Mediagazer: Targeted TV Provider Invidi Closes $49 Million Round With DirecTV (David Kaplan/paidContent)

12:30 AM ET, April 15, 2011

Top News:

Mark Milian / CNN:

Facebook trying to ‘friend’ journalists — New York (CNN) — Facebook is taking major steps to ensure that its News Feeds contain more actual news. — The social media giant is hiring someone to build relationships with reporters and news organizations. The new hire also will help …

Discussion: Facebook, Lost Remote, @lavrusik and Soup

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Exclusive: Flipboard Confirms $50 Million Funding at $200 Million Valuation — Late last month, BoomTown posted about a huge venture funding effort by the high-profile and even more highly designed social media reading app for the Apple iPad, Flipboard. — Today, its co-founder …

Discussion: paidContent, Forbes.com, Electronista, VentureBeat, Mashable!, PE Hub Blog and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Harry McCracken / Time:

Personalized Magazine Apps: Cutting the Web Down to Size — Jonathan Fickies / Bloomberg / Getty Images — The Web may be the most amazing newsstand the world has ever known, but it's far from perfect. For one thing, there's way too much of it: jillions of pieces of content on gazillions …

Discussion: Techland and ReadWriteWeb

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:
Flipboard Gets Oprah

Discussion: Speakeasy, Media Decoder, digiday:DAILY, PC Magazine, paidContent and Broadcasting & Cable

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Why the Times Pays Writers Even When It Doesn't Have To — This guy doesn't need your stinkin' 50 bucks, okay? Image via Wikipedia — In the great debate over whether the Huffington Post should/must/will pay its bloggers, there's one refrain you keep hearing from the site's defenders …

Discussion: Working Life, FishbowlNY, Gawker, MediaPost, Poynter and B2B Memes

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of the digital cafeteria — Editor's Note: Each week, Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of news for the Lab. — Here's how newspapers sell what they do to would-be readers.

Stephanie Rosenbloom / New York Times:

Would You Sign My Kindle? — SITTING at a table in a Barnes & Noble in St. Petersburg, Fla., T. J. Waters was signing copies of his book “Hyperformance” when a fan standing in line with the eBook version walked up and said, “It's too bad you can't sign my Kindle.”

Discussion: TeleRead and Techland

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Targeted TV Provider Invidi Closes $49 Million Round With DirecTV — TV ad targeter Invidi Technologies has closed a whopping $49 million fourth round with the addition of DirecTV (NYSE: DTV) as an investor. The investment is a further vote of confidence in the ability of addressable TV finally making …

Discussion: AdExchanger.com, Multichannel and MediaPost

Kelly Reeves / The Outbrain Blog:

Outbrain Study Gives Insight Into Content Discovery Trends Across the Web's Leading Publishers — We're excited to announce our inaugural study on how people discover and engage with content on the web! — In the first quarter of 2011, for the first time ever, we decided to analyze …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Thanks:nitwitty

The Huffington Post:

Daily News Owner: Trump Never ‘Saved’ Paper — NEW YORK — Donald Trump didn't care much for the Daily News' cover on Monday that mocked his presidential aspirations as a circus act, complete with clown make-up. The “Sideshow Don” headline referred to Senior White House Adviser David Plouffe's dismissive …

Discussion: New York Observer, coverawards.com, Mediaite, Capital New York, Runnin' Scared, Poynter, FishbowlNY, Weigel and The Daily Caller

Sharon Shahid / Newseum:

Handwritten Newspapers From Ravaged Japan at Newseum — When the worst earthquake in Japan's history and the subsequent tsunami knocked out all power in the city of Ishinomaki in Miyagi Prefecture, editors at the Ishinomaki Hibi Shimbun, the city's daily newspaper, printed news of the disaster the only way they could: by pen and paper.

Discussion: Poynter

Dan Frommer / The Wire:

Meet The Guy Who Has Totally Reinvented Bloomberg Businessweek's Design — Bloomberg's Businessweek relaunch has been impressive. The stories are interesting, new editor Josh Tyrangiel has made some big editorial hires, and Bloomberg is even executing on the tech side with a great new iPad app.

Discussion: SAI, FishbowlNY and Future of Journalism

Stacey Higginbotham / GigaOM:

Call The Lawyers: Bamboom Wants to Be Netflix for Broadcasters — Cord cutters or those who want to watch American Idol or local sports teams in real-time on their connected devices will soon have a new option thanks to Bamboom, a startup that said it raised $4.5 million today in seed capital.

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Altoona Becomes ‘Pom Wonderful’ — For a Price — The filmmaker Morgan Spurlock in Times Square. His new documentary, “The Greatest Story Ever Sold,” explores product placement. — The documentary filmmaker Morgan Spurlock has found another catchy way to promote his next release …

Discussion: Gawker

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Former Newsweek Editor Meacham Switches Teams — Writes cover story for Time magazine — Newsweek's loss is Time's gain, again. Ex-Newsweek editor Jon Meacham wrote the cover story for Time's forthcoming issue, which hits newsstands this week. For the piece, his first for the magazine …

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY and MediaPost

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

An Hour In A Room With Arianna Huffington (Guest Starring Biz Stone!) — As part of the AdTech conference yesterday, a gaggle of press got together to talk to Huffington Post Media Group's Arianna Huffington, a. k. a my bosses' boss and Tim Richards, VP of Ad Sales at AOL West Coast.

Discussion: paidContent, GigaOM, Globe and Mail and Communications …, more at Techmeme »

Tim Currie / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What works for news orgs on Foursquare? Opinion, reviews, evergreens, but maybe not the news — Editor's Note: At the International Symposium on Online Journalism earlier this month, one of the most interesting papers presented was from Tim Currie, an assistant journalism professor …

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

Third News of the World journalist arrested — James Weatherup in custody as further searches of News of the World offices are expected — Profile: who is James Weatherup? — The police investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World has taken a dramatic turn with the surprise arrest …

Discussion: New York Times, The Atlantic Wire, The Wire, Adweek, Yahoo! News and Press Gazette

John Cook / Gawker:

The New York Observer's Trump Problem — Pouty fathead Donald Trump is a tailor-made character for the New York Observer, which purports to monitor Manhattan's smug oligarchy with a gimlet-eyed detachment. And his semi-coherent presidential grumblings, which count as news just about everywhere else …

Discussion: USA Today, Runnin' Scared, The Wire, FishbowlNY and New York Observer

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Former ABC News boss David Westin to head up News Licensing Group — Former ABC News president David Westin has been named president and CEO of the News Licensing Group, a digital rights organization established by the board of the Associated Press. — News Licensing will launch this summer …

Discussion: paidContent, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap and On Media's Blog