Mediagazer: Your handiest reporting tool may be the smartphone in your pocket (Andrew Phelps/Nieman Journalism Lab)

4:35 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

Discussion: SAI

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

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:
An Update To My Investment Policy

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

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

CBS Reporter Talks About Her Assault in Egypt — Lara Logan thought she was going to die in Tahrir Square when she was sexually assaulted by a mob on the night that Hosni Mubarak's government fell in Cairo. — Ms. Logan, a CBS News correspondent, was in the square preparing a report for …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Poynter, New York Magazine, TVNewser and FishbowlNY

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

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

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

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: Folio and 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.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

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 eMedia Vitals

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Your handiest reporting tool may be the smartphone in your pocket — Every journalist has found herself in some version of this situation: Bianca Vazquez Toness, a reporter for Boston's WBUR public radio, drove about 40 minutes north of her office Tuesday to interview the controversial mayor of Lawrence …

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, Mediaite, ABC News, FishbowlNY, Crikey, AdAge, Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Beast

Adweek:

Reader's Digest Looking to Unload Web's Top Food Site? Allrecipes.com had become company's digital jewel By Lucia Moses — The struggles of Reader's Digest magazine have grabbed headlines in recent years, but a food website may have been a bigger factor in Mary Berner's departure as CEO of Reader's Digest Association.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

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

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.

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

Veteran Alabama meterologist uses Twitter, Facebook, Ustream to broadcast during tornado, storms — Meteorologist James Spann could tell from his radar screen that Tuscaloosa, Ala., was in the path of a powerful storm Wednesday. But when his TV station, ABC 33/40, turned one of its cameras …

Discussion: CNN and TVSpy