Mediagazer: Blockbuster Hits Rewind on Plan to Come Back as a Netflix Rival (Bloomberg)

2:50 PM ET, October 5, 2012

Top News:

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

W's Nina Lawrence Leaves Condé Nast for WSJ — W's Nina Lawrence has split after 15 years at Condé Nast for The Wall Street Journal, where she's landed a big job: vp of global marketing, advertising sales. Lawrence will be in charge of overseeing the global ad sales team across print …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and WWD

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Condé budget cuts of 5% on 2013 agenda — Condé Nast, home to The New Yorker, Vogue and Vanity Fair, is poring over preliminary budgets for next year — and it doesn't look pretty. — While not every mag is finished going over the books with President Bob Sauerberg …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and mediabistro.com

Sruthi Ramakrishnan / Reuters:

Gannett to stop broadcasting on Dish if ad-skipping feature not removed — (Reuters) - Dish Network Corp said the broadcasting arm of newspaper publisher Gannett Co Inc has threatened to withdraw broadcasting on the satellite TV provider if it does not block the commercial-skipping feature …

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, TVSpy and Gannett Blog

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Cable Channel to Televise Bin Laden Film Before Election — The National Geographic Channel plans to televise a feature film about the killing of Osama bin Laden on Nov. 4, two days before the presidential election. — The film, titled “Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden,” …

Discussion: Cable Television News, The Atlantic Wire, Media Law Prof Blog and Pressing Issues

Sarah Ellison / Vanity Fair:

Blood, Sweat, and Piers — Piers Morgan, testifying before the Leveson Inquiry in London late last year, had just withstood two hours of uncomfortable questioning about phone hacking—a practice the 46-year-old tabloid editor-cum-TV star described in the first of his three memoirs as the …

Discussion: TVNewser

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Jim Lehrer On Debate Moderating: My Job Was To ‘Stay Out Of The Way’ — Jim Lehrer responded on Thursday to the furor surrounding his debate moderating performance. Though it was his 12th time in the role, Lehrer received some of his worst press, with critics saying that he had let both Barack Obama …

Discussion: Poynter, Politico, Chickaboomer and New York Times

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Is Spotify's business model broken? — Financial numbers for privately held Spotify have allegedly surfaced and if accurate, the music service is in a world of hurt. — Spotify CEO Daniel Ek — PrivCo., a company that sells data on non-publicly traded companies says it has obtained …

Discussion: Betabeat, PrivCo, hypebot and Mashable!

Todd Shields / Bloomberg:

Cable Companies Freed From Sharing Their Non-Sports Programs — Cable providers such as Time Warner Cable Inc. (TWC) may withhold their non-sports programming from competitors, U.S. regulators said today in a rule change opposed by satellite broadcasters. — The Federal Communications Commission …

Discussion: Wall St. Cheat Sheet

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

PBS takes advantage of debate's ‘Big Bird’ moment — PBS bought the term “Big Bird” on Twitter, so anyone searching for the term would see an ad for an advocacy site it's set up. “PBS could teach other brands a thing or two about how to turn a meme into a marketing opportunity,” Seth Fiegerman writes.

Discussion: paidContent and HubSpot's Inbound …

Neetzan Zimmerman / Gawker:
PBS, Sesame Workshop Blast Romney Over Big Bird Comments: Sesame Street Won't Go Away

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, Radio & Television …, The Daily Beast, PBS, Chickaboomer, Christian Science Monitor, WebProNews, @sesamestreet, The Week, The Huffington Post, ABCNEWS, Washington Post, The Huffington Post, Speakeasy and Mediaite

Bloomberg:

Blockbuster Hits Rewind on Plan to Come Back as a Netflix Rival — Too Hard to Start From Scratch Without New Devices to Help the Pitch — Dish Network Chairman Charlie Ergen is giving up on his plan to turn the once-mighty Blockbuster video-store chain into a Netflix competitor and gadget retailer.

Discussion: AdAge

Rosie Gray / BuzzFeed:

Senators Demand Village Voice Adult Services Site Be Shuttered — A bipartisan group of senators Friday demanded that the Village Voice shut down its online adult advertising site that has been linked to the trafficking of underaged girls. In a letter to the CEO of the new Voice Media Group …

Discussion: enewspf.com

Guardian:

Jimmy Savile crisis: BBC director general's email to staff — George Entwistle says ‘I was appalled by the things I saw in the ITV documentary’ and the BBC will work closely with police — I wanted to write to you at the end of what has been a difficult week for the BBC …

Discussion: BBC and The Huffington Post UK

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Post’ editors called to Garrison country club for day-long digital teach-in — In the war between New York City's two daily tabloids—the New York Post and the Daily News—there's one battle that's been a rout: the battle for the web. — Maybe that's why a group of editors from the Post …

Discussion: NY Daily News