Mediagazer: Penguin and Random House merger moves one step closer, as the US Department of Justice gives its approval (Paul Sawers/The Next Web)

12:50 PM ET, February 14, 2013

Top News:

Incoming BBC Boss Unveils First Personnel Decisions — UPDATED: Tony Hall expands Tim Davie's role as head of BBC Worldwide and names BBC News director Helen Boaden as head of BBC Radio. — Incoming BBC boss Tony Hall has made first major personnel decisions.

Discussion: Deadline.com, Agence France Presse, @benfenton, Guardian, Guardian and C21Media

Press Association / Huffington Post UK:

Helen Boaden, BBC Executive During Jimmy Savile Scandal, Given Job As Head Of Radio Networks — Helen Boaden, the executive in charge of BBC News when the Jimmy Savile controversy erupted, is to move to a new role heading the corporation's radio networks. And former culture secretary James Purnell …

Discussion: The Independent, standard.co.uk, Radio Today with RCS, Digital Spy, @bbcjamescook, BBC and @joshhalliday

Guardian:
Helen Boaden's memo to BBC staff

Discussion: Press Gazette and NetNewsCheck Latest

Tom Brooks-Pollock / Manchester Evening News:
Ex-Stalybridge and Hyde MP James Purnell lands top BBC role

Discussion: Telegraph, Digital TV Europe, Financial Times and The Stage

Knight Foundation:

Knight Foundation regrets paying Lehrer speaking fee — On Tuesday, the Knight Foundation paid Jonah Lehrer to speak at a community foundation conference. In retrospect, as a foundation that has long stood for quality journalism, paying a speaker's fee was inappropriate.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, FishbowlNY, Gannett Blog, ArtsBeat, @jeffjarvis and The Huffington Post

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
It Sure Doesn't Sound Like Jonah Lehrer Is Donating That $20K Speaking Fee To Charity

Discussion: Poynter, The Awl, mediabistro.com, Christopher Chabris, Gawker, Guardian, MediaShift, New York Magazine, Boing Boing, Poynter and International Business Times

Felix Salmon:

Blogonomics, Maria Popova edition — Back in May, Kickstarter looked as though it was moving upmarket. Following Bob Lefsetz's lead, I said that “while Kickstarter was originally embraced by the undiscovered and impecunious, its greatest potential, in the music industry …

Discussion: Betabeat, @sdkstl, @maoxian, @niubi and @profjeffjarvis

Kelly Faircloth / Betabeat:
Maybe Don't Talk S**t About Ads If You Make Money On Affiliate Links [Updated]

Discussion: On Advertising, @sdkstl, @nexttechblog, Melville House Books, @mattbuchanan, @betabeat, Get Off My Internets and @felixsalmon

Dan Frommer / SplatF:

Tesla vs. The New York Times: Everyone's A Media Company Now — This post was first published at LinkedIn. Please follow me there for more commentary. — Tesla CEO Elon Musk shreds the New York Times review of his Model S, using data to argue the writer is telling the wrong story.

Discussion: Tesla Motors, VentureBeat, Mashable! and @sulliview

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:
Elon Musk publishes charts and maps to back up his claim that the New York Times lied in a Tesla review

Discussion: Forbes, TechCrunch, @emilybell and @emilybell

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Barnes & Noble warns investors to expect more bad Nook news — It's only been a couple of months since Barnes & Noble downgraded guidance for its Nook business. Now the company is doing so again. — In a press release sent out after the market closed Wednesday, Barnes & Noble said it …

Discussion: PublishersWeekly.com, GalleyCat, Media Decoder, CNET, TechRadar.com, Reuters, Softpedia News, Forbes and Wall Street Journal

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Nate Silver: I might stop blogging if it influences election results — New York Times statistician Nate Silver told an audience at Washington University this week that he might stop writing his influential FiveThirtyEight blog were it to start influencing election results.

Discussion: Student Life

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of zero and The New York Times — Perhaps zero is the loneliest number. — That's the number The New York Times Co. — the United States' second largest newspaper company — ended up with 2012, as it reported revenues last week. The most accurate number …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Time Inc., the Unwanted Party Guest Being Pushed Out the Door — How toxic have print assets become? This toxic: Media companies have begun to quarantine them. — On Wednesday, Time Inc., the largest magazine publisher in the country, found itself at the wrong end of a 10-foot pole.

Discussion: Adweek

Fortune:
Time Warner in talks to part ways with Time Inc.

Jim Finkle / Reuters:

Broadcasters blame zombie hack on easy passwords — (Reuters) - Poor password security allowed hackers to broadcast a bogus warning on TV networks that the United States was under attack by zombies, broadcasters said, and one expert in the technology said the emergency channel they broke into remained vulnerable.

Discussion: The Verge, Huffington Post UK, Computerworld, CNET and Associated Press

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Vimeo Gets Its Own GIF App by Buying Echograph — Digital media question of the moment: What's your GIF strategy? — I don't know why the digital hive mind has fixated on GIFs and GIF-like animations in the last year, and I don't know how much longer they'll be interested in them. But for now, they are.

Discussion: Fast Company, TechCrunch, New York Times, VentureBeat, SocialTimes and iDownloadBlog.com

Martin Peretz / Wall Street Journal:

The New New Republic — I don't recognize the magazine I used to own. We were liberal but not narrowly partisan. — Like many readers of the New Republic, I didn't at first recognize the most recent issue of the magazine. The stark white cover was unlike anything the New Republic ran during my 35 years as the owner.