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

4:05 PM ET, February 13, 2013

Top News:

Time Warner in talks to part ways with Time Inc. — FORTUNE — Media giant Time Warner has begun discussions to separate itself from Time Inc., its $3.4 billion (in annual revenue) publishing division, according to three people familiar with the matter. A serious buyer is in talks with the company, one of the sources says.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Folio, Poynter, Fast Company, FishbowlNY, Deadline.com, Reuters, @jeffjohnroberts, @bobbymacreports, @brianstelter, @lucas_shaw, @megan, @pkafka, Talking Biz News and The Huffington Post

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Time Warner Shopping Time Inc. Likely Price Tag? Try $2.5 Billion — Time Inc., America's biggest magazine publisher, is for sale — sort of. Fortune reports that parent Time Warner is in talks with a “serious buyer” to sell most of its periodicals — and who better to know than Fortune, being one of those periodicals?

Discussion: Media Decoder

AdAge:

Time Warner Reportedly in Talks To Sell Most of Time Inc. — Bank Said To Be Involved Has Ties to Warren Buffett — Time Warner is in talks to sell a large portion of its Time Inc. magazine division, including People, InStyle and Real Simple, according to a report Wednesday afternoon by Fortune.

Discussion: paidContent and @natives

Simone Foxman / Quartz:

Why does Time Warner want to get rid of its most profitable magazine? — The report in Fortune magazine that Time Warner is considering selling off pieces of Time Inc. is a head-scratcher. Although the plan is in very early stages and may—according to the report—not happen at all …

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: ArtsBeat, BuzzFeed, lamag.com, @stevebuttry, Columbia Journalism Review, Strange Attractor, Knight Foundation, The Week, New York Magazine, Slate, Erik Wemple and Boing Boing

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

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 …

Discussion: @iainoverton

Press Gazette:
Six former News of the World journalists arrested in phone-hacking probe are named

Discussion: @bbcbreaking

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Phone-hacking inquiry: Sun's Fabulous and northern features editors arrested

Discussion: Softpedia News

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

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

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: Forbes, Bloomberg, DealBook, Associated Press, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, Associated Press, Media Decoder, The Consumerist, Los Angeles Times and USA Today

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

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

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

Discussion: Guardian, TVNewser, The Wrap, Media Decoder, 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

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, VentureBeat, Forbes, FishbowlNY, VatorNews, Talking Biz News, AllThingsD, The Next Web, Engadget, Mashable! and Fast Company

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Hughes' New Republic has 44,000 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

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Times’ names Rick Berke senior editor and director of video content development — The New York Times has made Rick Berke's departure from the masthead and move into video content official. — Berke, previously an assistant managing editor, has been appointed senior editor and director …

Discussion: Politico

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, TechCrunch and Betabeat

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: Journalism.co.uk, Guardian and NetNewsCheck Latest