Mediagazer: The brains behind MSNBC's brand (David Phelps/Minneapolis Star Tribune)

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Tina Brown's Quiet Restart of Newsweek — There will be no celebrity-studded gala with fireworks over New York Harbor this time. No brash predictions of upending the magazine business. — The debut of Tina Brown's Newsweek will, in fact, look nothing like the opening of her last magazine …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Wire, New York Observer, eMedia Vitals, @editorialiste, @gabrielsherman and New York Magazine

New York Times:

Cellphones Become the World's Eyes and Ears on Protests — For some of the protesters facing Bahrain's heavily armed security forces in and around Pearl Square in Manama, the most powerful weapon against shotguns and tear gas has been the tiny camera inside their cellphones.

Discussion: VentureBeat

Egypt's media undergo their own revolution — Does the political upheaval in Egypt spell the end of state-controlled media? — It was a front page few thought they would ever see. After weeks of dismissing pro-change Egyptian protesters as traitors, anarchists and malevolent foreign agents …

Jon Williams / BBC:

The difficulty of reporting from inside Libya — Reporting from Libya is tricky at the best of times - clearly, the situation there right now is anything but. — For 41 years, Muammar Gaddafi - the self-proclaimed “Brotherly Leader and Guide of the Revolution” - has made life difficult for the Western media.

Discussion: Mediaite, New York Times, Future of Journalism and Online NewsHour

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:

Blogs Wane as the Young Drift to Sites Like Twitter — SAN FRANCISCO — Like any aspiring filmmaker, Michael McDonald, a high school senior, used a blog to show off his videos. But discouraged by how few people bothered to visit, he instead started posting his clips on Facebook …

Discussion: Matt Mullenweg, Latest Open Salon Blog, The Wire, @mathewi and Soup

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Key departures suggest 4 factors critical to the future of programming and journalism — PolitiFact's 2009 Pulitzer Prize for national reporting recognized its straightforward approach to politics, and it also validated the work of a little-understood, emerging type of journalist: the news app developer.

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

TV Industry Taps Social Media to Keep Viewers' Attention — By the time the first ballot is opened at the Academy Awards next Sunday, millions of people will be chatting about the awards show on the Internet. And ABC will be ready. — Trying to exploit viewers' two-screen behavior …

Discussion: Jezebel

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

DST About To Lead Huge Spotify Funding — European streaming music startup Spotify is in the process of closing a very large financing, say multiple sources. DST, the venture firm that has backed Facebook, Groupon and Zynga, is said to be leading the deal, which values Spotify at around $1 billion.

Discussion: SAI, paidContent, VentureBeat and Music Ally, more at Techmeme »

David Carr / New York Times:

2 Platforms, With 2 Sets of Problems — Digital subscriptions, a grail for the mainstream media that often seemed more like a mirage, took on some firm if not altogether friendly dimensions last week. — Traditional print publishers have spent the past few years cast in the role …

Discussion: MacStories

Discussion: Mediaweek and Guardian

Anthony Crupi / Mediaweek:

Can Piers Punch Back? — Shaw had it half right: Not only are England and America two nations separated by a common language, but we're also forever riven by custom. Perverse contrarians, the Brits revel in doing things the wrong way 'round, steering from the passenger's seat, adding the letter …

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Agrees to Purchase Elisabeth Murdoch's Shine for $673 Million — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. agreed in principle to buy his daughter's U.K.-based television production company, Shine Group Ltd., for 415 million pounds ($673 million). — Elisabeth Murdoch is expected to join …

Discussion: paidContent:UK, Guardian, News Corporation, Canadian Press, Wall Street Journal, Reuters and C21Media

David Phelps / Minneapolis Star Tribune:

The brains behind MSNBC's brand — Minneapolis agency Mono helped crystallize the network's philosophy with its “Lean Forward” ads. — When MSNBC's new slogan, “Lean Forward,” became fodder for a Jon Stewart “Daily Show” skit last December, the folks at Mono, the small Minneapolis ad agency, figured they'd hit pay dirt.

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Bill Carter / New York Times:

In Prime-Time TV, Networks Losing the War for 10 P.M. — For the past several years, many broadcast network executives have looked at the ratings for their 10 p.m. shows and lamented that it has become impossible to build a true, breakout hit at that hour anymore. — No hits at 10 p.m.?