Mediagazer: The Making of a Cover — Our cover story on Sunday … (Arem Duplessis/The 6th Floor)

2:31 AM ET, May 4, 2011

Top News:

PBS plays Google's word game, transcribing thousands of hours of video into crawler-friendly text — Blogs and newspaper sites enjoy a built-in advantage when it comes to search-engine optimization. They deal in words. But a whole universe of audio and video content is practically invisible to Google.

Discussion: New York Observer, Mediaite, Media Decoder, The Wire, Broadcasting & Cable and The Daily Beast

New York Observer:

Hot Damn! Behind the Young Rummy Aide Who Broke Bin Laden's Bust — Late Friday night, according to his now-infamous Twitter feed, Keith Urbahn toasted the end of the work week with a tall mint julep on a warm Washington evening, made from mint from his garden and 1792 small-batch Kentucky bourbon.

Discussion: Mediaite

Chris Lehmann / Yahoo! News:
Bin Laden news finds pundits forsaking usual comfort zones

Discussion: Gothamist, Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Megan McArdle / The Atlantic Online:
Anatomy of a Fake Quotation

Discussion: The Daily What, MediaMemo, Salon, The Atlantic Online, newsfeed.time.com, www.wnyc.org, NewsGrange, @gaberivera, @shervin, @lizgannes, Mashable!, Cronaca and New York Times

WWD.COM:
Memo Pad: Covering Bin Laden... People Magazine's Royal Gain...

Discussion: @megan

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post: WATCH: Brian Williams Tells How He Learned Of Bin Laden's Death

Patrick Gavin / The Politico:
KEITH URBAHN'S TWEET HEARD AROUND THE WORLD

Discussion: L.A. Times Tech Blog

CBS News:

Scott Pelley named anchor of “CBS Evening News” — Award-winning “60 Minutes” correspondent to fill anchor chair vacated by Katie Couric — Scott Pelley, one the most experienced reporters in broadcast journalism, has been named anchor and managing editor of the “CBS Evening News,” …

Discussion: Media Decoder, TVNewser, LA Observed, Mixed Media, The Huffington Post, Tuned In, mediabistro.com and Gawker

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Pelley to Anchor CBS News Amid Shifting Landscape — Longtime CBS reporter Scott Pelley will become anchor of the network's nightly newscast on June 6, the latest shift as broadcasters wrestle with how to extend the lifespan of the graying evening-news format.

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Ownership of TV Sets Falls in U.S. — For the first time in 20 years, the number of homes in the United States with television sets has dropped. — The Nielsen Company, which takes TV set ownership into account when it produces ratings, will tell television networks and advertisers …

Discussion: Stowe Boyd, Electronista, I4U News, Company Town, Nielsen Wire, WatchingTV Online, Digital Trends, National Review, @brianstelter, TVWeek.com, Gawker and PRNewser, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:
Maybe It's Not Cord-Cutting, But Cord-Nevers: TV Ownership Drops

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and NewsGrange

Megan O'Neill / SocialTimes.com:

85% Of Media Websites Now Use Online Video To Cover News — Is web video becoming the main format for online news? According to a new survey by D S Simon it just may be. According to the survey, 85 percent of online media websites are now using online video content to cover the news, jumping a third from last year.

Arem Duplessis / The 6th Floor:

The Making of a Cover — Our cover story on Sunday was about the American soldiers accused of murdering Afghan civilians. Some reports have depicted them as a rogue unit, but our story goes deeper into the psyche of the American soldier and questions whether the killings are symptoms of a much larger issue.

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Reality TV: OpenCourt has begun its livestream of the judicial system — OpenCourt is about as real as reality TV can get when it doesn't involve Kardashians, real housewives, or people trapped on an island. That's because OpenCourt, which launched yesterday, offers a view inside the legal system …

Discussion: WBUR, Patriot Ledger and OpenCourt, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy Greenfield / FINS.com:

The Risk Taker in Hearst's David Carey — David Carey had led a charmed life in magazine publishing — until the 2007 launch of Conde Nast Portfolio. Two years and a reported $100 million later, the business publication went down in what Carey calls a “radioactive” environment for business publications.

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Reporters Without Borders publishes ‘predators of press freedom’ list — Reporters Without Borders has released a list of 38 “predators of press freedom”, including political leaders, criminal organisations and militias from across the world. — The annual report by the press freedom group …

Discussion: Reporters Without Borders and Aljazeera

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Social Media Policies: Let's Talk About What You Should Do — Social media tools like Twitter and Facebook have been around for several years now, but some media organizations are still just getting around to figuring out how to handle them — and in many cases, as we've written before …

Discussion: MediaShift, Thanks:mathewi

David Kaplan / paidContent:

AP's Nick Ascheim To Run Digital For BBC Worldwide Americas — Nick Ascheim is leaving his post as the Associated Press's Digital GM to join BBC Worldwide Americas to help the company chart its mobile strategy and develop unspecified new products. His title will be SVP, Digital Media …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Steve Myers / Poynter:

How 4 people & their social network turned an unwitting witness to bin Laden's death into a citizen journalist — You've probably heard by now that an IT consultant in Pakistan used Twitter to share what he heard as Black Hawk helicopters swooped down on Osama bin Laden's compound in Pakistan.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Runnin' Scared, Technically Incorrect, Media Money …, Neowin.net and Gawker