Mediagazer: Newspapers and Social Media: Still Not Really Getting It (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

9:35 PM ET, April 5, 2011

Top News:

Agents treated reporter like informant, raising question: Who else? — A once-classified FBI memo reveals that the bureau treated a senior ABC News journalist as a potential confidential informant in the 1990s, pumping the reporter to ascertain the source of a sensational but uncorroborated tip …

Discussion: Gawker, TVNewser, Mediaite, Poynter, The Daily Beast, The Wire, On Media's Blog, rbr.com and Yahoo! News

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Decline, plateau, decline: New data on The Daily suggests a social media decline and a tough road ahead — While the news industry looks at smartphone and tablet apps as a chance to build more engaged readers — and maybe even get people to pay! — for those of us who watch the business, apps are frustratingly opaque.

Discussion: Mixed Media, Betabeat, IntoMobile, I4U News, Yahoo! News, Technologizer, Epicenter, MacStories and FishbowlNY, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Newspapers and Social Media: Still Not Really Getting It — Updated: Many traditional media entities have embraced social-media services like Twitter and Facebook and blogs — at least to some extent — as tools for reporting and journalism, using them to publish and curate news reports.

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Vice Media Empire Is Near a Big Infusion of Cash — Vice was born in 1994 as an underground magazine in Montreal, financed by a government subsidy and run by three friends who started their own company because no one else would hire them. — Today it is a pan-media confederation with a record label …

Discussion: MediaPost, Runnin' Scared, FishbowlNY, The Huffington Post, paidContent:UK and Canadian Magazines

zunguzungu:

Why Arianna Huffington is Bill Keller's Somali Pirate … Jay Rosen and Jeff Jarvis and Felix Salmon (and Felix Salmon) and all sorts of people have been following and commenting on the New York Times' rhetorical war against Arianna Huffington and the Huffington Post. If you want a close look at it, you should read them.

Discussion: American Journalism Review, The Monkey Cage, Making Light and Runnin' Scared

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism:

The Future of Media, Publishing and Paid Content — The Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism invites you to watch “The Future of Media, Publishing and Paid Content,” a conversation with Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. and Janet Robinson, live here at 7 p.m.

Discussion: paidContent and CJR

Alex Weprin / mediabistro.com:

Jeff Greenfield Leaving CBS News — Breaking: CBS News senior political correspondent Jeff Greenfield is leaving the network. — In an email to staff Monday night, Greenfield said he will be departing CBS at the end of April. It does not sound like the decision to leave was his own, if the email was any indication:

Facebook:

Facebook & social journalism — Over the past year, we've worked with media organizations to help make their content more social and empower readers to experience news through their friends. Since we first launched these initiatives at the beginning of 2010, the average media organization …

Discussion: Mashable! and newsplexer, Thanks:malliegator

Adrianne Jeffries / Betabeat:

AOL to Movie Writers: You're Fired, But We'd Love It If You Write for Free — Until this morning, it wasn't clear what would happen to freelance writers for AOL properties Moviefone and Cinematical in the wake of the Huffington Post takeover of the editorial side of the company-especially since editor-in-chief Erik Davis just resigned.

Discussion: GalleyCat, TechCrunch, Mediaweek and Movie City News

Jason Kilar / Hulu Blog:

Q1 — We just completed the first quarter of 2011. Given the ongoing discussion around the evolution of premium content distribution — and Hulu's role in it — we thought it would be worthwhile to share some of our progress from the first 90 days of 2011:

Discussion: GigaOM, MediaMemo, Betabeat, CNET News, Epicenter, NetNewsCheck Latest and The Wire

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent: Hulu Q1 By The Numbers: On Pace For $500 Million 2011

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Is Righthaven the copyright enforcer news needs, or the one it deserves? How its suits could affect journalism — Could Righthaven be the enforcer publishers deserve, but not the one it needs right now? Yes, I'm shamelessly co-opting a line from The Dark Knight — partly out of love for that movie …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Omar L. Gallaga / Austin American-Statesman:

Former NPR chief optimistic about future of journalism — Vivian Schiller praises local affiliate KUT but does not discuss her recent departure from National Public Radio. — National Public Radio's former Chief Executive Officer and President Vivian Schiller came to Austin on Friday …

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:
‘The conditions are finally right to give newspaper paywalls a fair shake’

Discussion: Editors Weblog and CJR

Jack Shafer / Slate:

Why the evening news and the anchors no longer matter. — When the Associated Press confirmed today last week's speculations that Katie Couric's anchor contract at CBS would not be renewed when it expires on June 4, waves of relief washed over me. Never again will the press force-feed …

Discussion: TVNewser, Reason and MediaPost

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Can a Content Farm Do Quality? How Examiner's Trying — Sick of all the shoddy articles content farms churn out? Well, guess what? So are some of the content farms, and they're even sicker of the perception that everything they publish is badly-written Google clutter.

Discussion: paidContent and Examiner

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

Phone hacking: NoW journalists arrested — Former news editor and current chief reporter arrested after presenting themselves at separate London police stations — The former news editor and current chief reporter from the News of the World have been arrested on suspicion of unlawfully intercepting mobile phone voicemail messages.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Yahoo! News, The Atlantic Wire, Press Gazette, The Wire, Big News Network.com and On Media's Blog

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

How Seattle Times covered Cobain's death 17 years ago today — Romenesko Misc. — The Seattle Times was an afternoon paper in 1994 and the Nirvana lead singer's suicide was breaking news. “It was a huge story,” retired Times executive editor Mike Fancher tells Romenesko.

Ted Nesi / WPRI.com Blogs:

Projo parent A.H. Belo's execs get $1.6M in bonuses — Providence Journal parent A.H. Belo awarded its top five executives nearly $1.6 million in cash bonuses last year, the company disclosed Monday in an SEC filing. — A.H. Belo CEO Robert Decherd's total compensation more than tripled …

Discussion: Poynter