Mediagazer: It's official: Chicago Reader sold to Sun-Times parent (Andrew Beaujon/Poynter)

3:20 PM ET, May 23, 2012

Top News:

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Andy Coulson voicemails allegedly hacked — Voicemails left by Andy Coulson for the aide to former Labour home secretary Charles Clarke are believed to be among those allegedly hacked while he was editor of the News of the World. Coulson is one of a number of journalists whose messages …

Discussion: New Statesman and Huffington Post UK

Kate Holton / Reuters:

Ex-UK editor Morgan accused again on hacking — May 23 (Reuters) - One of Britain's most respected journalists said on Wednesday that former tabloid newspaper editor Piers Morgan showed him how to hack into phones 10 years ago, the latest twist in a scandal that has so far centred on Rupert Murdoch.

Discussion: @piersmorgan, The Independent and Guardian

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian: Lord Justice Leveson discusses role of bloggers

Media Monkey / Guardian: Michel expected to hold nerve at Leveson

Josh Halliday / Guardian: Leveson inquiry: Hunt's permanent secretary to appear on Friday

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

It's official: Chicago Reader sold to Sun-Times parent — A memo from group publisher Alison Draper and CFO Tammy Bailey to Creative Loafing employees confirms the sale: … The likely sale to Wrapports was first reported about two weeks ago. — The Reader and Washington City Paper …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Michael Miner / Chicago Reader:

Wrapports buys the Reader — Wrapports LLC, the collection of high-flying investors who own the Sun-Times and Sun-Times Media, have added the Reader to their stable, buying this 41-year-old weekly-which the Wrapports news release chooses to call “iconic”—for slightly under $3 million.

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Huffington Post Gets Its First Publisher Amid Broader AOL Changes — Janet Balis Takes Post While AOL Chief Revenue Officer Ned Brody Also Gets New Role — In his company's most recent earnings call, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said he wanted to restructure the company in a way that made …

Discussion: MediaPost, Capital New York, Adweek, The Wrap, AllThingsD, The Huffington Post and FishbowlNY

Jay Greene / CNET:

How Amazon is changing the rules for books and movies — Amazon Studios is crowdsourcing movie-making, creating test movies, that fans can review, with storyboard art in the place of video, like this image from a possible upcoming release called “Touching Blue.”

Discussion: Home Media Magazine

Greg Sandoval / CNET:
Amazon Prime acquires access to Paramount films

Discussion: Home Media Magazine and TechCrunch

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Several people reportedly stabbed at Topeka TV station — Staffers at WIBW in Topeka, Kan., subdued a “disgruntled man” this morning at the TV station. Morning news co-anchor Amanda Lanum tweeted events as they unfolded, as did other staffers. Their tweets say the man had a knife and stabbed …

Discussion: WIBW-TV

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

If Video Sites Could Act Like Cable Companies — BOSTON — Most consumers have no idea what an M.V.P.D. is, but they mail a check to one every month. What they call Comcast or Time Warner Cable or DirecTV, the government calls a “multichannel video programming distributor,” or M.V.P.D. for short.

Michael Wolff / Technology Review:

The Facebook Fallacy: For all its valuation, the social network is just another ad-supported site. Without an earth-changing idea, it will collapse and take down the Web. — For all its valuation, the social network is just another ad-supported site. Without an earth-changing idea, it will collapse and take down the Web.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Guardian, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog, New York Magazine, @ckrewson and @jayrosen_nyu

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Roku and Dish partner on new foreign TV streaming service — Dish Network has partnered with Roku to launch a new, streaming-only service that will be sold to customers across the U.S., regardless of whether they're subscribers of Dish's pay TV offering or not, both companies announced Wednesday morning.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, TechCrunch and The Official Roku Blog

Jim Romenesko:

McClatchy to begin ‘robust test’ of pay model — McClatchy vice president of news Anders Gyllenhaal tells employees that “after more than a year of experiments and analysis on pay models, McClatchy newspapers will begin a robust test of a pay plan that looks like the right balance for our websites.”

Discussion: Random Pixels and Loose Talk

Reuters:

NBCUniversal plans 5,500 hours of Olympics TV coverage — NBCUniversal on Wednesday unveiled plans to air more than 5,500 hours of coverage of the upcoming London Olympic Games online and across its various television networks, including more than 270 hours on flagship broadcaster NBC.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Katharine Zaleski leaves Washington Post — Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli announced to staff today that Katharine Zaleski, the Washington Post's executive director of digital news, will be leaving the news organization to join Planet Daily, where she'll be managing editor.