Mediagazer: For Couric, ABC's Pitch Proved Best (Bill Carter/New York Times)

2:05 PM ET, June 6, 2011

Top News:

For Couric, ABC's Pitch Proved Best — On Feb. 8, executives from NBC, including Steve Burke, the new chief executive, and Steve Capus, the president of news, made their way to the St. Regis Hotel in Manhattan, prepared to make a pitch to bring their one-time news star, Katie Couric, back into the network fold.

Discussion: Yahoo! News, New York Post, New York Observer, New York Magazine, Broadcasting & Cable, Speakeasy, TVNewser, Mediaite, The Atlantic Wire, Gawker, ShortFormBlog, On Media's Blog, TVSpy, Adweek and PopEater

ABCNEWS:

Katie Couric Joins Disney/ABC for 2012 Talk Show; ABC News President Welcomes Couric to News Division — ABC News President Ben Sherwood sent the following email to ABC News staff: — I'm pleased to share important news: Anne Sweeney is announcing at this hour that Katie Couric will join …

Discussion: Deadline.com, The Huffington Post and On Media's Blog

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Roger Ailes Plays Nice — THE DAILY BEAST ON: — The Fox News honcho responds to a media drubbing. In the current issue of Newsweek, Howard Kurtz on the liberal antagonist's more complicated side. — Roger Ailes, the combative conservative behind Fox News, is sounding strangely reasonable these days …

Discussion: Adweek, Yahoo! News, New York Magazine, Mediaite, The Atlantic Wire, TVNewser, The Wire, FishbowlDC, The Daily Beast, Guardian, The Huffington Post and The Daily Caller

Debbie Galant / Baristanet:

Coffee With ... David Carr — In a town full of media stars, David Carr still stands out. Media columnist for The New York Times, Carr is also a prolific Tweeter with 324,431 followers and a Klout score of 66. In 2008, he came out with a memoir about his years as an alcoholic and drug addict …

Discussion: The Wire, The Wire, Talking Biz News and Poynter

Evelyn M. Rusli / DealBook:

A Force Behind Lady Gaga Inc. — Soon after Apple started its music-centric social network Ping last year, Steven P. Jobs reached out to Lady Gaga and her business manager, Troy Carter, for feedback. — At the company's headquarters in Cupertino, Calif., Lady Gaga peppered Mr. Jobs …

Discussion: Adweek, TechCrunch, CNET News, Betabeat, Media Buyer Planner, Stowe Boyd, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, thinq_ and WebProNews, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Online Video Start-Ups Seek to Carve Out a Place Beside YouTube — CHICAGO — For many Internet users, YouTube is synonymous with online video. But Mike Michaud and several friends who live in suburban Chicago are trying to change that. — Mr. Michaud co-owns Channel Awesome …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and SAI

Chris Rovzar / New York Magazine:

Paul Begala to Join Newsweek — This week's Daily Intel-style Newsweek cover, in which Mitt Romney's head is Photoshopped onto the body of Elder Price from Book of Mormon. — Political commentator and Democratic strategist Paul Begala has joined Newsweek and Daily Beast as a columnist.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and mediabistro.com

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Quora effect? Hacks/Hackers weighs the future of the niche Q&A — The broad goal of Hacks/Hackers is to connect journalists and programmers so they can learn from each other. So it made sense for the group to provide, in addition to in-person meetups and hackathons …

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Is YouTube Killing Music Piracy? — The music industry has witnessed some dramatic changes in recent years, even when piracy is left out of the picture. In just a decade the Internet and the MP3 revolution have redefined people's music consumption habits.

Discussion: ringtonia.com

Deseret News:

Missing faith: Getting religion in the newsroom — Selling heaven wasn't easy. — But in early 2005, ABC News producer Rob Wallace knew he had the perfect subject for a Barbara Walters television special. His idea was to examine the effect of belief in heaven on the way people lived their lives.

Matylda Czarnecka / Poynter:

7 reasons why journalists make good entrepreneurs — Recently, there has been an increase in journalists pursuing entrepreneurial opportunities. Some have gone in full-force and found ways to build their ideas, while others have hesitated, questioning whether their media background makes them suitable entrepreneurs.

iPhone Download Blog:

Newsstand Brings Newspapers and Magazines Directly to Your iPhone Courtesy of iOS 5 — The second big iOS 5 enhancement announced at the 2011 WWDC was none other than Newsstand — a method to directly access magazines and newspaper content from your iPhone.

Discussion: MacStories

TechCentral:

Newsprint has a future - Google exec — Newspapers won't die out, but publishers need to recognise that they are in the journalism business, not the newsprint business, and must embrace a range of news delivery vehicles. — That's the view of Peter Barron, Google's director of external affairs for Europe, the Middle East and Africa.