Mediagazer: Disney Staffers Brace for Layoffs Amid Planned Reorg (EXCLUSIVE) (Marc Graser/Variety)

11:30 AM ET, April 5, 2013

Top News:

Jeff Bezos Invests in Business Insider — Jeff Bezos has invested in Business Insider, according to an internal memo we have just obtained. Here's the memo from Business Insider CEO and Editor-in-Chief Henry Blodget: Team, I wanted to share the details of the financing we mentioned last night.

Discussion: GigaOM, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, Betabeat, Poynter, ZDNet, @mathewi, @tcarmody, Quartz, 24/7 Wall St., GeekWire, The Next Web, @ivanthek, @choire and Talking Biz News, Thanks:@max8378

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Amazon's Jeff Bezos Invests in Blodget's Business Insider Site — Business Insider Inc., the business- news site co-founded by former Internet analyst Henry Blodget, raised $5 million in venture capital from investors led by Amazon.com Inc. (AMZN) Chief Executive Officer Jeff Bezos.

Discussion: Business Insider, The Wrap, TechCrunch, @nicknotned and www.wnyc.org

Neil Steinberg / Chicago Sun Times:

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 …

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:

BLS tweet beats everyone on today's jobs figure — Every month, when the US jobs report is announced, journalists race to tweet the number as fast as they can. Many investors, meanwhile, pay lots of money for fast access to the data so they can trade on the reaction.

Discussion: @bobbymacreports

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Longreads partners with ‘The Atlantic’ — Longreads, the long-form journalism aggregator founded by Mark Armstrong in 2009, has a struck a partnership with The Atlantic. — Under the terms of the collaboration, The Atlantic's sales team will begin selling ads against the Longreads platform.

Discussion: paidContent, Adweek, Longreads and Poynter

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

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

AOL strikes deal with the Publishing Group of America to exchange online video content — Media powerhouse AOL launched its On Network way back in April last year, providing a shot in the arm for its online content business. In a nutshell, ‘On’ brings all the company's premium video content together, under one digital roof.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Adotas

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

ESPN Spent $5 Million in Legal Fees Defending Its Licensing Contracts — After saying it prevailed at a trial against Dish Network, the leading sports network demands reimbursement of its costs. — When two big media companies do battle, the big winners are the lawyers.

Joshua Farrington / The Bookseller:

Penguin Random House merger cleared in Europe — The merger between Penguin and Random House has been approved by the EU. — The European Commission announced today (5th April) that the transaction would not raise competition concerns because “the merged entity will continue to face several strong competitors”.

Discussion: paidContent, BBC, Bloomberg and Reuters

Dean Starkman / Columbia Journalism Review:

Advance to nowhere — Advance Publications's announcement today on the future of the Cleveland Plain Dealer was less dramatic than the one a year ago in New Orleans, when, in the name of a dubious digital strategy, the New York based-company slashed the newsroom and chopped four days …

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

Christine Haughney / New York Times:
Cleveland Paper to Curtail Delivery and Cut Staff

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Associated Press, Scene and Heard and UPI

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 …

Paul Sloan / CNET:

For labels, Apple's iRadio deal could be sweeter than Pandora — Apple is close to a deal with two major music labels to bring to life its streaming music service, which could pay labels better than Pandora does. — Apple is close to striking a streaming deal with two of the major music labels …

Discussion: FierceMobileContent News, BGR, App Advice, Ubergizmo, Mashable, Softpedia News, The Next Web, AppleInsider and MacRumors

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, Al Jazeera America, New York Magazine, Variety and Broadcasting & Cable

Brendan Coyne / AdNews:

Paywall race is on as News Limited registers News Plus domain — The paywall race is on as News Limited prepares to make people pay to access its content under a News+ banner. The firm has registered a domain name, AdNews understands, and an application for News+.