Mediagazer: ‘Zero Dark Thirty’ investigation closed — mission accomplished? (Ann Hornaday/Washington Post)

3:15 PM ET, February 26, 2013

Top News:

Tim Carmody / The Verge:

Variety will kill its daily print edition and online paywall, keep weekly magazine — Three editors-in-chief will head coverage of movies, television, and digital content in new web-first approach — The iconic entertainment publication Variety will discontinue its daily printed edition on March 18th.

Discussion: Variety, Deadline.com, LA Observed, The Wrap, Mediaite, Media Decoder, Mashable!, @edgecliffe, @edmundlee, @lfung, FishbowlLA, @variety_dscohen and Talking Biz News

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Variety Makes a Necessary Change - Here Are the Risks — Jay Penske has finally unveiled a strategy for his vision of Variety, a necessary move but one fraught with financial risk. — On Tuesday, with the Klieg lights barely cooled from the Oscar ceremony, the trade's new owner (below …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

For the First Time Since Napster, Music Sales Are Growing — The last time music was a growth business was 1999 — back when people bought millions of Britney Spears CDs, and GeoCities was the third-most popular Web property in the world. You know what's happened since then.

Discussion: IFPI, New York Times, Financial Times, The Independent, Techdirt, The Wrap, Globe and Mail, Bloomberg, Sky News, Reuters, Music Industry Blog, standard.co.uk, Guardian, Telegraph, Music Week and Music Ally

Alex Knapp / Forbes:
Study Finds That Streaming And Spyware Are Killing Music Piracy

Discussion: CNET, The Next Web and Home Media Magazine

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Maybe You'll Get the Pay TV You Want, After All: Cablevision Sues Viacom to Break Up the Bundle — Pay TV has a simple model: If you want to watch one channel, you have to pay for dozens — or hundreds — of others, whether you watch them or not. That model drives lots of consumers nuts, but it has looked very, very hard to dislodge.

Discussion: Media Decoder, paidContent, Multichannel News, TechCrunch, Cablevision, @reuters_biz, AdAge, Broadcasting & Cable, Los Angeles Times, The Next Web and @edmundlee

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

New York Times backs AP in lawsuit against news collector Meltwater — The New York Times is supporting the Associated Press in a controversial copyright case against Meltwater, a service that monitors the news and reproduces headlines and story summaries for its clients.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Dylan Byers / Politico:

ABC News announces Susan Saulny hire — ABC News has announced the hire of New York Times reporter Susan Saulny as a correspondent. The news comes one day after ABC News announced the hire of Times national political correspondent Jeff Zeleny. — In a memo to staff …

Discussion: Media Decoder, mediabistro.com, @brianstelter and New York Magazine

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

TV stations strong, newspapers weak in Scripps' 2012 results — Political advertising revenue at Scripps' television stations in the fourth quarter of 2012 was “higher than the full-year political total reported in any previous year,” the company said in an earnings report Tuesday.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Broadcasting & Cable and Thomson IR

Dylan Byers / Politico:

N.Y. Times ups investment in conferences — The New York Times is increasing its investment in the events and conferences business, according to an internal memo sent to POLITICO. — The Times has named former Times Magazine editor Gerry Marzorati as general manager and editorial director of the conference business.

Discussion: Capital New York, The New York Times Company and New York Times

Ann Hornaday / Washington Post:

‘Zero Dark Thirty’ investigation closed — mission accomplished? — On Monday, just hours after “Zero Dark Thirty” missed winning best picture and a clutch of other awards at the Oscars, the Senate Intelligence Committee closed its investigation into contacts between the filmmakers and the CIA, Reuters reported.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Reuters, The Atlantic Wire, Hollywood.com, Business Insider and Deadline.com

Reuters:

Tribune Co hires bankers to sell newspapers: source — (Reuters) - Tribune Co has hired investment bankers to sell off its newspaper unit, which includes The Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune, according to a person familiar with the situation. — The company has hired Evercore …

Discussion: Poynter, Deadline.com, CNBC, Wall Street Journal, Politico, The Informer, DealBook and @peterlauria3

Jay Yarow / Business Insider:

LinkedIn Is Turning Itself Into A Very Valuable Media Company — LinkedIn is successfully turning itself into a media company, notes Scott Devitt at Morgan Stanley. — This is fairly obvious to anyone who has been paying close attention, but it's worth mentioning again.

Dashiell Bennett / The Atlantic Wire:

Pro-Assad Hackers Take Over AFP's Twitter with Syrian Propaganda Photos — After a couple of high-profile corporate hacks last week, a much nastier Twitter sabotage took place today on behalf of supporters of Syria's Bashar Al-Assad. Around noon Eastern time, the photographs-only account …

Discussion: The Verge, Agence France Presse and The Next Web