Mediagazer: Startup Plympton acquires DailyLit to deliver serial fiction in a digital age (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

12:30 PM ET, February 13, 2013

Top News:

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Jonah Lehrer falls into familiar pattern, fails to face his reckoning — In recent years, though certainly not recently, many conference attendees have heard Jonah Lehrer speak about how our brains and our personal interactions affect our behaviours in interesting and surprising ways.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @stevebuttry, Forbes and The Huffington Post

Jonah Lehrer:

My Apology — I'd like to begin by thanking the Knight Foundation for the invitation to speak. — I've been asked to give a talk about decision-making. I'm going to focus today on bad decisions, on the causes and repercussions of failure. The failure I'll be talking about is my own.

Discussion: Poynter and @jonahlehrer

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Jonah Lehrer earns $20,000 honorarium for talking about plagiarism at Knight lunch

William Turvill / Press Gazette:

The accused: At least 55 UK journalists arrested since April 2011 — At least 55 journalists have now been arrested in the last two years as a result of police investigations stemming from the phone-hacking scandal. On 13 February, a further six former News of the World journalists …

Guardian:
Phone hacking: two current Sun staff among six new arrests

Discussion: Bloomberg, @andrew_pugh1, @iainoverton and Softpedia News

Sinead O'Carroll / TheJournal.ie:
Six journalists arrested in fresh phone hacking probe

Discussion: The Huffington Post, CNN, @kevin_maguire, @skymartinbrunt, BBC, UK News and Opinion and @dannyshawbbc

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast CEO 'Bullish About NBCUniversal's Future,' NBC Turnaround — Comcast is “bullish about NBCUniversal's future,” Comcast CEO Brian Roberts said Wednesday in explaining why the cable giant decided to take full control of the entertainment company earlier than originally planned.

Sam Thielman / Adweek:
How Comcast Scared Up All That GE Cash

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Consumerist, Bloomberg, Associated Press, DealBook, Los Angeles Times and USA Today

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:
Comcast Will Buy Rest of GE's NBC Stake for $16.7 Billion

Discussion: VentureBeat, Fast Company, DealBook, @bobbymacreports, Reuters and paidContent

Steve Schaefer / Forbes:
Comcast Beats Estimates, Boosts Dividend And Buys The Rest Of NBC From GE

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, TVNewser, Guardian, Media Decoder, The Wrap, Media & Entertainment, CNET, Broadcasting & Cable, Radio & Television … and Hillicon Valley

Jennifer Booton / Fox Business:

Thomson Reuters To Slash 2,500 Jobs, 4% of Workforce — Thomson Reuters (TRI) plans to cut 2,500 jobs this year, or 4% of its global workforce, as it continues to axe costs as part of a larger overhaul. — The company said on Wednesday that it expects to spend about $100 million on severance costs …

Discussion: Reuters, Agence France Presse, Wall Street Journal, Thomson Reuters, The Dividend Daily and Talking Biz News

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Thomson Reuters revenue outlook disappoints — (Reuters) - Thomson Reuters' (TRI.TO) (TRI.N) revenue forecast for 2013 failed to impress Wall Street and the shares fell 3 percent, overshadowing bullish remarks from Chief Executive James Smith that his turnaround plan was gaining traction.

TechCrunch:

AOL Confirms gdgt Acquisition, Quests For tch Domination — AOL (owners of TechCrunch) today is taking one more step to build out its content empire: it has officially confirmed the acquisition of technology reviews site gdgt — first reported by TechCrunch nearly two weeks ago.

Discussion: gdgt blog, Forbes, FishbowlNY, VentureBeat, AllThingsD, Fast Company, Engadget, Mashable!, The Next Web and Talking Biz News

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Hughes' New Republic has 45,000 subscribers, thinks Twitter beats Facebook for news — When multimillionaire and former Facebook executive Chris Hughes bought the struggling New Republic last year, critics were quick to dismiss the purchase as a rich man's folly.

Discussion: AllThingsD

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

As Competition With Streaming Services Heats Up, Amazon And CBS Expand Content Licensing Deal — Literally days after Amazon announced a unique content deal with CBS for in-season streaming of Stephen King's “Under the Dome” series this summer, the company today added that now has an expanded relationship …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, paidContent, Home Media Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Fox Business, WebProNews and The Next Web

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Financial Times Turns 125 — The Financial Times marks its 125th anniversary today, and, befitting the challenges facing newspapers today, the celebration will have practical elements. — An ad campaign with the somber tagline “Still guiding the way for global business” is breaking in print and online.

Discussion: Guardian, Journalism.co.uk and NetNewsCheck Latest

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Startup Plympton acquires DailyLit to deliver serial fiction in a digital age — Plympton, the startup launched last year by former New York Times reporter Jennifer 8 Lee and novelist Yael Goldstein Love, is acquiring DailyLit, a site that delivers books in installments by email and RSS, for an undisclosed sum.

Discussion: Plympton, PublishersWeekly.com, Betabeat and TechCrunch

Julia Angwin:

Why I'm unfriending you on Facebook — I have 666 friends on Facebook. By next week, I hope to have none. — I am going to spend this week “unfriending” all of my Facebook friends because I have come to believe that Facebook cannot provide me the level of privacy that I need.

Discussion: Felix Salmon, Washington Wire, @jguynn, @stevenlevy, PandoDaily, @juliaangwin, @felixgillette, @penenberg, @jessepesta and @qhardy

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Jimmy Savile: 31 victims of alleged abuse sue BBC and star's estate — At least another 60 compensation claims over disgraced presenter expected to follow — More than 30 victims of alleged sexual abuse by Jimmy Savile have lodged civil claims for compensation against the BBC and the estate of the disgraced Jim'll Fix It presenter.

Discussion: Reuters, The Independent, BBC and Yorkshire Post

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Jim Roberts, Reuters' newest hire, on the digital side of the NYT, paywall math, and next steps — Judging by his pace on Twitter, little has changed for Jim Roberts over the last three weeks. The links to news near and far, on topics both timely and unearthed, are coming as rapid as ever.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest