Mediagazer: Like ABC, Fox Had FBI Mole In Its Midst (The Smoking Gun)

11:40 AM ET, April 7, 2011

Top News:

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.

Discussion: Noted

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

New York Times:

Beck and Fox End Relationship Grown Cold — The negotiations that led Glenn Beck to announce his departure from the Fox News Channel on Wednesday ended with an expression of “let's part as friends,” according to several people with knowledge of the talks. But behind that moment was a torrent …

Glynnis MacNicol / The Wire:
Here's The Real Reason Glenn Beck And Fox News Are Parting Ways

Discussion: Speakeasy, Runnin' Scared, Guardian and Hot Air

The Daily Beast:
Glenn Beck, Fox Agree to Divorce

Discussion: On Media's Blog, The Daily Beast, Mediaite, Guardian, Salon, Reason, AdAge and Inside Cable News

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

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Mediaite, @daveweigel, Mediaite, @davidfolkenflik, The Huffington Post, Media Decoder and Washington Monthly

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

New York Times Paywall Cost: More Like $25 Million — Arthur Sulzberger, Jr. insists a $40 million estimate for building New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Co.'s pay scheme is “vastly wrong”. But that's where the NYTCo chairman stopped in a Q&A at Columbia University earlier this week.

Discussion: @on_the_media, bookforum.com and Poynter

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
Sulzberger: $40 Million Estimate For Paywall Cost Is ‘Vastly Wrong’

Discussion: New York Observer, The Daily Beast, Poynter, MediaPost, blogs.journalism.co.uk, Yahoo! News, PC Magazine, Big News Network.com and Future of Journalism

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: The Atlantic Wire, FishbowlNY and Betabeat

Anne Thompson / Thompson on Hollywood: AOL's Huffington Overhauls Online Brands Moviefone and Cinematical: Moviefone's Chui Loses Job

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 …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter, Gawker, The Atlantic Wire and New York Observer

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.

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Why Is Facebook Investor Accel Investing In Hollywood? Because It's a Facebook Investor — Why is a big Facebook investor putting money into a Hollywood movie studio? Because Facebook is going to be very important for Hollywood movie studios. — That's the takeaway from Accel Partners …

Discussion: Forbes

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Accel Bets on Hollywood With $40 Million Legendary Pictures Deal

Discussion: The Wrap and VentureBeat

David Kaplan / paidContent:

@ AdAgeDigital: Twitter's Bain: Twitter Beats Facebook In Driving Purchases — Six months after Adam Bain was hired by Twitter from News Corp.'s Fox Audience Network, the microblog's president of revenue offered the audience Ad Age Digital conference a little bit of what's he's learned …

Discussion: SocialTimes.com, AdAge and Future of Journalism

Irina Slutsky / AdAge: Twitter to Offer Marketers More Tools to Target, Track Followers

The Atlantic Online:

The Hackers Who Keep the Washington Post Running — Dan Drinkard and his fellow programmers are constantly juggling projects that add value to the paper's reporting on the web — Development of a tool that would allow WashingtonPost.com visitors to read tweets written in Russian came after an offhand comment from Cory Haik.

Nat Worden / Wall Street Journal:

Cable TV Tunes In Apps — Executives Look to Tablets to Bolster Audience as More Viewers Turn to Web — A group of high-ranking cable television executives met with Apple Inc. Chief Executive Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley last April to discuss how to make more movies and TV shows available …

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

Erin Sherbert / The Snitch:

Reuters Sued: S.F. Bloggers Demand Overtime, Meal Pay — A San Francisco writer is leading a class action lawsuit against media giant Thomson Reuters, claiming the company worked them to the bone without paying them overtime or giving them proper meal breaks.

Discussion: Poynter

ETonline:

Source: Matt Lauer Leaving the ‘Today’ Show — As headlines have Meredith Vieira leaving the “Today” show, a source tells ET and The Insider that Matt Lauer has notified his NBC bosses that he will be resigning from the “Today” show when his contract expires on December 31, 2012.

Discussion: TVWeek.com, @alexweprin, TVNewser, Los Angeles Times, On Media's Blog, Deadline.com, Gawker, The Atlantic Wire and PopEater

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Florida Quran burning, Afghanistan violence raise questions about the power of media blackouts — Last fall, pastor Terry Jones was all over the news with his threats to burn the Quran on the anniversary of 9/11. Seven months later, he followed through, which you probably learned …

Thanks:myersnews

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Netflix's Three-Pronged Approach to Content Acquisition — Through a couple of deals with Lionsgate, Netflix acquired rights to stream all seven seasons of AMC hit series Mad Men. The first four seasons of the hit AMC series will begin streaming this summer, with subsequent seasons beginning …

Discussion: MediaPost, Post Advertising and Multichannel News