Mediagazer: ‘BBC commercial plans are unambitious’ (Rajeev Syal/Guardian)

Exclusive: Netflix in talks for cable partnership — (Reuters) - Netflix Chief Executive Reed Hastings has quietly met with some of the largest U.S. cable companies in recent weeks to discuss adding the online movie streaming service to their cable offerings, according to sources familiar with matter.

Discussion: Forbes, Engadget, ZDNet, VentureBeat, The Verge, TechCrunch, VatorNews, CNET, The Next Web, Electronista, Home Media Magazine, Online Video News, Shelly Palmer Digital Living and Gizmodo

Los Angeles Times:

Google launches digital media destination Google Play — Google is ready to play. It's creating a single destination for digital media called Google Play, putting books, music, movies and games all in one spot. It's a bid to build a powerful entertainment hub on par with Apple, Amazon.com and Microsoft.

Discussion: The Official Google Blog, Company Town, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Here's The Woman Rush Limbaugh Is Attacking Today; ‘Totally Bizarre,’ She Says — Tracie McMillan. Photo via traciemcmillan.com — Say you're a conservative radio host who's losing advertisers left and right for saying some deeply misinformed and misogynistic things about the lifestyle …

Discussion: Rush Limbaugh, Mother Jones, St. Petersburg Times, Forbes and Forbes

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
Five More Advertisers Drop Rush Limbaugh, Bringing Total To 20

Discussion: ANIMAL, Reuters, Mother Jones, Forbes and The Huffington Post

Wall Street Journal:
Limbaugh Syndicator Defends Host

Discussion: Raleigh News & Observer, Washington Wire, Gawker, Bloomberg, Speakeasy, Poynter, Hollywood Reporter and The Huffington Post

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Godin to authors: You have no right to make money any more — Thanks to the rise self-publishing tools, from Amazon's Kindle platform to Apple's iAuthor software, anyone who wants to write a book can do so and theoretically reach an audience of millions — as self-publishing superstars such as Amanda Hocking and John Locke have shown.

Discussion: TeleRead, Thanks:@mathewi

Ben Dowell / Guardian:

Murdoch owns too many papers, says Harman — Shadow culture secretary calls for a change in legislation to address ‘historical problems’ — The shadow culture secretary, Harriet Harman, has said Rupert Murdoch owns “too many newspapers” in the UK and has called for legislative change to address this.

Sandra Laville / Guardian: Phone hacking has made police scared of the press, Stevens tells Leveson

London Evening Standard:
Two Murdoch reporters feared to be in suicide bids

Discussion: The Age, Business Insider and Guardian

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:
News Corp dropped top US anti-bribery lawyer from its legal team

Discussion: Deadline.com and Law Blog

Neville Thurlbeck / @nthurlbeck: I'm afraid there was a very serious suicide attempt by an NoTW staffer before Christmas taking the number to 3, thanks to the MSC.

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Breitbart 2.0 — Days after Breitbart's sudden death, his right-wing new media empire has been revamped, redesigned, and relaunched with the goal of competing as a serious news outlet—and moving away from the aggregation and activist blogging that have been his sites' bread and butter until now.

Ki Mae Heussner / Adweek:

Can the BuzzFeed Formula Work for Real News? — BuzzFeed, the meme-centric social news site known for its reserves of offbeat content and silly cat photos, is stockpiling journalists—serious ones. — Last week, it announced the hire of award-winning Rolling Stone writer Michael Hastings …

Dwight Garner / New York Times:

Kindle Singles, Genre Between Magazine Articles and Books — The Kindle Single is not a promising name. It sounds like a new kind of prefabricated fire log, or a type of person you might meet on the dating service eHarmony, or perhaps a lonely independent bookstore owner put out of business by Amazon.com.

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Young Sulzberger Is Coming Home to the Big City — A.G. “Baller of a New Generation” Sulzberger—son of NYT publisher Pinch Sulzberger, heir to the throne of the Times empire, and natural wisenheimer—has completed his exile in Middle America, where he helmed the Kansas City desk and was forced …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, WWD and @koblin

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Nick Thompson named NewYorker.com editor — Nicholas Thompson, a senior editor at The New Yorker, has been named editor of the magazine's website, NewYorker.com, a spokesperson confirmed this morning. — Thompson, who joined the magazine from Wired in 2010, is also a contributing editor …

Discussion: Capital New York and FishbowlNY

Steven Church / Bloomberg:

Zell Company Seeks Part of Any Future Lawsuit Winnings Over Tribune Buyout — Billionaire Sam Zell is demanding a share of any money retirees and other creditors may win in lawsuits or legal settlements over the 2007 leveraged buyout he engineered of newspaper publisher Tribune Co. (TRB)

Danny Whatmough / The Huffington Post:

New Media and Tech Winning the Viral News War — Some new research sheds light on how social media is currently being used to share news articles from traditional publishers. Newswhip has looked at the number of news stories during January 2012 that received more than 100 mentions on Twitter …

Digiday:

Don't Call Me Guru — As social media editor for Reuters, Anthony De Rosa is about as real time as you can get. His desk on the large newsroom floor at Reuters headquarters in Times Square is dominated by three large computer screens, two of which have TweetDeck open at all times.

Discussion: Poynter

Rajeev Syal / Guardian:

‘BBC commercial plans are unambitious’ — Broadcaster told to boost income at a time of budget cuts, and to reveal how those cuts will affect services and quality — The BBC lacks ambition in its plans to boost commercial revenue, at a time when it is being forced to make substantial budget cuts, a committee of MPs say today.

Discussion: Beet.TV

Estelle Shirbon / Reuters:

Hacking payouts may drive up privacy damages in UK — (Reuters) - Big payouts to victims of phone-hacking by Rupert Murdoch's now-defunct News of the World paper are set to drive up the damages awarded in privacy cases in Britain, according to a recent judgment and experts in media law.

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Marie Colvin funeral to be held in New York this weekend — Body of veteran Sunday Times reporter killed covering the Syria uprising en route back to the USA — Marie Colvin: ‘died doing something she was completely passionate about’ — The funeral of Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin …