Mediagazer: Cheezburger CEO Planning WordPress-Style News 2.0 Software (Marshall Kirkpatrick/ReadWriteWeb)

Marshall Kirkpatrick / ReadWriteWeb:

Cheezburger CEO Planning WordPress-Style News 2.0 Software — Once you've built an empire of funny cat pictures and other user-generated comedy ephemera, what do you do next? Ben Huh, CEO of the sprawling Cheezburger network of comedy websites, has begun discussing a side-project he's working on called The Moby Dick Project.

Discussion: GeekWire and eMedia Vitals

Why Are We Still Consuming News Like It's 1899? — We've witness a torrent of nature- and man-made news in 2011. And if I were a betting man, the range and impact of the events to come will make news even more essential to all of us. But reading all this news started to bother me …

Discussion: Betabeat

Adam Hochberg / Poynter:

Joplin Globe's Facebook page locates, reunites missing people in tornado aftermath — After a massive tornado roared through Joplin, Mo., Sunday night, much of the city was left isolated without electricity, telephone service, or Internet connections. Survivors have found it difficult …

Discussion: Joplin Globe

Globe reporter joins neighborhood of survivors — JOPLIN, Mo. — My cat ran under the bed just as that terrible sky came huffing down from the west. — I dropped to my knees to try to coax him out. To take him down to what protection a ground-floor foyer closet might offer. — But he just wouldn't come.

Discussion: New York Post, Poynter and Poynter

New York Times: In TV Crew's Hunt for Twisters, More Than They Bargained For

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

YouTube Extends Plans for Ads Before Videos — In the early days of online video, commercials that appeared before viewers could watch clips, known as preroll, got “thumbs down” from most computer users. That attitude seems to have softened more recently, a change of heart that Web giants have noticed.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, Softpedia News, paidContent and The Next Web

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Wired, GQ announce iPad subscriptions — Romenesko Misc. — Starting with the June issue, the magazines will offer monthly ($1.99) and yearly ($19.99) iPad subscriptions and will continue to offer single issues, all via In-App Purchase on the App Store. Current print subscribers …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Why The New York Times replaced its Twitter ‘cyborg’ with people this week — The New York Times is turning off the automatic feed for its main Twitter account this week in an experiment to determine if a human-run, interactive approach will be more effective.

Discussion: Bloggasm and Editors Weblog

Jeff Cormier / The Next Web:

Did Ariana Huffington use stage to engage in market manipulation of AOL stock? — This morning at TechCrunch Disrupt, president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, Arianna Huffington, in a “Fireside Chat” made an interesting and possibly illegal statement concerning the stock of AOL.

Discussion: Mixed Media, Future of Journalism and Gawker

Discussion: TechCrunch, NYConvergence.com, Adweek, Fast Company, Betabeat and VentureBeat

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:

Reuters strikes deal to syndicate third-party investigative journalism — To diversify its content offerings, news service Thomson Reuters has established relationships with a variety of third-party websites, such as The Wrap and Hollywood.tv (entertainment/celebrities), Examiner.com (amateur local news) and SB Nation (sports).

Discussion: Poynter

Josh Constine / Inside Facebook:

USA Network's Chatter Aggregates Conversations About TV Shows From Facebook and More — Cable television's USA Network recently launched an app called Chatter that allows a specific TV show's viewers to converse with fellow fans and engage with a streams of official content aggregated from Facebook, Twitter, YouTube.

Elizabeth Jensen / New York Times:

Burdened by PBS Dues, Stations Consider Withdrawing — ORLANDO, Fla. — Television executives who gathered here last week for PBS's annual meeting enthusiastically embraced projects such as the five-part “Women, War and Peace” and heard the actress Anna Deavere Smith speak so passionately …

Discussion: TVNewser, Poynter, Future of Journalism and Free Press

ProPublica:

Inside the Campaign to Release Al-Jazeera English Journalist Dorothy Parvaz — A version of this story was co-published with the Los Angeles Times. — The phone call came in the middle of the night last month, when my brother Todd and I were visiting our father in a suburb of Portland …

Discussion: The Wire and Boston Globe, Thanks:propublica

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Frank Bruni Named Times Op-Ed Columnist — Frank Bruni, whose writing career at The New York Times has spanned two presidential campaigns, a pope and more than five years as chief restaurant critic, has been named an op-ed columnist. — Andrew M. Rosenthal, editor of the Opinion Pages …

Discussion: Columbia University …, mediabistro.com, Poynter, WWD Media Headlines, National Review, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, Yahoo! News, Gawker, FishbowlNY and Adweek

Fortune:

Facebook: Journalists' friend or foe? — A new Facebook effort aims to help journalists use social media. But other motives may be at work. — Vadim Lavrusik — FORTUNE — Vadim Lavrusik, the cherub-cheeked 25-year old who heads up Facebook's new journalist program initiative …

Rip Empson / TechCrunch:

Jeff Jarvis: When It Comes To New Journalism, ‘Transparency Is The New Objectivity’ — Jeff Jarvis is the creator of Entertainment Weekly, a San Francisco Examiner columnist, the Associate Publisher of The Daily News, and a consultant to new media companies — in other words, a veteran of the old school and a proponent of the new.

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:

What Is It With Adweek and Lady Editors? — First, Arianna Huffington is accused of using a courtesan's techniques. Then Elizabeth Spiers's appointment as editor of the Observer is compared to a bad marriage. And this week, even though Adweek admits Tina Brown has improved the content …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Adweek, PSFK and The Atlantic Wire, Thanks:laureni

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

AOL Seeks Heidi Klum's Advice in Million-Dollar Content Deal — Ad Age Talks to the Supermodel About Her How-to-Video Partnership That Lets People 'Speak to the Horse's Mouth' — AOL began publishing its content partnership with fashion model Heidi Klum today, AOL's latest celebrity acquisition …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Nate Freeman / New York Observer:

Fate of Elaine's Out of Graydon Carter's Hands — Aging New York literati may still be praying for a savior to swoop in and save Elaine's, but Graydon Carter will not be making any eleventh-hour power purchases. — The Upper East Side ink-stained parlor announced it would close this Thursday …

Kevin Hoffman / The Blotter:

DOA: Pioneer Press runs Tim Pawlenty presidential announcement on obit page — Tim Pawlenty's presidential campaign is Dead On Arrival, according to his hometown newspaper. — The St. Paul Pioneer Press hilariously ran the announcement of T-Paw's presidential campaign on the Obituary page this morning.

Discussion: The Caucus, FishbowlNY, Mediaite, The Huffington Post and The Hill

Paige Albiniak / Variety:

Media moguls don't heir plans — Street speculates about News Corp., Viacom exex — Retirement? What retirement? — New Corp. founder Rupert Murdoch just hit 80. Viacom and CBS topper Sumner Redstone turns 88 on May 27. But neither mogul seems about to relinquish his perch atop a media empire.