Mediagazer: Former CNN Anchor Tony Harris Now Anchoring For Al Jazeera English (Alex Weprin/TVNewser)

8:20 PM ET, April 12, 2011

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

AOL, Arianna Huffington Hit with Class Action Suit — Jonathan Tasini. Image via Wikipedia — Huffington Post bloggers who think they ought to get paid for their volunteer writing have been litigating their case in the court of public opinion. Now they're taking it to a real one.

Damon Kiesow / Poynter:

The New Yorker uses a ‘like-gate’ to find fans of long-form journalism on Facebook — The New Yorker is experimenting with Facebook this week, making a 12,000-word piece by Jonathan Franzen free behind a “like-gate” for a limited time. — When users “Like” the magazine's Facebook page …

Discussion: Mashable!, Boing Boing, Forbes.com, Editors Weblog, bookforum.com, Switched, The Atlantic Online, NYConvergence.com, MediaPost, FishbowlNY, Journalism.co.uk and Bloggasm

Matthew Creamer / AdAge:

How The New Yorker Learned to Stop Worrying About Facebook and Love the Weak Tie — Sometimes a ‘Like’ Is Good Enough — To a certain kind of person, Jonathan Franzen going to the deserted island that served as the setting for “Robinson Crusoe” so he can write about David Foster Wallace is an intellectual SCHWING! moment.

Violet Blue / ZDNet:

AOL/HuffPo Shuts Down Download Squad — In a surprise move Monday night, popular software blog Download Squad became the latest tech casualty in Huffington/AOL's so-called ‘consolidation’ of its content sites. In an end-of-the-day email, Download Squad's staff was told that the blog …

Discussion: Mixed Media, @mrseb, Gawker, @dpkvnt, Switched, @andrewkam, @mrseb, @blogsdna, MediaPost, Mediaite, @samuelgibbs, @jkendrick, Liliputing, @primatage, Daring Fireball, lalawag and Poynter, more at Techmeme »

Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:
AOL Shuts Down Software Blog Download Squad

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Eliza Gray / The New Republic:

Vanity Fair's Absurd Preoccupation with the Kennedys — “Kate Middleton: A Kennedy?” Vanity Fair tweeted on April 1, linking to a story that purported to uncover a genealogical link between the princess-to-be and the Kennedy family. The story was based on a “never-before-seen” …

Discussion: MediaPost, The Awl, FishbowlNY, Canadian Magazines, On Media's Blog, The 6th Floor and Poynter

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

The NYT Paywall Is Working — It's Keeping People Out — We're still in the early days of the New York Times paywall, but traffic-measurement firm Hitwise already has some numbers on how the subscription plan has affected the newspaper's readership. The bottom line?

Discussion: The Wire, Future of Journalism, Yahoo! News, Editors Weblog, PC Magazine and Poynter, Thanks:mathewi

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Former CNN Anchor Tony Harris Now Anchoring For Al Jazeera English — Former CNN anchor Tony Harris, who left CNN in December after more than six years at the cable channel, appears to have found a new gig. — Harris was anchoring on Al Jazeera English beginning at noon ET today.

Discussion: Mediaite, TVWeek.com, Inside Cable News and FishbowlDC

Noah Davis / The Wire:

Here Are The 6(!) Ads In Newsweek's Latest Issue — Newsweek, the only newsweekly to lose advertising in during the first quarter of 2011, continues to dwindle almost to the point of irrelevance. — The April 18, 2011 issue features just six ads, plus an endemic one for “Newsweek's Digital Companion” …

Discussion: Gawker and FishbowlNY

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Google teams up with The New York Times for its topsy-turvy trivia game — Q: Which search outfit will be running, for the next three months, a standing ad in the weekday print editions of The New York Times? — A: This one. — Yep. Flip to the crossword section of today's New York Times …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Fast Company, VentureBeat and NewsGrange

Alfred Hermida / Reportr.net:

Canadians would rather give up newspapers than the internet — Canadians love the internet. That's the conclusion of a study that found that Canadians value their home Internet connection more than any other medium — An online survey of 1,682 adults, conducted by the Canadian Media Research Consortium …

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Bid duel likely for Orange County Register — A bidding war appears to be shaping up for the Orange County Register, where the winner could emerge as the dominant player in a series of consolidations that eventually puts the major dailies in Southern California in the hands of a single owner.

Discussion: Poynter, Company Town and LA Observed

New York Times:

Egypt Sentences Blogger to 3 Years — CAIRO — An Egyptian blogger was sentenced Monday to three years in prison for criticizing the military in what human rights advocates called one of the more alarming violations of freedom of expression since a popular uprising led to the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak two months ago.

Discussion: This Just In, CNN, Crikey, Runnin' Scared and Gawker

Los Angeles Times:

Hulu is popular, but that wasn't the goal — Its owners — the parents of ABC, Fox and NBC — fear the TV website may hurt their bottom lines. — Pioneering Internet television service Hulu recently celebrated its third anniversary in a fitting locale: under the roller coaster at the Santa Monica Pier.

Matthew Lasar / Ars Technica:

The four enemies of indie Internet TV — Trying to assess the prospects for independent online video entertainment—video that doesn't come from one of the established outlets—is a day-to-day process. On some days the future looks bright; on others, less so.

Hugh Grant / New Statesman:

The bugger, bugged — After a chance meeting with a former News of the World executive who told him his phone had been hacked, Hugh Grant couldn't resist going back to him - with a hidden tape recorder - to find out if there was more to the story . . . When I broke down in my midlife crisis car …

Discussion: The Wire

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Federal aid story prompted Falwell to block Lynchburg paper — News & Advance reporter Liz Barry wrote today that Jerry Falwell Jr.'s Liberty University blocked access to N&A's website for at least one day last week, and that “Falwell did not elaborate on the reason.”

Discussion: www2.newsadvance.com