Mediagazer: Bits: Buying Serena's Handbag (Jeremy Egner/Media Decoder)

8:00 AM ET, April 30, 2010

Top News:

AP Directors vote to launch wide range of collaborative new digital initiatives — News Registry rolls out in July; AP will also launch college football hub and offer members ability to create locally branded apps — NEW YORK — The Associated Press Board of Directors voted unanimously today …

Discussion: Editors Weblog, The Wire, Strupp, Romenesko and Media Decoder

Michael Liedtke / Associated Press:

Associated Press profit and revenue slide in 2009 — The Associated Press said Thursday its net income plunged as revenue fell nearly 10 percent last year. The news cooperative also expects a decline in revenue this year, which would be its first back-to-back drop since the Great Depression.

Discussion: Romenesko

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

AP Wants To Negotiate Mobile, Wireless Deals for Members, News Industry — During its annual meeting today, the Associated Press board conducted the usual business—adding Washington Post Publisher Katharine Weymouth and New York Times Co. Vice Chairman Michael Golden to the board …

Editor and Publisher:

Michael Golden, Katharine Weymouth Join AP Board — NEW YORK Michael Golden, vice chairman of the New York Times Co. and COO of its Regional Media Group, and Katharine Weymouth, publisher of The Washington Post and CEO of Washington Post Media, were elected to the board of directors …

John Cook / Yahoo! News:

Times-Union case puts newspaper in awkward position of blocking reach of state ‘sunshine’ law — Newspapers are supposed to support sunshine laws, right? That's how they pry crucial documents from the hands of secrecy-obsessed government bureaucrats. — That's also why states such as New York …

Discussion: Romenesko and New York Observer

Clint Hendler / CJR: An Attempted FOIL — NY governor's office denies CJR's records request

Eric Zhang / Google News Blog:

Bringing Living Stories to WordPress — For the last few months we've been talking with publishers about ways to make it easier for them to use Living Stories, our experimental format for displaying news coverage, on their own websites. Today we're releasing a Living Stories plugin and theme for WordPress.

Discussion: WebNewser, AndyDickinson.net and ReadWriteWeb

Robin Wauters / TechCrunch:

Apple To Shut Down Lala On May 31, iTunes.com Launch Impending? — Lala - where music will stop playing ... In a brief message that was just posted on the Lala.com website, Apple has announced that the service will be shut down on May 31st, 2010. Apple will not be accepting new users …

Discussion: paidContent, MacRumors and CNN

Emily Steel / Wall Street Journal:

Apple to Charge a Premium to Put Ads in Mobile Apps — Setting a high bar for its debut in the advertising business, Apple Inc. aims to charge close to $1 million for ads on its mobile devices this year and perhaps even more to be among the first, ad executives say.

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog, Advertising Analysis RSS, Andy Beal's Marketing Pilgrim, TUAW, Epicenter, Mashable!, MacRumors, Silicon Alley Insider, eMedia Vitals, BRANDING UNBOUND and CNET News

The Live Feed | THR:

Conan: I would not have done the same to Leno — CBS has released an excerpt from Sunday night's highly anticipated “60 Minutes” interview with Conan O'Brien: — “He went and took that show back and I think in a similar situation, if roles had been reversed, I know— I know me, I wouldn't have done that,” O'Brien says.

Discussion: New York Observer, Gawker, Mediaite, blogs.tampabay.com, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wire and New York Magazine

Kurt Soller / New York Magazine:

So, What Really Happens After You Assist a Top Condé Nast Editor? — This week, Jonathan Kelly, the former assistant to Vanity Fair's editor (since 2004), can officially stop answering the phone with “Graydon Carter's office.” He's joined up with the new Bloomberg BusinessWeek, as “Senior Editor of Etc.”

comScore, Inc.:

comScore Releases March 2010 U.S. Online Video Rankings — YouTube Viewers Watched Average of 96 Videos per Viewer in March — comScore, Inc. (NASDAQ: SCOR), a leader in measuring the digital world, today released March 2010 data from the comScore Video Metrix service showing …

Discussion: VideoNuze, MediaMemo and Search Engine Land

John Koblin / New York Times:

Reporter Jim Baumbach Leaves Journal to Return to Newsday — Before he even had one byline for the paper, Yankees beat reporter Jim Baumbach has left The Journal. He is returning to Newsday. — “It's over. He made a decision. We're moving forward,” said John Seeley, the editor of The Journal's Greater New York section.

Discussion: Romenesko and FishbowlNY

Steve Jobs / Apple:

Thoughts on Flash — Apple has a long relationship with Adobe. In fact, we met Adobe's founders when they were in their proverbial garage. Apple was their first big customer, adopting their Postscript language for our new Laserwriter printer. Apple invested in Adobe and owned around 20% of the company for many years.

Jeremy Egner / Media Decoder:

Bits: Buying Serena's Handbag — Delivery Agent, which runs runs e-commerce sites for networks and studios like ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and HBO, will begin working with TV and movie companies to sell clothes and other items that appear in shows and movies. Entertainment companies hope the sales …

Discussion: paidContent and DealBook

Editor and Publisher:

Lancaster Newspapers Shuts Down ‘TalkBack’ Online Forum — CHICAGO Lancaster (Pa.) Newspapers pulled the plug on its online TalkBack Thursday morning, blaming the “blatant misuse” of the public forum by anonymous posters of racist material. — President and CEO Harold E. Miller Jr …

Dylan Stableford / TheWrap.com:

Newspapering as Blood Sport: WSJ vs. NYT — It's Rupert V. Pinch, fighting a 20th century war in the 21st century — For months, New York Times executives have been downplaying the brewing rivalry with the Wall Street Journal — while simultaneously digging in for a fight. — Well, it's on now.

INMA:

From music to newspapers to magazines: Creating unique value from content — : INMA World Congress : New York, United States — The CEO of Playboy Enterprises can't speak to a room of newspaper people without at least a couple of jokes. Yes, INMA members might enjoy a private tour of Hugh Hefner's mansion.

Twitter Media:

The four elements of @anywhere — The four elements of hip-hop are MCing, DJing, break-dancing, and graffiti. — The four elements of @anywhere are hovercards, follow buttons, tweet boxes, and login/signup. — If you don't see the relationship yet—you will.

Claude Brodesser-Akner / New York Magazine:

Vulture Exclusive: J.J. Abrams' Next Movie Is a Collaboration with Steven Spielberg — Vulture has learned that J.J. Abrams has picked his next movie, and it's both a tribute to and a collaboration with Steven Spielberg. An insider tells us that Abrams is just now finishing a script described as …

Discussion: Ain't It Cool News and Cinema Blend Feeds

Janko Roettgers / NewTeeVee:

YouTube Rolls Out New Video Player — Updated: YouTube has started to roll out a new Flash video player across its site that features not only a completely new design, but also offers some nifty bits of information about the performance of the current video.

Discussion: 901am, Mashable! and Rocketboom