Mediagazer: Exclusive: AOL Fires Moviefone Editor Who Offered Fired Freelancers the Chance to Work for, Um, Free (Kara Swisher/BoomTown)

12:00 AM ET, April 7, 2011

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Glenn Beck to End Daily Fox News Program — Glenn Beck will end his daily Fox News Channel program later this year. — His departure was jointly announced in a statement on Wednesday by Fox and Mr. Beck's company, Mercury Radio Arts. The statement did not specify an end date for the show …

The Daily Beast:

Glenn Beck, Fox Agree to Divorce — The highly rated host became such a lightning rod that many at Fox wanted him out—and for Beck, the feeling was mutual. Howard Kurtz on the demise of cable's most radioactive show. — Despite his monster ratings, Fox News is bidding farewell to Glenn Beck …

Discussion: Guardian, Salon, Reason, Inside Cable News and AdAge

Glynnis MacNicol / The Wire:

Here's The Real Reason Glenn Beck And Fox News Are Parting Ways — Glenn Beck and Fox New have parted ways. — But why now? — After weeks of rumors, and stories, and very public jockeying, the news arrived today arguably somewhat sooner than expected — Beck's contract with Fox doesn't end until the end of the year.

Discussion: Speakeasy, Guardian, Gawker and Broadcasting & Cable

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Glenn Beck To ‘Transition Off’ Fox News Program

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, @daveweigel, Mediaite, @davidfolkenflik and The Huffington Post

Jeffrey Benzing / American Journalism Review:

“Too Amazing To Turn Down” — Why high-profile journalists are leaving prestigious news outlets like the New York Times to join The Huffington Post. Posted: Tue, April 5, 2011 — Jeffrey Benzing (jbenzing@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — What do you get when you take a handful …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and On Media's Blog

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

Remaking AOL in Huffington's Image — Web Portal's New Editor Sweeps In With Cookies, Big Ideas to Turn Passions Into News—and Money — The Huffington Post made a name for itself through a formula of buzzy political commentary splashed with celebrity gossip and traffic-grabbing tricks.

Kara Swisher / BoomTown: Former AOL Media Exec Marty Moe to Join Engadget Gang of Eight at SB Nation

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: AOL Fires Moviefone Editor Who Offered Fired Freelancers the Chance to Work for, Um, Free — Yesterday, AOL's Huffington Post Media Group got into hot water after the top editor at its Moviefone unit sent a memo to freelancers it was in the midst of firing, offering them an opportunity to …

Discussion: Poynter, Thompson on Hollywood, FishbowlNY and Betabeat

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Recap genre not so lucrative after all: AOL TV freelancers are next to go

Discussion: The Wire, Future of Journalism and Betabeat

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media: AOL Axes Freelancers. Time to Dust Off the WARN Act?

Wall Street Journal:

Google to Revamp YouTube With ‘Channels’ — Google Inc.'s YouTube video website is working on a major site overhaul to organize its content around “channels” as it positions itself for the rise of Internet-connected televisions that allow people to watch online video in their living rooms, according to people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: VentureBeat, eMedia Vitals, paidContent, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Engadget, Between the Lines Blog, GigaOM, WebProNews, Deal Journal, Fortune, MediaFile, The Wire, CNET News and Gizmodo Australia, more at Techmeme »

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

More data on The Daily: What's prime time for iPad use? And which stories get tweeted the most? — Yesterday, I wrote about a fascinating set of data I'd obtained with the help of the folks at PostRank: Every tweet generated from within The Daily iPad app from launch through March 31.

Discussion: Subtraction.com, Techland, blogs.journalism.co.uk, 9 to 5 Mac and Bloggasm

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Estimate: In Two Years, Streaming TV Will Be An $800 Million Business for Netflix and Hulu — By the end of this year, an estimated 2 million households in the U.S. will have abandoned TV for the Web, cutting the cord with their cable companies. This estimate comes from Convergence Consulting Group …

Discussion: I4U News, Media Money …, broadstuff and Fortune, more at Techmeme »

Steven Greenhouse / New York Times:

Labor Panel to Press Reuters Over Reaction to Twitter Post — In what would be the first government case against an employer involving Twitter, the National Labor Relations Board told Thomson Reuters on Wednesday that it planned to file a civil complaint accusing the company of illegally reprimanding …

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Sulzberger: $40 Million Estimate For Paywall Cost Is ‘Vastly Wrong’ — Earlier this year, Bloomberg reported that the New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) spent $40 million or more to build the digital paywall that went live late last month. Not so, insists Arthur Sulzberger …

Discussion: The Daily Beast, New York Observer, Poynter, Yahoo! News, PC Magazine, Big News Network.com, Fast Company, Future of Journalism and Columbia University …

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Can CNN's Piers Morgan Tweet His Way to Ratings Success? — Dumenco's Trendrr Chart of the Week — Piers Morgan's predecessor at CNN, Larry King, was so famously technophobic that I once included him in a Media Guy Pop Quiz for exactly that reason. The quiz ran in the wake …

Discussion: Show Tracker

Susannah Breslin / Pink Slipped:

How to Become a Forbes Blogger — I've been a Forbes blogger for a little over a month. — How did I become a Forbes blogger? — What have I learned? — Let's find out. — TIP #1: Know somebody. — Before I was a blogger at Forbes, I was a blogger at True/Slant.

Irina Slutsky / AdAge:

Twitter to Offer Marketers More Tools to Target, Track Followers — Geo-Relevant Ads Confirmed, ‘Follower Dashboard’ Announced at Ad Age Digital Conference — Twitter is finally giving advertisers what they've been asking for: geo-relevant ads. It's also giving them more-detailed user analytics …