Mediagazer: Al Jazeera's Webby Award-winning The Stream at one (Sarah Marshall/Journalism.co.uk)

4:10 PM ET, May 5, 2012

Top News:

Huffington's Role Shrinks at AOL — Executive Says Shift Will Free Her to Focus on Her Namesake News Site as It Gears Up to Expand Abroad — Arianna Huffington acknowledged Thursday that her portfolio at AOL Inc. is being scaled back to include only the Huffington Post …

Discussion: NYConvergence.com, FishbowlLA, New York Magazine, VentureBeat, NetNewsCheck Latest and Hollywood Reporter

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Does AOL need HuffPo more than HuffPo needs AOL? — The plot seems to be thickening at AOL, at least when it comes to Arianna Huffington's role at the former portal. She confirmed to the Wall Street Journal that her role within the company has been reduced, something that was the subject …

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A Twin Cities turnaround? The Star Tribune carves a path back through growing audience — In 2009, the Star Tribune found itself on a dubious list: The 10 Most Endangered Newspapers in America. That was the year Minnesota's largest daily entered into bankruptcy after rounds of cost-cutting …

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

Al Jazeera's Webby Award-winning The Stream at one — The successes of The Stream, ‘a social media community with its daily TV show’, which was first broadcast on Al Jazeera English a year ago today — A year ago today Al Jazeera English was due to broadcast the first episode of a new social media TV show called The Stream.

Carl Straumsheim / American Journalism Review:

Leaving the Newsroom to Launch Online Startups — Journalists embracing the entrepreneurial spirit. Weds., May 2, 2012. — Editorial assistant Carl Straumsheim (@cfstraumsheim, cstraumsheim@ajr.umd.edu) is a graduate student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism.

Jim Romenesko:

Juan Williams rethinks NPR — Juan Williams was quick to accept a few million bucks from Roger Ailes and jump to Fox News after NPR gave him the boot. He then went on a non-stop NPR-bashing tour, accusing the radio network of being “elitist and white.” — Williams is singing a different tune …

Discussion: Capital New York, FishbowlNY, Mediaite and TVNewser

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Politico endorses post-first, check-later journalism — On April 20, New York Daily News photographer Todd Maisel was in Cartagena, Colombia, working on the story of the Secret Service scandal. Amid his wanderings, he banged out a provocative tweet: … Quite an allegation.

Discussion: @erikwemple, @jackshafer, @erikwemple and @jackshafer

Michael Nunez / International Business Times:

Google News Adds Realtime Coverage, Google Plus Discussion: Is The Information Provided Actually Relevant? — Google News has added features that will give readers realtime data surrounding news stories, but the company has failed to acknowledge Twitter and Facebook once again.

Discussion: SlashGear, The Verge and CNET

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

U.S. senator likely to be rebuffed in News Corp inquiry — (Reuters) - The British judicial inquiry investigating questionable reporting practices by Rupert Murdoch's media properties is unlikely to cooperate with a prominent U.S. senator's request for evidence of misconduct in the United States …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
David Cameron wins advance access to Leveson inquiry witness statements

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Press Gazette and Telegraph

Business Week:

Discovery's Oprah Problem — Oprah Winfrey stood before advertisers and media executives in New York last month and offered a humble assessment of her effort to create OWN: Oprah Winfrey Network. Despite her popularity, the new cable channel attracts less than a 10th of the audience her syndicated TV show used to pull in.

Discussion: Company Town

Samantha Critchell / Associated Press:

Vogue bans too-skinny models from its pages — NEW YORK (AP) — Vogue magazine, perhaps the world's top arbiter of style, is making a statement about its own models: Too young and too thin is no longer in. The 19 editors of Vogue magazines around the world made a pact to project the image …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Globe and Mail and Folio

Jim Romenesko:

New York Times confirms non-newsroom layoffs — I received multiple tips late Thursday about layoffs at the New York Times, including this report: … Another tipster says of Freeman: He was “one of the two go-to guys on news-department legal matters, from story vetting to fighting First Amendment cases.

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Wrap, Capital New York, New York Magazine and FishbowlNY

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

WaPo digital revenue drops in Q1 — The Washington Post Co. newspaper division continues to struggle, nearly doubling its operating loss with drops in print circulation and advertising — and digital ad sales aren't picking up the slack. — The division, which includes the Washington Post and Slate …

Discussion: MediaPost, 10,000 Words, AllThingsD, Reuters, Politico, Washington Post and Poynter

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

National Magazine Awards 2012: ‘Time’ Grabs Top Prize; ‘New York’ Wins Three — NEW YORK — NBC News anchor Brian Williams joked with attendees at Thursday night's National Magazine Awards dinner that given all the categories being honored, “if you publish a magazine in the United States …