Mediagazer: How Yahoo News, msnbc.com attract, keep more female readers (Mallary Jean Tenore/Poynter)

2:35 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: Guardian, paidContent, TechCrunch, New York Magazine, NetworkEffect, WebProNews, Fortune, broadstuff and The Not-So Private Parts, more at Techmeme »

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: MediaPost, FishbowlDC, The Atlantic Wire, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewser, On Media's Blog, Yahoo! News, Poynter, The Huffington Post, LA Observed and National Review

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, NetworkEffect, eBookNewser, @megan, WebProNews, VentureBeat, MinOnline and NYConvergence.com

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.

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

The New York Times to Debut “UGC” Wedding Announcements This Weekend — The New York Times, which features a short article and photo of a couple of dozen newly-weds every Sunday in the Style section, will be adding short videos created by the couples. The first user-generated video will be published this weekend.

Discussion: LA Observed, FishbowlNY, New York Times and Poynter

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

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 and UnBeige

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 and Editors Weblog

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

How The New York Times Will Shake Up Its Weekly Section — NEW YORK — New York Times staffers in the editorial and news departments have been working for several months to reinvent the paper's “Week in Review” section, a Sunday staple for more than 75 years.

Discussion: coverawards.com and NewsBusters.org

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

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...