Mediagazer: Bet on Television Pays Off for RTL's Zeiler (Eric Pfanner/New York Times)

6:00 AM ET, May 2, 2011

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

How the bin Laden Announcement Leaked Out — The terse announcement came just after 9:45 p.m. Sunday from Dan Pfeiffer, the White House communications director. “POTUS to address the nation tonight at 10:30 PM Eastern Time,” he wrote on Twitter, sharing the same message that had just been transmitted to the White House press corps.

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

First Credible Reports Of Bin Laden's Death Spread Like Wildfire On Twitter — @keithurbahn — So I'm told by a reputable person they have killed Osama Bin Laden. Hot damn. — about 5 hours ago via Twitter for BlackBerry®ReplyRetweetFavorite — If the Twitterverse is to be believed …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Media Scrambles To Cover Bin Laden News — NEW YORK âÂ" White House reporters sharing a laugh with President Obama on Saturday night found themselves racing online and soberly appearing on camera 24 hours later to cover an East Room statement that will go down in history: Osama bin Laden is dead.

Discussion: New York Observer, Guardian and Gawker

Matt Rosoff / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:
Twitter Just Had Its CNN Moment

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

News Corp.'s IGN Buys Hearst's UGO In Preparation For Game Site Spin-Off — News Corp., which is getting ready to part with MySpace, is now prepping a move for another one of its big Web properties. — The media conglomerate plans to spin out its IGN.com dudes-and-games site …

Discussion: VentureBeat, VG247, Joystiq and @pkafka, more at Techmeme »

CBS News:

Lara Logan breaks silence on Cairo assault — Talks to Scott Pelley about sexual assault, her rescue and recovery — Lara Logan feared she would die a “torturous death” during a sexual assault and beating she suffered at the hands of a violent mob in Egypt's Tahrir Square.

Discussion: Poynter, NY Daily News, Mediaite and Boing Boing

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

Freemium Revisited: Paying For Content-Based Applications — Last week, Instapaper's founder Marco Arment gave us a remarkable insight into the economics of content applications. For readers who haven't used Instapaper on their iPad or iPhone (preferably on both): this application is an absolute must-have.

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

Time Inc. in iPad Deal With Apple — Time Inc., the country's largest magazine publisher, has reached a deal with Apple Inc. (AAPL) to make all its iPad editions free for print subscribers, marking a break in the impasse between publishers and Apple and lending support to Time's contention …

Discussion: CNET News, Electronista and @radamswsj, more at Techmeme »

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

Village Voice Admits To Spamming Reddit, Begs Forgiveness — The power of a social news site comes principally from its community, so when users feel like their service is being manipulated, they take it very personally. — Two weeks ago a rag tag team of anonymous Redditors discovered …

New York Times:

NBC Expected to Pick Curry as ‘Today’ Co-Host — NBC is about to shuffle the deck of the most profitable news program on television. — The network is expected to hold a news conference Monday morning to announce that Ann Curry will succeed Meredith Vieira as the co-host of “Today,” …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine

Alex Wilhelm / The Next Web:

Content control in the Age of AOL — This post is a designed meditation on publications that are strictly digital, and their future under the new reality of agglomeration through acquisition. — Yes, the great landscape of blogs and digital media is a-changin,' and there is no more conspicuous face in the matter than AOL.

Thanks:bradmccarty

Michael Hedges / FollowTheMedia:

The Digital Economy: Not Everybody Seeking Enlightenment — The real mark of a product's eminence is that moment when its kinks and goofs are mostly worked out and reality is at hand. For the internet, that moment arrived ten years after the dot com bubble burst.

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:

Bet on Television Pays Off for RTL's Zeiler — LUXEMBOURG — If there were a television talent show to crown a “Mr. TV Europe,” Gerhard Zeiler would be a natural. With his wavy hair, perfect teeth and easy smile, he looks the part. More important, the company he runs, RTL Group …