Mediagazer: The New Yorker uses a ‘like-gate’ to find fans of long-form journalism on Facebook (Damon Kiesow/Poynter)

5:30 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.

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

Stan Schroeder / Mashable!:

AOL Shuts Down Software Blog Download Squad — In a somewhat surprising move, AOL/Huffington Post has shut down popular software blog Download Squad, according to its editor, Sebastian Anthony, who shared the news on Twitter. — The site itself is still available, with the last post dated yesterday, April 11.

Discussion: mediabistro.com

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?

Thanks:mathewi

Heather Dougherty:
Impact of paywall on NYTimes.com

Discussion: The Wire, Yahoo! News, Future of Journalism, NetNewsCheck Latest, Mashable!, Poynter, VentureBeat, paidContent, Media Buyer Planner, PC Magazine, FishbowlNY, NYConvergence.com, ReadWriteWeb, On Media's Blog and eMedia Vitals

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!, Forbes.com, Editors Weblog, The Atlantic Online, bookforum.com, Switched, 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.

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, FishbowlNY, The Awl, On Media's Blog, The 6th Floor and Poynter

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

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: FishbowlNY

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

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.

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.

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: TVWeek.com, Inside Cable News and FishbowlDC

Stuart Dredge / Apps blog:

ABC and NBC launch iPad apps with new angles on news and social TV — Video books and social TV to the fore for US networks' latest applications — US broadcasters NBC and ABC have launched new iPad apps, but neither focuses on streaming live TV. Instead, NBC Live offers second-screen social features …

Discussion: Beet.TV

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Research: YouTube Beats iTunes For Consumers' Music Attention — The format digital music listeners are most likely to pay for... is the one they use least, according to new Nielsen research... Only about 16 percent of consumers bought a digital download in the last three months …

Discussion: SocialTimes.com and Future of Journalism

Michael Roberts / The Latest Word:

Brian Hill: Righthaven drops suit against autistic blogger, warns other targets not to rest easy — Righthaven LLC, the Nevada firm that's been suing for copyright infringement on behalf of companies like MediaNews Group, owner of the Denver Post, picked a sympathetic target when it went …

Discussion: paidContent, Techdirt and Poynter