Mediagazer: An Update To My Investment Policy (Michael Arrington/TechCrunch)

3:20 PM ET, April 28, 2011

Top News:

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Godspeed on That Investing Thing, Yertle-But I Still Have Some Questions for Your Boss, Arianna — Would it surprise you to know that BoomTown doesn't really care or not anymore if TechCrunch editor Michael Arrington sidelines as a blogger while he makes investments in tech companies his tech news site covers.

Discussion: Two Bananas Marketing, @mediatwit, @learmonth, SiliconANGLE, @rafat and @karaswisher, more at Techmeme »

Tom / TomsTechBlog.com:

The Twisting Web of Biases — Michael Arrington of TechCrunch has decided to start angel investing again... and people are making a big deal out of it... The problem with isolating financial gain as a serious conflict of interest is it ignores all the other conflicts that are just as likely to cause a bias.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
An Update To My Investment Policy

Discussion: Adweek, Talking Biz News, Gawker, Silicon Valley Watcher, @baznet, @semilshah, memeburn, @timdl, @benparr, The Wire and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Tom Foremski / IMHO Blog| ZDNet: Is it OK for AOL's Techcrunch Editors to invest in companies they write about?

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

In Trying to Debunk a Theory, the News Media Extended Its Life — The facts about Barack Obama's birth never wavered. But the more the fraudulent theories were debated and dispelled in major news media outlets, the more people seemed to believe them. — The conspiracy theories …

Discussion: FrontBurner, The New Yorker Blog and White House.gov Blog

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

CNBC's Burnett Is Said Ready to Jump to CNN — The CNBC anchor Erin Burnett is poised to sign a long-term contract with CNN, according to three people with knowledge of her plans. — The signing will represent a shift to general news anchoring for Ms. Burnett, who has shown interest …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, MediaPost, TVWeek.com, Poynter, TVNewser, Dealbreaker, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Celeb Baby Bump: Slate Editor and Pregnant Media Vanguard Award Winner David Plotz (PHOTOS) — A Q&A on Slate's Old Print Editions, Current Fresca Fellowships and Advanced Age of 15 — As part of our continuing series of talks with Media Vanguard Award winners, today we present …

Discussion: Poynter

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of story cost accounting — 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. — What's a story worth? — Last week, I looked at a single investigative story …

Aida Alami / New York Times:

Web Offers a Voice to Journalists in Morocco — CASABLANCA — After the Moroccan journalist Ali Lmrabet wrote about the king's real estate holdings in 2001, he was tried in court on defamation charges and the article cost him his career: His satirical magazine, Demain, a symbol of the independent press, was shut down.

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

How the AP will cover the Royal Wedding — “Friday is royal wedding day in London and our report will look a little different,” says a memo to Associated Press staff. “The Associated Press will be alerting every development, running live video in SD and HD, tweeting and posting on Facebook …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Joel Meares / CJR:
The Royals Ban Satirical Coverage of Kate and Wills' Big Day

Discussion: Media Decoder, Speakeasy, Poynter, Yahoo! News, ABC News, Mediaite, FishbowlNY, Crikey, AdAge, Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Beast

Marco.org:

Why Instapaper Free is taking an extended vacation — Last fall, I conducted an experiment: I quietly removed Instapaper Free from the App Store1 for three days, leaving only the full, $4.99 Instapaper app. Not only did sales increase incrementally, but nobody seemed to notice.

Discussion: Technologizer, MacStories, Betabeat, GigaOM and ReadWriteWeb

The Daily:

Auto-racing heir Penske poised to add Variety to his empire — Jay Penske, the heir to the Detroit car-racing clan, is mulling a bid to buy Variety from the Amsterdam-based Reed Elsevier company, sources say. — Penske, 30, already has an Internet media conglomerate with Movieline …

Discussion: FishbowlLA

Noah Davis / The Wire:

This Startup Just Solved Every Publication's Paywall Problem — And It Is Using The Huffington Post As Proof — Suppose you are a web publisher who wants to institute a pay wall. You could spend millions on developing one like The New York Times. — Or you could call Tiny Pass.

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Want to keep mobile users engaged longer? Just add audio — NPR's iPhone, iPad, and Android apps have together surpassed five million downloads, an impressive number — but most of their users never stream audio. When they do listen, however, they are far more engaged.

Discussion: MediaPost and eMedia Vitals

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Thomson Reuters revenue rises, plans divestitures — NEW YORK (Reuters) - News and information provider Thomson Reuters Corp's revenue growth accelerated in the first quarter as it reaped the benefits of heavy spending on new products, and the company said it plans to sell two more businesses to fund further investment.

Katy Culver / Poynter:

Why Delicious is an effective teaching tool for journalism educators — Delicious, which Yahoo just sold to YouTube founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen, is an ideal teaching tool for tagging content to share with students or other teachers. — We are all inundated daily with content …

Discussion: blog.delicious.com and TechCrunch

Jack Shafer / Slate:

Michael Kinsley's First Bloomberg View Column — What it should say. — My friend and former boss Michael Kinsley has packed his smartphone and khakis and is leaving Politico for a job at Bloomberg View, Bloomberg LP's soon-to-be-launched editorial and opinion website.

Discussion: FishbowlLA, LA Observed and Talking Biz News

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Jersey Shore No Laughing Matter At Viacom; Helps Push Revs Up 20 Percent — A strong quarter from Viacom (NYSE: VIA), thanks to home entertainment, television licensing and domestic advertising combined with a 50 percent increase in film revenues. Domestic advertising was up 11 percent …