Mediagazer: 60% of Audiobooks Sold Are Now Digital (Jason Boog/GalleyCat)

11:55 AM ET, February 24, 2013

Top News:

T.C. Sottek / The Verge:

NASCAR blocks eyewitness video of Daytona crash, but YouTube reverses the takedown — A NASCAR race at the Daytona International Speedway today was disrupted by a harrowing crash that sent debris flying into the stands and left some fans injured. As CNN reports, shredded debris flew …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Trust But Verify, Deadspin, @brianstelter, Storify, @martysmithespn, Forbes, CNN, @jaybusbee, USA Today, @verge, @corybe, @erikwemple, @tandersen904, @pkafka, @edmundlee, @thematthewkeys, Poynter, Lost Remote, Mashable!, AllThingsD, @mikeisaac, @brianstelter and @mathewi

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Split in two: How The Boston Globe, up for sale, is navigating its free/paid strategy — Sitting in his office last week, Brian McGrory, the new editor of The Boston Globe, described the relationship between the two websites — similarly named, often confused, one free, one paid — that his newspaper offers.

Discussion: Media Nation

Beth Healy / Boston Globe:
New York Times exec outlines Boston Globe sale process to employees

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post and Gannett Blog

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
New York Times Offered More Than $100 Million for Boston Globe

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Boston Herald

Alexander C. Kaufman / The Wrap:
Will Rupert Murdoch Buy the Boston Globe?

Discussion: Boston Herald and NetNewsCheck Latest

Jim Rutenberg / New York Times:

Michael Goldfarb Gleeful Provocateur at Intersection of Many Worlds — At 11:42 a.m. on Feb. 14, a conservative online magazine called The Washington Free Beacon posted a dispatch about a speech Chuck Hagel gave in 2007 in which it said he called the State Department “an adjunct to the Israeli foreign minister's office.”

Discussion: @nycsouthpaw, @jim_newell and Smartertimes.com

John Robinson / Media, disrupted:

Ethics in journalism: what really matters — Funny how isolated events come together. — Event #1: A week ago, my friend Buffy Andrews at the York Daily Record asked Twitter for thoughts on a colleague's ethical question. He was covering a story and a source — a Marine — gave him a hat or what he called a “cover.”

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and TVSpy

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

An eye on the Times-Picayune's numbers — Some questions about what executives say are positive circulation trends — We'll have a long story on the Times-Picayune next week, but Publisher Ricky Mathews and Editor Jim Amoss released some numbers in the last few weeks in order to tout …

Carl Franzen / The Verge:

Wikipedia to deliver articles via text messages in coming months — Wikipedia has been working on new ways to bring its 25 million articles to more users in developing markets, where smartphones and internet connectivity are still sporadic. The latest plan is let users request specific articles …

Discussion: The Inquisitr, TechnoBuffalo, Knight Foundation and Engadget

Jack Shafer:

Unsolicited advice for Jeff Zucker, CNN's new boss — After the bosses at Time Warner installed Jeff Zucker as president of the 23 news and information brands that constitute CNN Worldwide, the press (Ad Age, Marketwatch, Politico, Guardian, New York Times, et al.) speculated on which strategies …

Discussion: New York Post and Chickaboomer

Jasper Jackson / TheMediaBriefing:

Digital Media Strategies: Dennis Publishing and New Scientist on evolving consumer publishing — Last year PwC heralded what it described as “the end of the digital beginning” for media companies. The challenge for most is no longer making the leap to digital - it's about developing …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Jason Boog / GalleyCat:

60% of Audiobooks Sold Are Now Digital — According to the Audio Publishers Association, audiobooks are now a billion dollar part of the publishing industry. — Taking results from two studies of the audiobook industry, the association noted that 3.8 million more audiobooks were sold …

Discussion: UnBeige, Lost Remote, SocialTimes and TVNewser

Jasper Jackson / TheMediaBriefing:

Digital Media Strategies: The Economist's Nick Blunden on unbundling and global expansion — How do you get your customers to pay more and be happy about it? The answer could be as simple as offering them a wider range of products to choose from. — That's the approach that is working …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Intel Inside Your TV: The Chip Guys Want to Become Cable Guys — Who's going to take on the cable guys? Lots of really big, powerful tech companies with heaps of clout and money — Google, Apple and Microsoft, for starters — have looked at the pay-TV business and decided it doesn't make sense for them to try to really compete.

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Study: Pay TV Industry Sees First-Ever Subscriber Decline in Western Europe — In a report that could kick off the cord-cutting debate in Europe, Informa cites more than 380,000 customer losses, with a U.K. gain unable to offset big drops in Spain and Italy.