Mediagazer: Hulu, Networks Close To New Deal (Peter Kafka/MediaMemo)

3:20 PM ET, May 13, 2011

Top News:

Introducing “News near you” on Google News for mobile — Google News for mobile lets you keep up with the latest news, wherever you are. Today we're excited to announce a new feature in the U.S. English edition called “News near you” that surfaces news relevant to the city you're in and surrounding areas.

Discussion: Epicenter, Search Engine Land, NewsGrange, MacStories, 901am and MarketingVOX, more at Techmeme »

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: SAI, MediaPost, WebProNews, TG Daily, Pulse2, GigaOM, ReadWriteWeb, C21Media.net, Betabeat and Electronista

Edward Wyatt / Media Decoder:

F.C.C. Commissioner Defends Taking Comcast Job — WASHINGTON - A Federal Communications Commissioner who announced earlier this week that she was leaving the agency to join the lobbying operations of Comcast defended her actions on Friday, saying she had no contact with Comcast …

Discussion: FCC.gov, Broadcasting & Cable, Company Town and Hillicon Valley, more at Techmeme »

Adweek:

First Mover: Jane Pratt — Adweek: So, are you still sassy? — Jane Pratt: I don't think that ever really goes away. Though my grandma, who is 104, keeps hoping I will get past it. — AW: How would you describe your new website, xoJane.com? — JP: It's very, very personal.

Discussion: AdAge and FishbowlNY

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

NewsBeast Loses Managing Editor Brekke Fletcher leaves for WSJ By Lucia Moses — It's one step forward, one step back for Tina Brown's Newsweek, which has lost a key hire even as its ad pages get a shot in the arm. — Brekke Fletcher, the Maxim managing editor who joined Brown's operation in December …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, New York Magazine, mediabistro.com, MinOnline, FishbowlNY and Poynter

Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:

The PR Hacks Behind Facebook's Google Smear — THE DAILY BEAST ON: — The two PR hacks who ran Facebook's covert anti-Google smear campaign were new to the company, and will not be fired. Dan Lyons on how their clumsy work exposed them, and Facebook's smug strategy for escaping the controversy.

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

Discussion: Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »

Amy Wicks / WWD Media Headlines:

Arianna Huffington v. The Times... L'Oréal's Digital Play... ARIANNA V. THE TIMES: Arianna Huffington tossed another grenade in the direction of The New York Times on Wednesday afternoon, during her luncheon address at a Gilt Groupe conference. “The New York Times pay wall isn't working,” she claimed.

Discussion: Adweek and FishbowlNY

Charles Arthur / Guardian:

Twitter and Facebook publication banned for first time in injunction — High court judge issues order that specifically mentions social media as well as digital, TV, radio and print — A high court judge has issued an injunction which for the first time explicitly bans publication of information on Twitter and Facebook.

Discussion: Telegraph, The (e)Grommet, GigaOM, Wired.co.uk and msnbc.com, more at Techmeme »

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: PC Magazine, eBookNewser, O'Reilly Radar, SocialTimes.com and MediaPost

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: FishbowlNY, Poynter, Gawker, Gizmodo, Weasel Zippers and The Atlantic Wire

Stephanie Nolen / Globe and Mail:

As India's literacy levels rise, newspapers thrive — New Delhi— From Friday's Globe and Mail — It took 64 years for the revered Indian newspaper NaiDunia to reach a circulation of 500,000 - a figure that would make most North American publishers swoon. — That was two years ago.

Discussion: Guardian

Bloomberg:

Washington Post Shorts Triple as Declining Newspaper Loses Kaplan Bulwark — Investor bets against the stock of the Washington Post Co. (WPO) have more than tripled over the past year, as the government investigated the for-profit education business and the company's earnings dropped.

Discussion: Poynter

Andrea Pitzer / Nieman Storyboard:

What's in a name? Washingtonian renames and resurrects a story — This week's Notable Narrative,"What If Osama Bin Laden Had Been Captured?," recounts the interrogation of Saddam Hussein, taking readers through recent history to a more speculative present.

Rachel Aydt / Publishing Perspectives:

Tweets, Blogs and Books: How Online Writers and Publishers Still Rely on Each Other for a Payday — Tweeters and bloggers are teaching publishers new tricks, and each continues to profit from collaboration with the other. — Blogger. Vlogger. Tweeter. Author. Journalist.

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

Tim Carmody / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Kara Swisher, Michael Arrington, and me: New conflicts, and new opportunities, for the tech press — Changing technology is changing journalism in more ways than we can probably even understand. One of those changes concerns the definitions of “journalist” and “journalism” themselves …

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 …