Mediagazer: Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: No Armageddon Battle With Cable Giants (Sam Gustin/Epicenter)

11:45 AM ET, May 4, 2011

Top News:

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: Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable, Mediaite and The Daily Beast

New York Observer:

The Situation and the Story: Press Corps Parties While White House Makes History … It was Wednesday morning at 9:47 a.m. in the White House Press Briefing Room. The president of the United States of America, Barack Obama, took the podium. Major television networks had interrupted coverage to broadcast the president's address.

Discussion: New York Magazine

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

Discussion: Gothamist and Mediaite

Oliver Reichenstein / Information Architects:

Business Class: Freemium for News? — I had a perspective changing talk on the subject of pay walls with the chief executive of a big publishing company (no, I can't tell you who). He asked me what I think about pay walls. I told him what I always say: The main currency of news sites …

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.

Discussion: New York Observer

Claire Cain Miller / New York Times:

Google Takes to TV to Promote Browser — SAN FRANCISCO — Google is once again taking up arms in the browser wars, in the belief that people who use its Chrome Web browser will be more likely to keep using Google search. — The company is taking the battle to mainstream America …

Discussion: MediaMemo, CNET News, The Next Web, Gawker and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Sam Gustin / Epicenter:

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings: No Armageddon Battle With Cable Giants — NEW YORK — In many ways, Netflix CEO Reed Hastings was the perfect choice to close out this year's Wired Business Conference. — After all, perhaps no company better represents disruption than the DVD-rental …

Discussion: AdAge, paidContent, The Tech Trade, Company Town, Technology Review, Hacking NetFlix, DSLreports, Mobile Marketing Watch, FierceCable, Home Media Magazine, Free Press, GigaOM and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism:

Al Jazeera English to be honored with Columbia Journalism Award — Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism will bestow its highest honor, the Columbia Journalism Award, to Al Jazeera English. The award is given annually during the school's commencement ceremony to recognize …

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Reuters Bringing Live Video News to Publishers Big and Small — Reuters, a leading provider of live news video to television broadcasters around the globe, is now making a rich offering of live video feeds available to digital publishers, says Chris Ahearn, president of media for Thomson Reuters, in this interview with Beet.TV

Discussion: paidContent and Talking Biz News

Martin Robbins / Guardian:

Libel law makes web hosts the Achilles heel of online journalism — Much attention has been focused on the chilling effects of Britain's libel laws on writers, but standing up to threats counts for little when websites can be shut down on a whim — In January 2008, web hosting firm Netcetera received …

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.

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:

Obama Drew Big TV Crowd — About 56.5 million people watched Barack Obama's surprise TV appearance Sunday night announcing the killing of Osama bin Laden. It was the president's biggest TV audience since he was elected, according to Nielsen Co. — Mr. Obama's speech was carried …

Discussion: WatchingTV Online

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.

Discussion: USA Today

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: Techdirt, MediaShift and The Buttry Diary, Thanks:mathewi

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Pandora Internet Radio Service to Offer Large Archive of Comedy Clips — Since it began six years ago, the Internet radio service Pandora has changed the way millions of people listen to music online. Now the company wants to do the same for comedy. — On Wednesday Pandora will add 10,000 clips …

Discussion: Pandora, Richmond BizSense and NetworkEffect

Archie Bland / CJR:

Anybody There? — Why the UK's phone-hacking scandal met media silence — When Rebekah Wade, then editor of the News of the World, felt that her newspaper had not been nominated for enough British Press Awards in 2002, she did not call her senior staff together to discuss how they might do better next year.