Mediagazer: Exclusive: The $1.2 Billion Inside Story of How Demand Media Almost Went Private Last Week (And Then Didn't) (Kara Swisher/AllThingsD)

8:40 AM ET, April 29, 2012

Top News:

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Buzzfeed's Jonah Peretti: Display dollars aren't coming back — Content providers are wringing their hands over how to get advertisers to pony up the big bucks they once spent on display ads. Maybe that money is just gone forever. — Jonah Peretti, a founder of the Huffington Post …

Discussion: @om and @penenberg

Justin Elliott / ProPublica:

FCC-Required Political Ad Data Disclosures Won't Be Searchable — The Federal Communications Commission voted 2-1 this morning to require broadcasters to post political ad data on the Web, making it easier for the public to see how as much as $3.2 billion will be spent on TV advertising in this election.

Discussion: The Loyal Opposition, Media Matters for America and Salon

Doug Halonen / The Wrap:
FCC Approves Rules for TV Stations to Put Political Ad Information Online

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Newspaper Guild, Adweek, The Huffington Post, Adweek, Media Decoder, WebProNews, Hillicon Valley, NPR, Broadcasting & Cable, @poynter, Poynter, Future of Journalism, CJR, The Huffington Post and MediaPost

Candace Clement / Save the News:
Political Files? Meet the Internet

Discussion: Mother Jones

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: The $1.2 Billion Inside Story of How Demand Media Almost Went Private Last Week (And Then Didn't) — According to sources close to the situation, Demand Media was deep into discussions with a private equity firm to complete a deal that would have taken the online content company private, for almost double its current value.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Noah Rothman / Mediaite:

Obama Jabs At Mitt Romney, Congress, Huffington Post And Dogs At W.H. Correspondents Dinner — President Obama took the stage at the White House Correspondent's Dinner on Saturday night, where he made a number of jokes at his and others' expense. He took aim at Congress, Mitt Romney, the Huffington Post and dogs.

Discussion: @keitholbermann, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, Mediaite, Mediaite, @howardkurtz and Reuters

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Approve This Message: Politics through Awl-colored glasses — The Awl sure likes to build stuff. In about three years, they've gone from a single “New York City-based web concern” to a family of six sites. The latest just debuted: Approve This Message, a kind of politics wire with the sensibility of The Awl mothership.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Journatic CEO: We are creating a better future for journalism — The Chicago Tribune recently laid off many of the reporters and editors who produced its hyper-local editions, and announced that it was outsourcing those functions to a startup called Journatic — a move that drew criticism …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu and Chicago Reader

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

Yellowing Paper and Vanishing Ink as Sports Cartooning Declines — BALTIMORE — Mike Ricigliano practices a nearly extinct newspaper art: he is a sports cartoonist, poking fun at sports figures with pen, paper and a gag writer's shtick. — How much longer he can earn a living doing what he loves …

Steve Buttry / @stevebuttry:

One of the best analyses I've read of today's poisoned political climate and journalism's failure by pursuing balance: http://www.washingtonpost.com/ ...

Discussion: Washington Post, @dangillmor, @jeffjarvis, @jayrosen_nyu and @jayrosen_nyu

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

How Scandinavia's press councils keep the media accountable — How Scandinavia's press councils keep the media accountable — When right-wing militant Anders Behring Breivik killed 77 people in and around bucolic Oslo last July, the story dominated the press in Norway for months.

Reuters:

Apple courts EPIX for upcoming TV: sources — (Reuters) - Apple Inc began talks earlier this year to stream films owned by EPIX, which is backed by three major movie studios, on devices including a long-anticipated TV, according to two people with knowledge of the negotiations.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Mashable!, 9to5Mac, App Advice, Shelly Palmer Digital Living, MacRumors, VentureBeat, CNET, Business Insider, ZDNet and Engadget

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Photographer of viral bear falling says he's considering legal action against school paper — Andy Duann's famous photo of a bear falling out of a tree blew up his college newspaper's website Thursday. Reached by telephone on Friday afternoon, Duann started to tell me how he got the great shot.

Discussion: College Media Matters, Mashable!, WebProNews, WEWS-TV, Poynter, @poynter, @poynter, @matthewwells, The Latest Word and U.S. News

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

All-Star Cast Invests 750K In Ben Huh And Matt Galligan's Mobile News Startup Circa — SimpleGeo's Matt Galligan and Icanhascheezburger's Ben Huh have teamed up to change the way people consume news via mobile. Their startup Circa, which boasts a newsworthy list of advisors …