Mediagazer: E-Book Smackdown: Who Should Control Pricing—Publishers Or Amazon? (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

12:40 AM ET, March 13, 2012

Top News:

Welcoming the Posterous team to the flock — Today we are welcoming a very talented group from Posterous to Twitter. This team has built an innovative product that makes sharing across the web and mobile devices simple—a goal we share. Posterous engineers, product managers and others …

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Twitter has acquired shortform blogging company Posterous, Spaces will remain up and running for now — Blogging and sharing company Posterous has announced via its company blog that it has been snagged by Twitter in an apparent ‘acqui-hire’, with Twitter interested mostly in the people, not the product.

Discussion: Betabeat

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

CNN in Talks to Acquire Mashable, Sources Say — AUSTIN, Tex. — CNN, a unit of Time Warner, and Mashable are in advanced talks that may lead to an acquisition of the social news Web site, three people with knowledge of the talks said. — Mashable, which specializes in stories about technology …

Brian Stelter / @brianstelter:
In email to staff, Pete Cashmore says it “isn't true” that @Mashable “will be acquired this week.” (Doesn't deny NYT report of talks w/CNN.)

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Ari Levy / Bloomberg:

IAC Chairman Diller Sees Aereo TV Service in Up to 100 Cities Within Year — Barry Diller, the billionaire chairman of IAC/InteractiveCorp. (IACI), expects his Aereo Inc. Web- based television service to be in 75 to 100 cities within a year after making its debut this week in New York.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Adweek, Light Reading, Betabeat, CNET and Bloomberg

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Aereo files countersuit against broadcasters — (Reuters) - Aereo Inc, a new online television service backed by Barry Diller's IAC/InterActiveCorp, has filed a countersuit against several broadcasters, seeking a declaration that it does not infringe their copyrights.

Discussion: Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable, PC Magazine and TVSpy

CNN:

FCC should clear Limbaugh from airwaves — Limbaugh has long history of hate speech. FCC should ask: Are stations carrying him are acting “in public interest,” writers say. — Editor's note: Jane Fonda, Robin Morgan, and Gloria Steinem are the Co-Founders of the Women's Media Center.

Discussion: New York Times, The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, Mediaite and Chickaboomer

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:
EXCLUSIVE: 141 Companies Drop Advertising From Rush Limbaugh

Discussion: Mediaite and The Huffington Post

Wall Street Journal:

Intel Developing Web-Based TV Service — Intel Corp. is developing an Internet-based TV service that it hopes to sell to U.S. consumers, a strategic shift for the chip maker that makes it the latest technology company to look at a foray in the pay-TV business.

Discussion: Forbes, PC Magazine, Bits, CNET, The Verge, GigaOM, ZDNet, Multichannel, Business Insider, Gizmodo and Engadget

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Exclusive: Amazon Has Sold Over Two Million Kindle Singles — When Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) launched the Kindle Singles program a little over a year ago, nobody knew whether there was a market for e-books that are shorter than full-length books but longer than most magazine articles.

Discussion: PC Magazine, eBookNewser and mediabistro.com

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Exclusive: How Much Do Kindle Singles Authors Make?

Discussion: The Awl

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

We Don't Need No Stinking Seal of Approval from the Blog Police — David Carr's column today is partly about a plan masterminded by Ad Age columnist Simon Dumenco to create, quote, a “Council on Ethical Blogging and Aggregation,” which will ostensibly serve as a sort of trade group or …

Discussion: Gizmodo, WebProNews, Erik Wemple, Mashable!, Marco.org, The Awl, JIMROMENESKO.COM, FishbowlNY, Spiersblr, @antderosa, Boing Boing and New York Times

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Behind the Birth of a Sports-Media Bet for the YouTube Era — SB Nation Rolls Out Original Programming in One of Video Site's Bold Premium Content Plays — “The Internet's not working,” said Jim Bankoff. — It was March 1, and the Vox Media CEO had just arrived by train from the company's Washington, D.C., headquarters.

Robin Wauters / The Next Web:
Building a digital media empire: SB Nation and The Verge owner Vox Media raises $17 million

Discussion: VentureBeat

Jeanine Poggi / AdAge:

Netflix Quietly Launches TV Network-Branded Pages — Could Complicate Stance as Complementary to TV Distributors — Comcast, cablevision, cox and ... Netflix? — Netflix has been careful to describe itself as a complement to cable distributors, but as it quietly tests network-branded pages …

Discussion: New York Post, @brizilla and Business Insider

The Huffington Post:

CNN Lifts Roland Martin's Suspension — CNN announced on Monday that it has lifted its suspension on political analyst Roland Martin. — According to Fishbowl DC, the network announced the news during a conference call Monday morning. — Martin was suspended shortly after Super Bowl Sunday …

Discussion: FishbowlDC, TVNewser and Inside Cable News

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

NY Times Editor Jill Abramson Stays Humble at SXSW — Here's one way to gauge how big SXSW Interactive has gotten: The executive editor of The New York Times is taking three days off from overseeing All The News That's Fit To Print to come down to Austin, give a talk and take in a few panels — and maybe to catch a Jay-Z show.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, NetNewsCheck Latest and Poynter

Joanna Walters / Guardian:

Marie Colvin: mourners say farewell to ‘talented, compassionate’ war reporter — Rupert Murdoch among those at Long Island funeral for war correspondent who was killed trying to escape Homs shelling — Marie Colvin, the Sunday Times war correspondent whose reputation for covering difficult stories …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
As Marie Colvin is laid to rest, news organizations assess the dangers of reporting from inside Syria

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Reuters and Washington Post

Nancy Messieh / The Next Web:

Bahrain and Belarus added to the list of Enemies of the Internet, Libya and Venezuela are dropped — Today is World Day Against Cyber Censorship, and international watchdog, Reporters without Borders (RWB), has released a new report, updating its ‘Enemies of the Internet’ list.

Discussion: Forbes, Reporters Without Borders, Mashable! and PC Magazine

Natalie Peck / Hacking inquiry:

Former Home Secretary rejected plans for full investigation into phone hacking, Leveson hears — Former Home Secretary Alan Johnson rejected plans for a full investigation into phone hacking, the Leveson Inquiry has heard. — Sir Denis O'Connor, the chief inspector of constabulary …

Discussion: Hacking inquiry, Guardian and London Evening Standard