Mediagazer: News Corp. Ups Stake In Prince Alwaleed's Media Group Rotana (Kerry A. Dolan/Forbes.com)

Nat Ives / AdAge:

New York Times' Share of Newspaper Sites' Traffic Hits 12-Month Low — April Was a Quieter Month for News Than March, But Other Newspaper Sites Maintained Traffic Better — The pay wall introduced by The New York Times at the end of March is hurting traffic to its website, as expected, but perhaps within acceptable levels.

Discussion: Tech Trader Daily, FishbowlNY and Poynter

Aljazeera:

Missing Al Jazeera reporter deported to Iran — Al Jazeera's Dorothy Parvaz, missing since arriving in Damascus almost two weeks ago, is now understood to be in Tehran. — Missing Al Jazeera journalist Dorothy Parvaz has been deported from Syria to Iran, the network has learned.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, The Wire, Guardian, Poynter, msnbc.com and The Daily Dish

USA Today:

Google deflects PR firm's attack of Gmail privacy — It's not as if Google lacks privacy controversies to quell. — Yet Burson-Marsteller, a top-five public relations firm, is attempting to pile more on. — Burson last week stepped up a whisper campaign to get top-tier media outlets …

Discussion: Adweek, SAI, Future of Journalism and PRNewser

Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism:

The Story So Far: What We Know About the Business of Digital Journalism — A new report by Bill Grueskin, Ava Seave and Lucas Graves — A recording of this event will be posted soon. — Can digital journalism be profitable? What's making money, what isn't, and why?

Discussion: Forbes.com, CJR, Lost Remote and NYConvergence.com

Discussion: paidContent, CJR and Adweek

Teri Evans / Entrepreneur.com:

Mashable's Pete Cashmore on Persistence — How he turned obstacles into an opportunity, why he's so obsessed with the Internet and a winning habit he learned from his father. — Pete Cashmore is founder and CEO of Mashable. — 'Trep Talk is a column on personal insights from the people behind the big ideas.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Is the iPad Just a New Way to Give Away Magazines? — In the last few days, there have been a flurry of deals that suggest that a level of détente between Apple and the Big Three Manhattan publishers (Condé Nast, Time Inc. and Hearst) has finally been reached.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Steve Buttry / The Buttry Diary:

5 big problems with ‘Navigating News Online’ study — You might find some valid research in the Navigating News Online study published Monday by the Project for Excellence in Journalism, a project of the Pew Foundation. — But the study needed lots of context that an organization committed to excellence in journalism should provide.

Discussion: Still Not Going To Do …, SocialTimes.com and Lost Remote

Michael S. Rosenwald / Washington Post:

The news behind bars — Calvert Porter sits down behind the anchor desk and straightens his collar. His co-anchor, Keith Williams, studies his script. “Do you want a sound check?” Porter asks. 14 Comments Weigh InCorrections? Live Q&A, noon Yates: Broadcasting behind bars Ask Now “No, you're all right,” the cameraman says.

Discussion: Poynter

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Wall Street Journal Deploying iPhone 4 Globally for News Gathering and Live Streaming — The Wall Street Journal is training its print reporters to use the iPhone 4 for video news gathering and live streaming via Skype Video, says Kevin Delaney, Managing Editor of the WSJ.com

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Jason Fry / Poynter:

How valuable is your brand? 4 questions to determine whether to stay or go, plus how to keep your biggest stars happy — The age of the individual brand was inevitable, a natural consequence of the way digital media has remade our reading habits. In print, columns have a home on a section front …

Kerry A. Dolan / Forbes.com:

News Corp. Ups Stake In Prince Alwaleed's Media Group Rotana — News Corp. increased its stake in Rotana Group, the Arabic music producer and broadcaster owned by Saudi billionaire Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, to 14.5% from 9.1%, Rotana announced Wednesday. News Corp. spent $35 million (131 million Saudi riyals) on the new stake.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Nomad Editions, a Movie Studio For Tablet Magazines — With recent deals between Apple and Hearst, Conde Nast and Time Inc., the best-known magazines are finally available in subscription form on the iPad. But just because they're the biggest titles in print doesn't mean they'll be the biggest on tablets.

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Wenner Digital Chief Schwartz Returns To Reuters For Biz Dev Role — Steven Schwartz, who became Wenner Media's first chief digital officer about 2-and-a-half years ago, is leaving the Rolling Stone publisher to head up global business development for Reuters (NYSE: TRI) Media.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Talking Biz News and Yahoo! News

Victor Wong / paidContent:

How A ‘Business Class’ And ‘Economy Class’ For News Sites Would Look — Victor Wong is CEO of PaperG, an ad-tech company that provides online advertising platforms for local/hyperlocal publishers. — Oliver Reichenstein's “Business Class: Freemium for News?” has kicked off a lot …