Mediagazer: Why the evening news and the anchors no longer matter. (Jack Shafer/Slate)

1:00 AM ET, April 6, 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, New York Times, Mediaite, Poynter, TVNewser, The Daily Beast, On Media's Blog, The Wire, rbr.com, FishbowlDC 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, IntoMobile, I4U News, Yahoo! News, Epicenter, MacStories, Betabeat, Technologizer 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.

MediaShift:

How One Radio Reporter Ditched His Equipment for an iPhone 4 — It's been more than a year since I packed away my laptop computer, digital recorders, microphones, cables and cameras, and began covering Washington, D.C. with only my iPhone. — When I first came to the top-rated all-news WTOP in 1997 …

Discussion: MacStories, thinq_ and Innovation in College Media

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

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: TVGuide.com, The Atlantic Wire, MarketWatch, TVNewser, Reason and MediaPost

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:

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, Movie City News and Mediaweek

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

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 …

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Akamai Expects Half of Premium Video will Be Consumed via Connected Devices in Three Years — Half of premium video content will be consumed by connected deviices, via the Internet, by early 2014 says Akamai's Chief Media and Entertainment Strategist Chris Van Noy in this interview with Beet.TV

Discussion: Future of Journalism

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!, Journalistics and newsplexer, Thanks:malliegator

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Murdoch lands £153m from Shine deal — Rupert Murdoch's second daughter to join News Corp board after completing sale of Ashes to Ashes and Outcasts producer — Elisabeth Murdoch is £153m richer after completing the sale of her Shine television production company …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

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

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: