Mediagazer: Roger Ebert, Popular Film Critic, Dies at 70 (Douglas Martin/New York Times)

3:55 AM ET, April 5, 2013

Top News:

Roger Ebert dies at 70 after battle with cancer — Except for those he hated. — For a film with a daring director, a talented cast, a captivating plot or, ideally, all three, there could be no better advocate than Roger Ebert, who passionately celebrated and promoted excellence in film …

Douglas Martin / New York Times:

Roger Ebert, Popular Film Critic, Dies at 70 — Roger Ebert, the popular film critic and television co-host who along with his fellow reviewer and sometime sparring partner Gene Siskel could lift or sink the fortunes of a movie with their trademark thumbs up or thumbs down, has died.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, Variety, NPR, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Atlantic Wire, ArtsBeat, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker Blog, paidContent, The Hairpin, Colorlines and ParisLemon

Josephine McGowan / Columbia Daily Spectator:

New Journalism School dean Coll plans two-year Master's, tuition reductions — Steve Coll, the new dean at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism, is considering a two-year Master's program, lower tuition fees, and a more rigorous Master's project. — Steve Coll, the new Journalism School dean …

Discussion: @laureni, @mlcalderone, @chanders and @laureni

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: Steve Coll surprises Columbia J-school faculty with talk of a two-year program

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Cleveland Paper to Curtail Delivery and Cut Staff — The Plain Dealer in Cleveland, whose reporters organized one of the industry's most active opposition movements against its parent company's plans for cutbacks, will trim home delivery to three days a week and create a new digital company …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter, Columbia Journalism Review, Scene and Heard, UPI and The Republic

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:
Advance to nowhere — Advance Publications's announcement today …

Discussion: Cleveland Magazine, Facebook and Shaker Heights, OH Patch

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Al Jazeera Hires First Anchor for New U.S. Channel — Al Jazeera on Thursday hired its first new anchor, Ali Velshi of CNN, for its forthcoming cable channel in the United States, and confirmed that the channel would be called Al Jazeera America. — Mr. Velshi, currently …

Discussion: TVNewser, New York Magazine, Variety and Broadcasting & Cable

Eric Deggans / Tampa Bay Times:

Bill Adair, editor of Pulitzer Prize winning website PolitiFact, to leave Tampa Bay Times for Duke University — Bill Adair, PolitiFact editor, to leave for Duke University. — Bill Adair, the Washington Bureau Chief who created and edits the Tampa Bay Times' Pulitzer Prize-winning …

Discussion: Poynter, @dylanbyers and Politico

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

CNN.com Getting New Homepage And Organizational Structure — In a sign of just how quickly new CNN Worldwide president Jeff Zucker is moving to change the company, the CNN.com homepage will be getting a new look this afternoon, as well as a new organizational structure.

Discussion: NewscastStudio

Marc Graser / Variety:

Disney Staffers Brace for Layoffs Amid Planned Reorg (EXCLUSIVE) … Employees at the Walt Disney Co. are bracing for layoffs that are expected in the coming weeks as part of a reorganization of key operations. — It is believed that the company's movie studio will be hardest hit …

Discussion: Reuters

Christopher Palmeri / Bloomberg:
Disney Halts Game Development at Lucasfilm in Licensing Push

Discussion: NextBigWhat, Bleeding Cool Comic Book …, HotHardware.com News, BWW Movies Stories, Metro.co.uk, Examiner, MTV Multiplayer, San Francisco Examiner, EL33TONLINE.com Blog, Ars Technica, gameinformer.com, Variety, Engadget, The Wrap, PopWatch, Rock, Paper, Shotgun and Businessweek

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Intel inside & out: trademark filings point towards Intel Media plans — Intel's plan to enter the media biz is looking more ambitious by the day: The company applied for a series of trademarks last week that seem to be related to the TV service it is going to launch out of its Intel Media unit.

Scott Roxborough / Hollywood Reporter:

‘Angry Birds’ Publisher Rovio Doubles Yearly Revenue to $195 million — Profit at the Finnish company was up 57 percent in 2012, with nearly half of revenues coming from merchandising rather than video games. — Rovio, the Finnish company behind the video game phenomenon Angry Birds …

Tracie Powell / Columbia Journalism Review:

Next FCC chairman will impact journalism — Why journalists should care who succeeds Julius Genachowski — Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski announced last month that he was stepping down, and journalism advocates have since been lining up to voice opinions …

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

↓↓↓ Look Down ↓↓↓ — Here's a question: On the internet what exactly are headlines for? — This post doesn't have a canonical headline (that is, a single, main, authoritative headline, chosen by me, that isn't a joke). But it has a large number of other headlines that you can't see right now.