Mediagazer: InsideDeal! WebMediaBrands Acquires Inside Network For $14 Million (MG Siegler/TechCrunch)

6:40 PM ET, May 12, 2011

Top News:

Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear on Google — THE DAILY BEAST ON: — The social network secretly hired a PR firm to plant negative stories about the search giant, The Daily Beast's Dan Lyons reveals—a caper that is blowing up in their face, and escalating their war.

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

Smear Story Source Speaks: Facebook Wanted to Stab Google in the Back — Privacy advocate Christopher Soghoian broke open the story of how Facebook tried to use global PR giant Burson-Marsteller to smear Google in the press. He was pitched to ghost-write the op-ed, but posted the email exchange online instead.

Discussion: NetworkEffect, Guardian, paidContent, Inside Facebook, The Consumerist, Runnin' Scared, TechCrunch, Fortune, WebProNews, New York Magazine, ZDNet, Gawker, VentureBeat, Fast Company and broadstuff, more at Techmeme »

Beth Krietsch / PRWeek US: Burson-Marsteller and Facebook part ways

Lisa de Moraes / Washington Post:

Jim Lehrer steps down from regular anchor role on ‘PBS NewsHour’ — Jim Lehrer will no longer be part of the regular daily anchor rotation on “PBS NewsHour,” starting June 6. — The PBS veteran will continue to appear on many Friday broadcasts of the news program, moderating the weekly analysis …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, FishbowlDC, MediaPost, Poynter, Mediaite, TVNewser, On Media's Blog, Yahoo! News and Broadcasting & Cable

Alex Weprin / TVNewser: Jim Lehrer On Leaving ‘PBS NewsHour’: ‘I may not be here physically, but I will always be here’

American Journalism Review: The Courage to be Serious — As Jim Lehrer steps down …

MG Siegler / TechCrunch:

InsideDeal! WebMediaBrands Acquires Inside Network For $14 Million — When it comes to in-depth news about Facebook, there has been no better site than Inside Facebook. In fact, the flagship site of Inside Network became so successful alongside the meteoric rise of Facebook …

Discussion: GigaOM, paidContent, Betabeat, Inside Facebook, NetworkEffect, PRNewser, eBookNewser, @megan, MinOnline, VentureBeat, WebProNews and NYConvergence.com

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

NBC Developing New Prime-Time News Show — NBC is developing a new prime-time news magazine show hosted by “NBC Nightly News” anchor Brian Williams, according to people familiar with the matter, as the network's new management attempts to buck NBC's prime-time slump.

Discussion: Media Decoder, TVNewser, Poynter and Mediaite

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Matt Drudge Hire Second Political Writer — The Drudge Report is heading into the presidential election season with something it didn't have four years ago — two veteran political journalists on staff. — Last year, Matt Drudge brought on Joe Curl, a former White House correspondent for the Washington Times.

Discussion: FishbowlDC and Bloggasm

Vadim Lavrusik / Nieman Journalism Lab:

How journalists can make use of Facebook Pages — Editor's Note: Late last month, Vadim Lavrusik moved from his role as the community manager and social strategist at Mashable to become Facebook's first Journalist Program Manager. In his new position, Vadim is now responsible for building …

Thanks:lavrusik

Lauren Rabaino / 10,000 Words:

ProPublica and NYU release music-video “explainer” with investigative series — Forget simple kinetic type as a storytelling technique. ProPublica and New York University's Studio 20 have taken it a step further today with the release of their music-video explainer: a fun …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, explainer.net, UnBeige, TVNewser and ProPublica

The Atlantic Wire:

Lizzie O'Leary: What I Read — How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all? Do they have some secret? Perhaps. We are asking various people who seem well-informed to describe their media diets. Lizzie O'Leary, a Washington D.C.-based correspondent …

Discussion: Inside Cable News

Lynne Marek / Chicago Business:

Chicago Tribune testing premium daily edition — (Crain's) — The Chicago Tribune is contemplating a pricier, premium daily newspaper to target affluent, more-educated readers, some of whom have dropped the biggest daily paper in recent years. — The unit of Tribune Co. is in the early stages …

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Here is the news - online readers like to be surprised by what they read — There is a great enthusiasm among digital pioneers to offer the readers of news websites the chance to personalise their editorial choices. But readers appear, at present anyway, somewhat underwhelmed by the concept.

Discussion: The Next Web, Future of Journalism and Editors Weblog

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Harper's, ASME stand by Guantanamo piece amid criticism of National Magazine Award — It was something of a coup for Harper's to take home the 2011 National Magazine Award for excellence in reporting, announced toward the end of Monday night's annual glossy journalism gala hosted by the American Society of Magazine Editors.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Mary Hamilton / Metamedia:

How do you make local news on Twitter engaging? — Like this: — Web poll (modern!) what gets your goat on Norfolk's roads? Vote here. It's like AV, but more fun - http://bit.ly/ltuXcW — about 18 hours ago via TweetDeckReplyRetweetFavorite — @EveningNews — Norwich Evening News

American Journalism Review:

A Haven for Hyperlocal — Street Fight hopes to help the burgeoning hyperlocal industry figure out what works and what doesn't. Posted: Wed, May 12, 2011 By Jeffrey Benzing

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Video Interview: Forbes CEO Perlis On The Free Web In The Free Market — Forbes Media today unveiled a new localised print edition for Europe. — Following the announcement, recently-appointed CEO Mike Perlis told me why the publisher regards a free website, not a tablet magazine, as the way to build its global business...

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Edward Wyatt / Media Decoder:

F.C.C. Commissioner Leaving to Join Comcast — 8:02 p.m. | Updated WASHINGTON — Four months after the Federal Communications Commission approved a hotly contested merger of Comcast and NBC Universal, one of the commissioners who voted for the deal said on Wednesday that she would soon join Comcast's Washington lobbying office.