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Source: Matt Lauer Leaving The Today Show (Entertainment Tonight)
As headlines have Meredith Vieira leaving the Today show, a source tells ET and The Insider that Matt Lauer has notified his NBC bosses that he will be resigning from Today when his contract expires Dec. 31, 2012. TVNewser: In 2007, TVNewser's Alissa Krinsky interviewed Lauer when he and Al Roker anchored the show from Chicago. At the time, he told us, "Let's say I do a number of more years on this show, and then I leave to do something else. I'd love to be able to take (my kids) to school in the morning. I want to coach Little League for my kids. I'm not hinting at anything. It's just that there will come a time where I stop doing this, and at that point it will be all about family."

The Glenn Beck/Fox News Fallout (TVNewser)
With the news that Glenn Beck will be leaving Fox News Channel, critics, supporters, and pundits are all weighing in on the matter. TheWrap.com / Media Alley: A one-man media empire -- which would include his radio show, fledgling website, and, once his presumed non-compete with Fox is up, daily TV show -- is being considered. B&C: It doesn't look like Beck will be battling Katie Couric in the syndication wars anytime soon. Chicago Tribune / Phil Rosenthal: Popularity doesn't always translate to profitability, and the Glenn Beck program was becoming a better business proposition for Beck than for FNC. New York / Daily Intel: Fox News overlord Roger Ailes says he was ready for Beck, his fading star, to hit the road. "Half of the headlines say he's been canceled," he told the AP in an interview. "The other half say he quit. We're pretty happy with both of them." HuffPost: Fox News anchors Megyn Kelly and Bret Baier joked about Beck's imminent departure from the network Wednesday.

Larry Mendte Scores Exclusive Access To Muammar Qaddafi In Tripoli (TVSpy)
Larry Mendte, who has been working as a contributor for WPIX, is currently in Libya, covering U.S. congressman Curt Weldon's discussions with Muammar Qaddafi and hoping to potentially land an interview.

AOL Fires Moviefone Editor Who Offered Fired Freelancers The Chance To Work For, Um, Free (AllThingsD / BoomTown)
Tuesday, AOL's Huffington Post Media Group got into hot water after the top editor at its Moviefone unit sent a memo to freelancers that it was in the midst of firing, offering them an opportunity to "contribute as part of our non-paid blogger system." Wednesday, that exec -- Moviefone editor-in-chief Patricia Chui -- was fired by the company, which is in the midst of drastically rejiggering its stable of writers. FishbowlLA: Former Cinematical freelancer Eric D. Snider made the controversial email from Chui public, but now he's coming to her defense. Silicon Alley Insider: Proceeding with its transition from freelance to full-time -- and continuing to mothball brands that were at the center of AOL's content strategy only a couple of years ago -- AOL has canned the last freelancers at its business and finance sites. Yahoo! News / The Cutline: Wednesday adds television bloggers and others to the list of AOL stringers who are feeling the effects of the recent assertion by AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong that the company, now merged with The Huffington Post, "will invest more heavily in our in-house editorial team and transition away from a reliance on freelance journalists." WSJ: As the new editor-in-chief of AOL's 56 content sites, a job Arianna Huffington began after AOL's $315 million acquisition of HuffPost closed last month, Huffington is installing her employees, pushing coverage of her pet topics, and gutting aspects of AOL's existing system to do so.

WSJ/NBC Poll: A Donald Trump Surprise (WSJ / Washington Wire)
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney appears to be the early front-runner in the largely unformed race for the Republican nomination for president, but real estate magnate Donald Trump may be a surprise contender, according to a new Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll.

Like ABC, Fox Had FBI Mole In Its Midst (The Smoking Gun)
Turns out ABC wasn't the only television outfit to have an FBI mole in its ranks during the 1990s, according to bureau memos.

More Data On The Daily: What's Primetime For iPad Use? And Which Stories Get Tweeted The Most? (Nieman Journalism Lab)
Tuesday, I wrote about a fascinating set of data I'd obtained with the help of the folks at PostRank: Every Tweet generated from within The Daily iPad app from launch through March 31.

MTV General Manager Stephen Friedman Named Network's President (LA Times)
It's one of the more formidable assignments in television: figuring out how to appeal to a fresh generation of teenagers and twentysomethings. Veteran executive Stephen K. Friedman was handed that responsibility Wednesday when he was promoted to president of influential youth-oriented cable network MTV.

Cyndi Stivers Becomes Latest High-Level Digital Departure From Time Inc. (Adweek)
Add another name to the list of high-level people who've left Time Inc.'s digital operations recently.

New NYTimes.com Promo Borrows From Print Marketing: 50 Percent Off (paidContent)
In a new promo that went to some NYTimes.com registered users Wednesday, The New York Times is offering 26 weeks of digital access for half-price -- bringing the cost of subscribing to the most expensive digital-only package to less than a home-delivery print subscription.

Facebook Journalist Page Liked By 12,000 On Day One (All Facebook)
I visited Journalists on Facebook right after the communications team first emailed me about the page's launch Wednesday morning. Since then, the number of likes has jumped from perhaps a dozen to 12,376 when I started writing this and 12,841 when I finished.

Except For Newsweek, Advertising Growth For Most Newsweekly Magazines (NYT / Media Decoder)
Weekly news magazines fared well in the first three months of the year, according to one closely watched industry barometer -- except for Newsweek. paidContent: Magazine ad pages grew 2.5 percent in the first three months of 2011 compared to the same period last year, a time when the ad recovery was gaining momentum, the latest Publishers Information Bureau figures show. FishbowlNY: Because we like to be the bearer of good news here at FishbowlNY, we bring you this: Magazine ad pages in the first quarter were up almost three percent compared with the first quarter of 2010.

YouTube Recasts For New Viewers (WSJ)
Google is working on a major overhaul of YouTube as it tries to position itself for the rise of televisions that let people watch online video in their living rooms, according to people familiar with the matter.

With Blockbuster Win, Big Questions Remain For Dish (Multichannel News)
Hours after Dish Network emerged as the winning bidder for Blockbuster, analysts are wondering just what will the satellite giant do with the troubled video-rental chain. WSJ: Dish's winning bid for Blockbuster could put the satellite-TV provider on a path to compete with Netflix, although significant hurdles remain. Forbes / Show Me The Money: However odd the new combination might be, it's wise never to count out Dish head Charlie Ergen. TechCrunch: I'd be lying if I said that I haven't taken some delight in watching the complete and utter collapse of Blockbuster.

Cablevision: 50,000 iPad App Downloads In Five Days (Multichannel News)
Cablevision Systems said its free iPad app, which lets subscribers watch up to 300 live TV channels and access more than 2,200 video-on-demand titles, has been downloaded more than 50,000 times since its April 2 release. NY Post: According to sources familiar with the talks, Viacom -- the owner of MTV, Comedy Central, and Nickelodeon -- is unhappy about its inclusion in the app and has complained to the Long Island cable-TV operator. WSJ: A group of high-ranking cable-television executives met with Apple CEO Steve Jobs in Silicon Valley last April to discuss how to make more movies and TV shows available on Apple's newly launched iPad tablet device.