-- Louis Hau of Forbes does an excellent job explaining the complicated relationship between The AP and newspapers in the digital age. From Forbes: '''Working with limited resources of its own, AP's efforts to keep its news product relevant and competitive are "really based around quality and elimination of waste and focus less on work that's not going to play in a newspaper or a Web site,' (Jim Kennedy, vice president of strategic planning) says.

''...Last year, AP generated only about 30% of its revenue from U.S. newspapers. The rest came from global broadcast customers (37%), online ventures (15%) and other revenue sources, such as international clients and photography, (18%). Forbes.com is a customer of AP.

'''There's no longer a direct tie between what the members pay and the news gathering we do,' Kennedy says.''

-- Last night was Montblanc North America and Quest magazine's New Yorkers Who Make A Difference annual dinner. Attendees included Quest Media publisher Chris Meigher, Liz Smith, Kipton Cronkite and Dominick Dunne, among others. More at NYSocialdiary.

--Whether or not this year's Upfronts will remotely resemble previous events is still in question. But each of the broadcast networks have signaled that they will make some kind of presentation, says Media Week. ''NBC Universal president and CEO Jeff Zucker last month said the network might scrap its major presentation at Radio City. Today, though, NBC spokesperson Liz Fischer said while the network has yet to determine what might specifically replace it on May 12, 'changes will be made to the upfront and plans are underway. We will have an announcement shortly.''' More at Media Week.

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