Mediagazer: The RT network: Russia's answer to Fox News and MSNBC. (David Weigel/Slate)

2:45 PM ET, June 28, 2011

Top News:

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

AOL Consolidates 53 Brands Down To 20 “Power Brands;” The Huffington Post Gets Bigger — AOL CEO Tim Armstrong likes to streamline things. And he is about to streamline AOL even more. Somewhat reversing the anti-portal strategy he inherited, he will start to consolidate 53 different content brands into 20 “power brands.”

Discussion: The Wire, The Business Insider and Future of Journalism

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

AOL Moves the Furniture Around Some More, With Brod to Patch — Here's an internal memo, titled “Platform for Growth,” just sent out by AOL CEO Tim Armstrong, in which he buries the lede by noting the business partner of content czar Arianna Huffington, Jon Brod, will move to work …

Discussion: paidContent, mediabistro.com and Digital Trends

Lymari Morales / Gallup:

Americans Regain Some Confidence in Newspapers, TV News — Confidence still lags behind levels of trust seen through much of the 1990s and into 2003 — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Americans' confidence in newspapers and television news rebounded slightly in the past year, having been stuck at record lows since 2007.

Discussion: CJR, TVWeek.com, On Media's Blog, Poynter, Media Buyer Planner, Forbes.com, TVNewser, Hot Air and Free Press

Ed Yong / Discover Blogs:

Am I a science journalist? — I've just spoken at the opening plenary of the second day of the World Conference of Science Journalists at Doha, Qatar. It's a panel called “Am I a science journalist?"with myself, my fellow Discover blogger Chris Mooney, Mo Costandi, Homayoun Kheyri, and Cristine Russell.

Discussion: Future Journalism Project, Adam Westbrook and Poynter

Mark Joyella / Mediaite:

CNN Names Jessica Yellin Chief White House Correspondent — CNN has named Jessica Yellin its new chief White House correspondent, replacing Ed Henry. A CNN insider tells Mediaite Yellin has been the network's choice since Spring. Yellin had been serving as the network's national political correspondent …

Discussion: TVNewser, FishbowlDC, The Wire, On Media's Blog, Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable and Multichannel

Johann Hari:

Interview etiquette — I've recently been asked to clarify something about a few of the interviews I've done in the past. When I've interviewed a writer, it's quite common that they will express an idea or sentiment to me that they have expressed before in their writing - and, almost always …

Discussion: blogs.journalism.co.uk, brianwhelan.net, FleetStreetBlues, The Wire, Guardian and themediablog.typepad.com

Kristen Purcell / Pew Internet:

E-reader ownership doubles in six months — e-Reader ownership surges since last November; tablet ownership grows more slowly — The share of adults in the United States who own an e-book reader doubled to 12% in May, 2011 from 6% in November 2010. E-readers, such as a Kindle or Nook …

Florence Pichon / Editors Weblog:

Sylvain Parasie investigates where data journalists fit in at a traditional paper — Where exactly does data journalism fit in a traditional press organization? Sylvain Parasie from Paris-Est University conducted research on this question, taking the case of the Chicago Tribune.

Discussion: Bloomberg

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Twitter For Newsrooms!? Twitter *Is* A Newsroom — Earlier this morning Twitter released “Twitter for Newsrooms,” its primer on how to use Twitter to gather and report news in the 21st century. — #TfN is Twitter's official nudge to old school reporters, a heavy handed reminder …

Discussion: Adweek, Nieman Journalism Lab, eMedia Vitals, GigaOM, 10,000 Words, Softpedia News, ReadWriteWeb, CJR, Editors Weblog, Media News, VentureBeat, BusinessJournalism.org …, The Atlantic Wire and The Next Web

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Hulu Buyers Would Get Exclusive Content, With Strings Attached — A few days after the news first broke that Hulu is for sale, we know a bit more about what, exactly, that means. Here's where things stand right now. — Hulu's owner/partners — Disney's ABC and News Corp.'s Fox …

Discussion: Betabeat, PC Magazine, Electronista, VentureBeat, NetNewsCheck Latest and Electronista

Philip Bump / Mediaite:

Soup Of The Day: Anthony De Rosa Is The Most Influential Social Mediaite You've Never Heard Of — The game started late. A passing rain shower meant that it didn't get underway for an hour-and-a-half, past 8:30. A lot of fans didn't stick around to see the first pitch.

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb and The Atlantic Wire

David Weigel / Slate:

The RT network: Russia's answer to Fox News and MSNBC. — Alyona Minkovski is on a rant. The rants are essential parts of The Alyona Show," the series she's hosted on Russia Today—RT, if you please—since 2009. They can be about anything, but they are usually about the rest of the media.

Discussion: Forbes.com

Mindy McAdams / Teaching Online Journalism:

Journalists, take another look at Tumblr — For a long time I had trouble appreciating Tumblr, but I think I finally understand its strengths — and I must not be the only one. — Tumblr is now one of the top 25 websites in the U.S., according to data from Quancast, as reported in a new article at TechCrunch.

Discussion: TechCrunch, GigaOM and Softpedia News

Tom Hals / Reuters:

Tribune's creditors make final bankruptcy pitch — (Reuters) - Two years after real-estate mogul Sam Zell's brief control of Tribune Co ended in bankruptcy, warring creditors made their final pitches on Monday for the best way to get the owner of the Los Angeles Times out of Chapter 11.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Poynter, Chicago Tribune and The New York Observer

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Why is The Washington Post's iPad app still free? — When The Washington Post released its iPad app in November, the company said it would be free until mid-February. That date passed more than four months ago, yet the app and content are still available for free in the iTunes Store.

Keach Hagey / On Media's Blog:

CNN takes a stand — In the U.S., CNN may be kicked around by everyone from Jon Stewart to Jay Rosen for tending to present both sides of the story and then just “leaving it there,” but on the international issue of human trafficking, the broadcaster has decided to make a stand.

Discussion: The Stream and Inside Cable News