Mediagazer: E-books settlement talks advancing: sources (Diane Bartz/Reuters)

9:50 PM ET, March 31, 2012

Top News:

Keith Olbermann / TwitLonger:

My full statement: — I'd like to apologize to my viewers and my staff for the failure of Current TV. Editorially, Countdown had never been better. But for more than a year I have been imploring Al Gore and Joel Hyatt to resolve our issues internally, while I've been not publicizing my complaints …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Mediaite, Show Tracker, Business Insider, Adweek, The FJP, RumorFix and TVbytheNumbers

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Current TV Dismisses Keith Olbermann — 5:13 p.m. | Updated Current TV said Friday afternoon that it had terminated the contract of its lead anchor, Keith Olbermann, scarcely a year after he was hired to reboot the fledgling channel in his progressive political image.

Current TV:
Open letter to the viewers of Current

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Gawker, Speakeasy, Top Digital Journal News, Gothamist, Forbes, Media & Entertainment, Guardian, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, AdAge and paidContent

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Keith Olbermann Out At Current TV, Replaced By Eliot Spitzer

Discussion: TMZ.com, Forbes and Business Insider

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

E-books settlement talks advancing: sources — (Reuters) - The Justice Department could reach a settlement in the next few weeks with Apple Inc (AAPL.O) and some of the major publishers suspected of colluding to push up electronic book prices, according to two people close to the negotiations.

Discussion: CNET, Digitopoly, MacRumors and The Verge

Matt Sanchez / AdAge:

Take a Lesson from Print Media: Clean Up Web Layouts — Amid the Clutter, With Too Many Entry Points, Viewers Can't Focus on the the Content — 5,000. That's the average number of ads and marketing messages Americans are exposed to each day, and if you're online reading this, I'd skew that number higher.

Erik Wemple:

NBC to do ‘internal investigation’ on Zimmerman segment — NBC told this blog today that it would investigate its handling of a piece on the “Today” show that ham-handedly abridged the conversation between George Zimmerman and a dispatcher in the moments before the death of Trayvon Martin.

Discussion: Weasel Zippers and @romenesko

Tania Branigan / Guardian:

Censorship in China: Crackdown on bloggers as rumours of coup swirl — Six people are held and 16 websites shut down as political crisis grips Beijing after sacking — China has intensified online censorship by closing 16 websites, taking the toughest steps yet against major microblogs …

Discussion: AllThingsD, BBC, @jeffjarvis and The Next Web

David Bauder / Associated Press:

CBS expands ‘Face the Nation’ to 1 hour on Sunday — NEW YORK (AP) — Five years ago, just off a bout from cancer, Bob Schieffer was set to retire from CBS's “Face the Nation.” That never stuck, and now he's doubling his workload. — Starting Sunday, the public affairs program expands to an hour.

Discussion: TVNewser

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:

Apple Doesn't Need To Make the TV of the Future — The revolution is already here—and it's called the Xbox. — If the rumors are true, Apple will release a television set later this year that it will tout as the most amazing boob tube ever invented. Apple's TV will be able to access shows …

Discussion: TechCrunch and TechNet Blogs

Walter Shapiro / CJR:

Why is the Press So Ready to Count Santorum Out? — Voters think their primary choices still matter — The front-page story in the March 18th New York Times seemed a case of political life imitating art. A revival of The Best Man—Gore Vidal's 1960 ode to the drama of a brokered convention—was in previews on Broadway.

Discussion: Washington Wire

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Healthy snacks, ‘digital first’ and the speed of the news industry's transformation — Reading stories about the travails of non-media companies, I find myself drawn to analogies to the plight of the newspaper industry. — Thus I was stopped short a few weeks back by a New York Times report on a strategy shift at PepsiCo.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

Jonathan Stempel / Thomson Reuters News …:

Unpaid bloggers' lawsuit vs Huffington Post tossed — AOL Inc on Friday won the dismissal of a lawsuit by unpaid bloggers who complained they were deprived of their fair share of the roughly $315 million that the company paid last March to buy The Huffington Post website.

Discussion: Associated Press, Politico, Bloomberg, Forbes and @dangillmor

Jim Romenesko: Huffington Post reacts to judge's ruling

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

E-Book Sales For Kids And Teens Surge — New monthly stats from the Association of American Publishers show strong growth for both print and e-books in January 2012. — The AAP is beefing up its monthly reports with data from many more publishers—1,149 for January 2012 compared to under 100 …

Discussion: the Econsultancy blog and The Verge

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Tale of the tape: ‘Observer’ won't retract story about ‘Post’ editor Col Allan and soccer-mom madam Anna Gristina — Morning memo: The papers profit from the Super Bowl; plus Elizabeth Spiers' one-year anniversary, the big video trend, and ‘gay-bashing’ Super Bowl tweets

Discussion: Gothamist, JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine and Guardian

Jeane MacIntosh / New York Post:
Soccer Mom madam and The Post

Discussion: The New York Observer, @dylanbyers, @mlcalderone, Gawker and Politico

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

8 great newspaper April Fools' hoaxes — The Great Wall of China hoax of 1899 was so excellent that it engendered a separate hoax: Some have claimed since that it helped kick off the Boxer Rebellion. Even better, the hoax was perpetrated in June, well after everyone had let their guard down.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM