Mediagazer: MSNBC.com's Breaking News traces info to its source (Megan Garber/Nieman Journalism Lab)

7:10 AM ET, April 30, 2011

Top News:

MSNBC.com's Breaking News traces info to its source — There are some news events whose coverage is planned far — far, far — in advance of the events themselves. Those are exceptions, though: Most of the time, news is unscripted and unpredictable — breaking, appropriately enough, through the fabric of daily routine.

Wall Street Journal:

NBCU Chief Pushes More Cross-Marketing — While Rivals Streamline, Burke Pushes Cross-Marketing Project at NBCU — As he eases into the role of chief of Comcast Corp.'s NBCU, Steve Burke is doubling down on an idea that's fallen out of favor in the media business: synergy.

Latoya Peterson / Poynter:

Twitter does not need an editor, just time to evolve — Are tragic movie deaths considered newsworthy? What about Twitter users' penchant to Rise and Grind? Social media has blurred the boundaries of traditional news organizations by allowing journalists and taste-makers to patch into a daily conversation around trends.

Brian X. Chen / Gadget Lab:

Gore, Ex-Apple Engineers Team Up to Blow Up the Book — Former Apple engineers Kimon Tsinteris (left) and Mike Matas teamed up with Al Gore to create a new publishing platform called Push Pop Press. Photo: Jon Snyder/Wired.com — What do you do after working for Apple …

Discussion: Snarkmarket

Dana Milbank / Washington Post:

How the journalist prom got out of control — On Thursday, the Washington Post editorializes that Donald Trump has been campaigning on “bogus” issues and that he should “cease and desist.” An article in the news pages the same day reports that the great orange charlatan's “simply wild speculation” has “almost no basis in fact.”

Discussion: Gawker, Poynter, Salon and MetaFilter

Casey Ross / Boston Globe:

Businessman prepares bid to buy Globe — A Wellesley businessman is preparing to offer more than $200 million to buy The Boston Globe from its longtime owner, The New York Times Co., according to a person briefed on the plan. — Aaron Kushner, an entrepreneur who has spent months researching …

Discussion: Agence France Presse, Poynter, Media Nation, MediaPost and FishbowlNY

Colby Hall / Mediaite:

‘Aol News’ To Officially Fold Into Huffington Post — Its no surprise to anyone that Huffington Post and Aol News will be merging, but what surprised us, is that in the days to come, Aol News will no longer be producing any original content, and will instead be entirely serviced by Huffington Post.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

REVEALED: Columnists Join Bloomberg's New Opinion Stable — Last night, The Huffington Post revealed the full editorial board for Bloomberg Newsâ forthcoming editorial section, Bloomberg View. — While a couple recently hired columnists have been reported so far …

Discussion: New York Post, FishbowlDC and Poynter

Matt Shanahan / Digital Equilibrium:

Why Online News Revenue will Never Equal Newspaper Revenue — A publisher's ability to monetize the news ONLINE is different than their ability to monetize the newsPAPER. — According to the Newspaper Association of America data at naa.org, the average user spent 1 minute and 12 seconds with online news last month.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and paidContent

Chris Roush / Talking Biz News:

WSJ hires new Money & Investing editor — TALKING BIZ NEWS EXCLUSIVE — Francesco Guerrera, the finance editor of the Financial Times, has been hired by The Wall Street Journal to be its new Money & Investing editor, according to two sources with knowledge of the move.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Poynter, dowjones.com and FishbowlNY

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

Newspapers don't need new ideas; here are lots of ideas for new revenue streams — Alan Mutter documents the no-longer-surprising fact that newspaper advertising revenues continued to fall for the 20th straight quarter in the first three months of 2011. — This decline comes …

Andrew Damstedt / American Journalism Review:

Tracking the Names — How California Watch put together its powerful series on earthquake safety concerns at thousands of state schools, and how it distributed its findings across a wide array of platforms. Friday, April 29, 2011 — Andrew Damstedt (adamstedt@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant.

Discussion: Newspaper Death Watch and California Watch