Mediagazer: Former ABC News boss David Westin to head up News Licensing Group (Chris Ariens/TVNewser)

2:25 PM ET, April 14, 2011

Top News:

Arianna Huffington / The Huffington Post:

About That Lawsuit... The lawsuit filed Tuesday by Jonathan Tasini is so utterly without merit, and has been so thoroughly eviscerated in the media — including being ridiculed as the “dumbest lawsuit ever” — I am hesitant to take any time away from aggregating adorable kitten videos to respond.

Joe Pompeo / Yahoo! News:
Does HuffPo even need its unpaid bloggers anymore?

Discussion: B2B Memes, Poynter and MediaPost

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

Third senior News of the World journalist arrested — James Weatherup in custody as further searches of News of the World offices are expected — Profile: who is James Weatherup? — The police investigation into phone hacking at the News of the World has taken a dramatic turn …

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Press Gazette, The Wire and New York Observer

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Harman Family to Keep Its Stake in Newsweek — In the weeks before his death, Sidney Harman acted every bit the proud new business owner he was. He took part in meetings. When he could not be there in person, he dialed in by video conference. He answered his own phone when colleagues called.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Wall Street Journal, Deal Journal and Poynter

Samantha Henig / The New Yorker Blog:
Postscript: Sidney Harman

Discussion: Guardian, The Daily Beast, American Journalism Review, Bloomberg and Runnin' Scared

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Why the Times Pays Writers Even When It Doesn't Have To — This guy doesn't need your stinkin' 50 bucks, okay? Image via Wikipedia — In the great debate over whether the Huffington Post should/must/will pay its bloggers, there's one refrain you keep hearing from the site's defenders …

Discussion: Poynter and The Atlantic Online

Nat Worden / Wall Street Journal:

Web Advertising Eclipsed Newspapers in 2010 — Web advertising in the U.S. resumed double-digit growth in 2010, outpacing traditional media and surpassing newspaper ad revenue for the first time, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau. — In an annual report prepared …

Discussion: Noted and Street Fight

John Cook / Gawker:

The New York Observer's Trump Problem — Pouty fathead Donald Trump is a tailor-made character for the New York Observer, which purports to monitor Manhattan's smug oligarchy with a gimlet-eyed detachment. And his semi-coherent presidential grumblings, which count as news just about everywhere else …

Discussion: New York Observer, The Wire, FishbowlNY and New York Observer

Dan Frommer / The Wire:

Meet The Guy Who Has Totally Reinvented Bloomberg Businessweek's Design — Bloomberg's Businessweek relaunch has been impressive. The stories are interesting, new editor Josh Tyrangiel has made some big editorial hires, and Bloomberg is even executing on the tech side with a great new iPad app.

Discussion: SAI

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Former Newsweek Editor Meacham Switches Teams — Writes cover story for Time magazine — Newsweek's loss is Time's gain, again. Ex-Newsweek editor Jon Meacham wrote the cover story for Time's forthcoming issue, which hits newsstands this week. For the piece, his first for the magazine …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Former ABC News boss David Westin to head up News Licensing Group — Former ABC News president David Westin has been named president and CEO of the News Licensing Group, a digital rights organization established by the board of the Associated Press. — News Licensing will launch this summer …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, paidContent, The Wrap and On Media's Blog

Ken Doctor / Newsonomics:

Six Lessons for News Publishers from Seth Godin — Seth Godin is the marketer's marketer, somewhere beyond guru. — He's now poking the edges of publishing. After 13 bestsellers, manufactured and sold through the traditional industry, he's causing quite a stir in the book world …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Flipboard Gets Oprah — Big Partnership for Popular Social Magazine App Puts Oprah on Par With Facebook, Twitter — Oprah is getting equal billing to Facebook and Twitter in the latest update to Flipboard's iPad app. — The app, which allows users to create personalized magazines …

Discussion: paidContent and The Wrap

David Bauder / Associated Press:

Discovery launching network for rich men in Sept. — NEW YORK - Discovery Communications Inc. is launching a television network for rich guys and their toys. — Called Velocity, the new network will replace the current network HD Theater in some 40 million homes on Sept. 25, Discovery officials said Thursday.

Discussion: Inc.com and Company Town

Mark Colvin / ABC News:

Journalism's new wave: the world in a tweet — One steamy night in February 1974, I went with friends to hear the great blues guitarist B B King in concert at Sydney's Hordern Pavilion. — All went well until, an hour or so in, King collapsed on stage and had to be carried off.

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Love me, love my NPR: Public radio listeners can show off their loyalty — NPR executives have been known to brag that theirs is just about the only news organization to show up in people's personal ads. For example: “I am in need of some intelligent male company...I am an avid reader …

Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:

Spotify mulls plan to limit free music — Spotify is considering a plan to further cut back the amount of free music it offers to users and is expected to impose new limits perhaps as soon as this week, sources with knowledge of the plans told CNET. — Spotify, the online music service …

Discussion: Spotify, paidContent, Media Decoder, VentureBeat, broadstuff, ReadWriteWeb and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

Hit YouTube Series ‘The Annoying Orange’ To Become Animated TV Show — Management/production company The Collective has teamed with Dane Boedigheimer, creator of the popular YouTube series The Annoying Orange, to produce The Annoying Orange animated TV comedy series.

Discussion: TVWeek.com and BoomTown