Mediagazer: Richard Beckman: Last of the Old-Style Media Moguls? (Andrew Goldman/Business Week)

1:00 PM ET, April 8, 2011

Top News:

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

As Breaking News Fades, Ratings Fall at CNN — In a repetition of a pattern that has become familiar for CNN, the surge of interest in breaking news that helped drive up its audiences has faded - and so have CNN's ratings. — The cable news network's prime-time lineup has not capitalized …

Discussion: TVNewser, TVWeek.com, Inside Cable News and Poynter

Max Fisher / The Atlantic Online:

Atlantic Reporter Captured in Libya — Clare Morgana Gillis and three other journalists have been taken into custody — Forces loyal to Libyan leader Muammar Qaddafi captured four journalists on Tuesday at around 1 p.m. local time a few miles outside of Brega, which is currently under government control.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Yahoo! News, FishbowlDC, New York Magazine and The Huffington Post

Larisa Epatko / Online NewsHour:
GlobalPost Reporter James Foley Detained in Libya

Discussion: CBS News, CTPost.com and CNN

The Independent:

Kelvin MacKenzie: 'I'd shut all the journalism colleges down' — There should only be one way into newspapers, reckons ex-Sun editor - and that's the old-school route — Print journalism is not a profession. It's a job, a knack, a talent. You don't need a diploma …

Discussion: George Brock, Wannabe Hacks, Journalism.co.uk, Guardian, blogs.journalism.co.uk, Jon Slattery, Editor's Blog and Editors Weblog

BBC:

News of the World to admit phone hacking liability — Actress Sienna Miller is currently taking legal action against the News of the World — The owner of the News of the World is to admit liability in a number of cases brought against the paper for alleged phone hacking.

Discussion: Guardian, The Wire, New York Magazine and Gawker

Jacques Hebert / YouTube Blog:

YouTube is going LIVE — With over 2 billion views a day, it's easy to think about YouTube as a place to watch videos recorded in the past. But you've told us you want more - and that includes events taking place right now. In response, we've live streamed a number of popular concerts …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mashable!, GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb, Epicenter and WebProNews

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Google News founder Krishna Bharat: For news consumers, “the whole experience is what counts” — Krishna Bharat founded Google News in 2002, partly in response to the US-centric news coverage served up by the American media after 9/11. Since then, the project has had its ups and downs …

Discussion: Poynter

David Kaplan / paidContent:

@ AADigital: Arianna: Paywalls Only Work For Special Content, ‘Weird Porn’ — Life is pretty good at AOL (NYSE: AOL) these days, including the use of three “resting rooms” that the newsroom has dubbed “NapQuest,” Arianna Huffington told AdAge's Ed Lee at the close of the AdAge Digital conference.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, AdAge and eMedia Vitals

Jeff Simmermon / Time Warner Cable Untangled:

We Filed A Request For Declaratory Judgment With Viacom This Afternoon — Last week, we pulled a number of channels from our iPad app. The Internet - not exactly a haven for measured discourse or patience for complex ideas - lit up with verbiage more commonly found in war movies and interviews with professional wrestlers.

Discussion: paidContent, Mediaweek, Business Wire, MacRumors, Multichannel News, 9 to 5 Mac, CNET News, App Advice, TechEye, Light Reading, GigaOM and Engadget, more at Techmeme »

Joe Flint / Company Town:
Time Warner Cable fires back at Viacom in dispute over streaming channels on iPad

Discussion: Media Decoder, MediaMemo, Lost Remote, Multichannel, Techdirt, Guardian, Multichannel News, paidContent, rbr.com, Media Money … and @yinkareuters

Kat Stoeffel / New York Observer:

Lady Gaga, Editor: Befuddling Pop Star to Guest Edit ‘Metro’ — Even the city's snobbiest subway commuters should consider leaving their Kindles at home on May 17. On that day, the free subway daily will be edited by pop performance artist Lady Gaga. — It's not entirely a gimmick!

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Media News International, Gothamist, Mediaite and Gawker

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK:

Blinkx Buys Burst Media To Chase Higher Video Ad Rates — Video index and ads firm Blinkx is buying up UK ad tech vendor and network Burst Media for $30 million (£18.5 million). — The rationale? A host of buzz phrases: “Blinkx will create contextually relevant video channels …

Discussion: rbr.com, TechCrunch, GigaOM and Guardian, more at Techmeme »

ASNE:

Newsroom employment up slightly, minority numbers plunge for third year — American newspapers showed a very slim increase in newsroom employees last year, finally halting a three-year exodus of journalists. — The percentage of minorities in newsrooms totaled 12.79 percent …

Discussion: Poynter, Prof Chris Daly's Blog and On Media's Blog

Ragnhild Kjetland / Bloomberg:

News Corp.'s German Pay TV Will Offer Programs on Mobile Phones, Computers — Sky Deutschland AG (SKYD), the German pay- TV operator controlled by Rupert Murdoch's News Corp., is making its programs available on mobile phones and laptop computers in a bid to add subscribers in Europe's biggest TV market.

Washington Post:

Five myths about the future of journalism — There are few things journalists like to discuss more than, well, themselves and the long-term prospects for their industry. How long will print newspapers survive? Are news aggregation sites the future? Or are online paywalls …

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

About.com Gets an Infusion — With Rivals Surging, New York Times Co. Invests in Its Network of How-To Sites — New York Times Co.'s About.com, the network of how-to websites that has generated reliable profits for its parent during a bruising period, is getting a needed investment.

The Big Lead:

USA Today Takes the Plunge: Paper to Pay Bonuses to Writers Based on Page Views — USA Today had a conference call last night and according to a source, the paper outlined a plan in which it will pay annual bonuses to writers based on page views. The goal, obviously, is to get writers thinking digital.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Poynter, Editors Weblog, Mashable!, FishbowlNY, freefromeditors, The Wire, The Awl and Gannett Blog

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:
USA Today: No decision on page view bonuses

Discussion: Gannett Blog and Future of Journalism

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

16 Newsweek Employees Taking Buyout — Response to offer higher than expected; could forestall future layoffs — Newsweek has started to settle in after its merger with The Daily Beast and redesign by Tina Brown, but another batch of employees is heading for the door anyway.

Discussion: Mediaite

Matt Shanahan / Digital Equilibrium:

Why Revenue Estimates for The New York Times Paywall Are Wrong — A digital subscription to the New York Times (NYT) is now a minimum of $195/year ($3.75 per week times 52 weeks). Chatter about the possibility of low subscribership and why $40M was too much to pay is everywhere.