Mediagazer: Viacom's 67% Dividend Boost Lifts Redstone Yearly Payment to $41 Million (Rob Golum/Bloomberg)

1:20 AM ET, May 27, 2011

Top News:

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

The Atlantic Launches Twitter-Based Book Club — The Atlantic has announced the first selection for 1book140, an online reading and discussion club that will span the publication's presences on Twitter, Facebook and Tumblr, as well its website. — Readers, in conjunction …

Discussion: MediaPost

Rob Golum / Bloomberg:

Viacom's 67% Dividend Boost Lifts Redstone Yearly Payment to $41 Million — Viacom Inc. (VIA), owner of MTV Networks and Paramount Pictures, increased its quarterly dividend by 67 percent to 25 cents a share, boosting the yearly payment to Chairman Sumner Redstone's family company to $41 million.

Discussion: Company Town and FishbowlNY

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

NYSE Tries to Body Slam TPM! — If you're a news editor you'll want to hear this. — The New York Stock Exchange now claims that you have to get their permission (express or implicit) before you use images connected to the New York Stock Exchange. So if you find a wire photo …

Discussion: Poynter, Epicenter, MetaFilter and Boing Boing

Lois Beckett / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Longreads is becoming more social (and making a play at sustainability) — Last month, Rolling Stone brought three of its reporters to a Manhattan bookstore for a standing-room-only conversation about long-form journalism. The event was co-hosted by a hashtag.

Thanks:reportermike

Noah Davis / SAI: Silicon Alley Insider:

Magazine Editors Are 100% Sure Tumblrs Are Driving Subscriptions, But They Can't Prove It — The stunning success of Tumblr continues to filter its way across the internet landscape. — The rapidly maturing microblogging platform recently passed 250 million page views per day, shocking even founder David Karp.

Discussion: The Wire, MediaPost and NYConvergence.com

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Comcast, NBCU Combine Venture Capital Affiliates to Form New $750M Joint Venture — Comcast announced Thursday that is has combined its venture capital affiliate with the former venture capital affiliate of NBCUNiversal and General Electric to form the new Comcast Ventures, a joint portfolio valued at about $750 million.

Discussion: rbr.com, Multichannel and Company Town

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Web Ads Taking Off Again: Q1 Revenues A Record $7.3 Billion — Remember when the economy was so lousy that even Web ads were down? — Ancient history, at least as far as the Internet's concerned: Marketers spent $7.3 billion on U.S. Web ads in the first three months of the 2011.

Discussion: IAB, Folio, AdExchanger.com, Search Engine Land and rbr.com, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Damstedt / American Journalism Review:

A Critic Joins the Post — Long known for his stinging commentaries on its foibles, Erik Wemple soon will be blogging about the media and politics for the Washington Post. Thurs. May 26, 2011 — Andrew Damstedt (adamstedt@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant.

Discussion: Poynter and Cision

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Sandberg leaves WSJ to become Bloomberg.com editor — Romenesko Misc. — Jared Sandberg has been with the Wall Street Journal for nearly 20 years and was its first Internet beat reporter. As Bloomberg.com editor, he'll report to Josh Tyrangiel, editorial director of Bloomberg Digital and editor of Bloomberg Businessweek.

Jack Shafer / Slate:

Roger Ailes profiles: Who's afraid of the Fox News Channel chairman? Not me. — As dime-store Satans go, it's hard to beat Roger Ailes. He's a huge tub of a man, like an aged and rotting Pillsbury Doughboy. He relied on his immense media skills to re-sculpt the equally demonic Richard Nixon …

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

ABC Deal Close for Katie Couric — THE DAILY BEAST ON: — The network is nearing an agreement with Katie Couric after upping the ante on a lucrative syndication offer. Howard Kurtz reports on the behind-the-scenes bidding for Couric's daytime show. — When Katie Couric started looking …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, TVNewser and Mediaite

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

With the Tech Sector Booming, Reporters Head for the Exit — Not only is Silicon Alley booming again, but the IPO market is back in swing, meaning billions of web dollars are flowing through Wall Street. — Maybe that's the reason some of New York's top tech reporters have left their posts recently.

Discussion: AllThingsD

Noah Davis / The Wire:

Meet The Man Making Non-Profit News Organizations Sustainable — In 2009, Evan Smith left Texas Monthly to start a revolution. — Nineteen months later, he is still just getting started. — The award-winning journalist is editor-in-chief and CEO of Texas Tribune, “a nonpartisan …

Discussion: Forbes.com

Brian McGrory / Boston Globe:

Connors joins group of investors looking to purchase Globe — (Dominic Chavez/Globe Staff/File 2008) — Prominent Boston businessman Jack Connors has joined a group of investors preparing an offer to buy The Boston Globe, adding new credibility to an investment team that has worked for over a year to raise funds.

Discussion: Poynter and mediabistro.com