Mediagazer: Tablet options proliferate for publishers, but Apple maintains control (Damon Kiesow/Poynter)

David Carr / New York Times:

At Media Companies, a Nation of Serfs — Some of the fizz, if not a great big bubble, seems to have returned to media, depending on how you define “media.” — There have been reports in The New York Times and elsewhere that Facebook is now valued at $50 billion, and The Wall Street Journal reported …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Huffpo Editor: Facebook Doesn't Pay You, So Why Should We? — Nico Pitney. Image by Center for American Progress Action Fund via Flickr — Media companies provide their audiences with information; social networks give their users ways to disseminate their own information and keep track of each other's activities.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Mediaite, Poynter and Soup

Daniel D'Addario / New York Observer:
Come Work for Me, Darling!: Arianna Huffington Sings Siren Song to Journo-Kids

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Lloyd Grove / The Daily Beast:
Arianna's Nearly Silent Partner

Discussion: New York Observer

John Reinan / MinnPost:

RIP, USA Today — One of the great media innovations of our lifetime is dying. — USA Today launched in 1982 as the first truly national newspaper. With its colorful design and a heavy emphasis on light news, it was often mocked as a shallow “McPaper,” but I've never been among the mockers.

Discussion: Poynter

New York Times:

Inside the Muslim (Journalist's) Mind — The Pakistani public, long skeptical of American goals in Afghanistan and the Muslim world, is now outraged over Washington's insistence that the authorities release a former United States Special Forces soldier charged with killing two Pakistani men last month.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

CBS, Couric Talks Draw Near — Katie Couric may end up doing something seen as unlikely just a few years ago: stay on as anchor of “CBS Evening News.” — Both CBS Corp. and Ms. Couric appear open to a new deal that would keep her at the network's news division beyond her current five-year deal …

Discussion: Yahoo! News and mediabistro.com

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Gutenberg of Arabia — At the critical climax of the Egyptian revolution, one of its sparks, Google's Wael Ghonim, told his followers on Twitter that he would not speak to them through media but instead through the Facebook page he created, the page he'd used to gather momentum for the protest …

Discussion: The New Republic, Too Long For Twitter …, Joho the Blog, The Daily Beast, Future of Journalism and Pressthink

Discussion: On Media's Blog and THINK / Musings

New York Observer:

Local Politics Guru Azi Paybarah Returns to The Observer … Azi Paybarah will rejoin the staff of The New York Observer, editor-in-chief Elizabeth Spiers announced today. — “Azi Paybarah is a prolific political reporter and I look forward to the dynamism and energy he'll bring to the Observer newsroom,” she said.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

Hey Grammys, you can't tape-delay social media — While viewers in most of the U.S. were wrapping up the live broadcast of The Grammy Awards, viewers on the West Coast were just getting started with the tape-delayed version, airing at 8 p.m. PT. As is customary for many viewers now …

Discussion: Speakeasy and GRAMMY.com

John C Abell / Epicenter:

Wired and The New Yorker for Android Coming This Spring — Android versions of Wired and The New Yorker will be available in the spring, Condé Nast announced Monday. The two publications have been available for the iPad for months, but only now are tablets running Google's competing …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

Content Recommendation Engine Outbrain Nabs $11M in New Funding — Expands Reach into Reuters U.K., Possibly Huffington Post — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Internet startup Outbrain just grabbed $11 million in a third round of funding, bringing the company's total financing to $29 million.

Discussion: paidContent and Market Wire, Thanks:nitwitty

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

ABC News bumps up David Muir — ABC News is giving David Muir a promotion. — The 37-year-old, who joined the network in 2003 and has been anchoring “ABC World News Saturday,” will become the sole anchor of the network's weekend “World News” editions; both broadcasts are being re-branded as “World News with David Muir.”

Discussion: On Media's Blog

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

Tablet options proliferate for publishers, but Apple maintains control — In mostly separate announcements over the past two weeks, Google, Motorola, Time Warner, HP and Yahoo have all taken aim at Apple and its growing dominance of the digital tablet and mobile publishing markets.

Discussion: paidContent and Editors Weblog

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

App-Happy Brands Bypassing Facebook to Build Content on It — Marketers Rely on Third-Party Technology and ‘Preferred Developers’ Liked by the Social Network — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — When Ron Faris was looking last year for a way to build out a Facebook page for Virgin Mobile USA …

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:

Free Access to ‘The Daily’ Extended to February 28th as Wait for iOS 4.3 Continues — As noted by Macerkopf.de [Google translation], free access to the new iPad news publication The Daily has been extended beyond the original two-week trial period, pushing the free access window out to February 28th.

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

MSNBC.com Finds Record Video Views with Newly Integrated Site and Blog Pages — WASHINGTON — MSNBC.com has reported that January was the biggest month for online video with 162 million views. — While big news stories including the Tuscon shootings, floods in Australia and the unrest in Egypt …

New York Times:

Myanmar Arrests a Newspaper Editor — BANGKOK — The Australian editor of an English-language newspaper that publishes in Myanmar has been arrested and jailed in what an associate said Saturday was part of a business dispute. — The editor, Ross Dunkley, founded the newspaper …