Mediagazer: Vice Media Empire Is Near a Big Infusion of Cash (Jeremy W. Peters/New York Times)

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, Epicenter, I4U News, MacStories, Yahoo! News, Betabeat, Technologizer and FishbowlNY

The Center for Public Integrity:

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

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, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, Canadian Magazines and paidContent:UK

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

Discussion: GigaOM

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 …

Discussion: Editors Weblog 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:

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, Runnin' Scared and Rebooting The News

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

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

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

Patrick May / Mercury News:

Apple makes bid to become gatekeeper for newspapers and magazines — Apple's (AAPL) bold foray into the world of digital publishing could make it the online gatekeeper for newspaper and magazine content, just as it is for music. — But for a plan ostensibly designed to help ailing print publishers sign …

Discussion: Noted

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, Mediaweek and TechCrunch

Markcuban / blog maverick:

Whats the role of media for sports teams ? — I'm going to make this short and sweet. In the year 2011, I'm not sure I have a need for beat writers from ESPN.com, Yahoo, or any website for that matter to ever be in our locker room before or after a game.

Discussion: Nodes - Quickish

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

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 …

Thanks:malliegator

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

@FakeAPStylebook's ‘Write More Good’ honors, mocks journalism — The folks behind @FakeAPStylebook have spent the past year turning their popular Twitter account into a book that they've dubbed “an absolutely phony guide” for writers. — The book, titled “Write More Good,” …

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Alleged Libyan rape victim Iman al-Obeidi breaks through to the international press — For the past week, journalists stationed in Libya's capital city, Tripoli, have pressed government officials for information on Iman al-Obeidi. — The 29-year-old Libyan woman made international headlines …

Discussion: NPR, New York Times and Washington Post