revenue are still down during this first quarter, according to the Publishers Information Bureau's latest report.

Discussion: Magazine Publishers of America, MediaPost, Media Decoder, paidContent, AdAge, FishBowlNY, Talking Biz News and Crain's New York Business

Ezra Klein:

What makes NPR (and the Economist) so special? — I've been thinking a bit about this NPR graph that's been floating around. I wish it included another data point: The Economist magazine. Their explosive growth over the last decade is well known, but consider that the publication had a record year in 2009.

Discussion: Romenesko and Snarkmarket

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Anderson Cooper, with a Live Studio Audience — For the next two Thursdays, Anderson Cooper will host AC360 in front of a live studio audience. The site Starflow Entertainment, which publicizes live studio audience tapings of programs, has the listing below:

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Live Feed | THR

Ryan Flinn / Bloomberg:

Silicon Valley Plots TV Takeover as Web Connections Become Norm — After 15 years of trying, Silicon Valley is getting ready to take over your television. — Most TV sets for sale by 2013 will be able to connect to the Internet right out of the box, setting the stage for companies such as Google Inc. …

Discussion: NewTeeVee

Adam Westbrook:

Online ad revenue: what journalists are getting wrong — Image credit: DavidDMuir (cc) — How much money has your website made you recently? — For all but the lucky ones, the figure is rarely enough to buy a latte, let alone support a family. And for all but the smart ones, the figure is usually from Google Adwords revenue.

Gillian Reagan / The Wire:

Financial Times Goes After Younguns With New Foursquare Deal — The Financial Times is aiming straight for consumers with this one: The FT working with Foursquare on a new partnership that would give free subscriptions to FT.com to users who “check-in” to select spots.

Discussion: paidContent

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Guardian News & Media to outsource commercially funded supplements — Job losses expected after deal with Seven Squared Publishing, but promotional supplements stay in-house — Guardian News & Media has struck a deal to outsource all its commercially funded supplements and website work to Seven Squared Publishing.

Discussion: Press Gazette

Todd Spangler / Multichannel News:

Dish Finally Ships Slingbox-Enabled DVR — ViP022 Set-Top Key Piece of Satellite Operator's ‘TV Everywhere’ Strategy — Dish Network this week began taking orders for the ViP922 SlingLoaded DVR receiver — about a year after it originally expected to ship the product …

Discussion: Light Reading

David Kaplan / paidContent:

It's Official: quandrantONE's Ellenthal Jumps To Peer39 — As we reported the other day, Andy Ellenthal is leaving his post as CEO of national newspaper online ad alliance quadrantONE to take on the chief executive job at mantic ad specialist Peer39. He will take the place …

Discussion: Yahoo! Finance

Robert Niles / Online Journalism Review:

What does Apple's new mobile iAd format mean for news publishers? — By Robert Niles: Is Apple's new iAd system a game-changer for the business of mobile application development? — With Steve Jobs' announcement at yesterday's press preview of the new iPhone OS 4.0, Apple's now in the ad network business.

Discussion: Gizmodo

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, TeleRead, O'Reilly Radar, Media Week, Strupp, Poynter Online, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, MediaMemo, Nieman Journalism Lab and AdAge

Elinor Comlay / Reuters:

News Corp's WSJ, NY Post to offer ad discounts-report — News Corp (NWSA.O)'s New York Post and Wall Street Journal are offering discounted advertisement prices, the Financial Times wrote, citing people familiar with the plan. — The ad price cuts come as the Wall Street Journal prepares …

Discussion: Romenesko, mediabistro.com, Shaping the Future …, Journalism.co.uk, The Wire, Fitz & Jen, Guardian and New York Magazine

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

The triple threat to citizen journalists — The protections customarily afforded the press typically don't exist for the citizen journalists supposed to fill the gap created by the contraction of the mainstream media. — This big and gnarly problem - which suggests no easy solution …

Damon Kiesow / Poynter Online:

Time to offer iPad subscriptions by June — Time Inc. plans to offer subscription options for its iPad magazine editions within the next three months, according to Greg Bensinger at Bloomberg. — " 'It'll probably be June before we're able to get it up and running for subscriptions …

Discussion: Crain's New York Business and Bloomberg

Arifa Akbar / The Independent:

William H Macy to star in ‘Shameless’ remake — They are a down and out family who speak in broad regional vernacular and live in the fictional Manchester sink estate of Chatsworth. — Now the wild and wonderful antics of the Gallagher brood, from Paul Abbott's Bafta award-winning television …

Simon Houpt / Globe and Mail:

'Yes, I have a sugar daddy. " Tina Brown, DailyBeast.com — 'Yes, I have a sugar daddy. At a lunchtime gathering yesterday during the Canadian Media Directors Council conference, Ken Whyte of Maclean's enjoyed a softball chat with Tina Brown, the former editor of Vanity Fair, the New Yorker and Talk magazines.

Hunter walker:

10 Ways To Earn More Than You Can Working At The Columbia Journalism Review — Columbia j-school students received emails last week inviting us to apply for an assistant editor “fellowship” with the Columbia Journalism Review, a full-time position that pays only $27,000 a year.