Mediagazer: Teen Writing Site Figment Gets New Funding, Moves Into Book Publishing (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

11:05 AM ET, May 13, 2011

Top News:

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Hulu, Networks Close To New Deal — Hulu and its network TV owners are close to a new deal that will keep programs from NBC, Fox and ABC on the Web video site. — An agreement to extend the content licenses that owners News Corp., Disney and NBCUniversal signed two years ago …

Discussion: Betabeat, WebProNews, C21Media.net, GigaOM, Electronista and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Associated Press:

White House: No more re-enactments of the president's speeches for news photographers — NEW YORK — The White House said it is ending its long-running practice of having presidents re-enact televised speeches for news photographers following major addresses to the country …

Discussion: Poynter, Weasel Zippers, Gizmodo and The Atlantic Wire

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Good News for Magazines: Popular Science iPad Subscribers Are 95% New Readers — What Conde Nast and Hearst Can Expect as They Start Selling iPad Subscriptions — What will Conde Nast, and Hearst soon after it, find as people start buying subscriptions to their magazines' iPad editions in Apple's App Store?

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, SocialTimes.com, MediaPost, GigaOM and FishbowlNY

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 …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Martin Stabe, Thanks:lavrusik

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

NBC Planning News Magazine Show With Brian Williams — 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, National Review, Poynter, Deadline.com, The Huffington Post, TVNewser, Inside TV and Mediaite

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

Joe Biden Scouted Multiple Reporters to Be His New Communications Director — Joe Biden has a thing for reporters. Back in December 2008, the vice-president hired former Time Washington bureau chief Jay Carney to be his communications director. When Carney was promoted earlier this year …

Discussion: National Review

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Lime Wire to pay record labels $105 million, ends suit — (Reuters) - The operators of LimeWire agreed to pay record companies $105 million, ending a federal trial over damages after the once-popular file-sharing service had been found liable for copyright infringement.

Discussion: Electronista and MediaMemo, more at Techmeme »

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

News Editors Still Don't Want Journalists to Be Human — The American Society of News Editors has come out with an overview of social-media policies at news organizations across the U.S. — including Bloomberg, which we wrote about recently as an example of a company that still …

Thanks:mathewi

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:
‘Break news on your website, not on Twitter’

Discussion: Poynter, rjionline.org, Journalism.co.uk, The Buttry Diary, Editors Weblog and Future of Journalism

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

TED's Gone Global: Videos Now in 88 Languages via Open Translation Project — It's been two years since TED Talks enlisted fans around the globe to translate its videos into many languages through its Open Translation Project powered by dotSub, a crowd-sourced translation platform.

David L. Ulin / Los Angeles Times:

Literary journalism finds new platforms — Byliner, the Atavist and Virginia Quarterly Review take the form into the future. — William T. Vollmann undergoes radiation screening in Japan. — Los Angeles Times Book Critic — When National Book Award-winning novelist William T. Vollmann went …

Scott Rosenberg / Scott Rosenberg's Wordyard:

Salon's TableTalk shutdown: What we can learn from the story of a pioneering online community — Salon.com Wednesday announced plans to close Table Talk, the online discussion space and community that has operated continuously since Salon's launch on Nov. 20, 1995.

Discussion: Salon Table Talk

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Jim Lehrer On Leaving ‘PBS NewsHour’: ‘I may not be here physically, but I will always be here’ — Earlier today Jim Lehrer announced his retirement from the anchor chair at “PBS NewsHour.” Lehrer has been a journalist for 52 years, 36 of them for the “NewsHour” and its earlier incarnations …

Discussion: Media News International

Lisa de Moraes / Washington Post:
Jim Lehrer steps down from regular anchor role on ‘PBS NewsHour’

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

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

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

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 …

Beth Krietsch / PRWeek US:

Burson-Marsteller and Facebook part ways — NEW YORK: Burson-Marsteller has confirmed it is no longer working with Facebook to promote the company's position against Google's social media venture Social Circle. — The separation follows a day where both companies fell under intense media scrutiny …

Discussion: Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »

Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:
Facebook Busted in Clumsy Smear on Google

Discussion: Forbes.com, The Wire, Search Engine Land, Adweek, Epicenter, Scocca, The New Yorker Blog, TechCrunch, Mashable!, Softpedia News, digiday:DAILY, Brendan Cooper, pr-media-blog.co.uk, SEO Book.com, Top Digital Journal News, VentureBeat, Guardian, Future of Journalism, Firstpost, The Atlantic Wire, TVNewser, Epicenter, Financial Times, Marketing Pilgrim, The Huffington Post, All Facebook, Fortune, Pocket-lint, NetworkEffect, MarketingVOX, MediaFile, Inside Facebook, ZDNet, The Consumerist, paidContent, Consumer Reports News, Betabeat, Gizmodo, NY Daily News, msnbc.com, Runnin' Scared, L.A. Times Tech Blog, SocialTimes.com, On Media's Blog, Techdirt, Daring Fireball, Hillicon Valley, The First Post, Bits, BetaNews, Vanity Fair, CNNMoney.com, Gawker, Adrants, ShortFormBlog, Digits, Electronista, Technology Liberation Front and The Not-So Private Parts, more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Teen Writing Site Figment Gets New Funding, Moves Into Book Publishing — Figment, a site started by two Conde Nast veterans that is trying to capitalize on the absence of viable communities for book readers online, has secured $1 million in funding from an angel investor.

Discussion: PC Magazine