Mediagazer: ‘Times’ names new culture editor (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

12:25 PM ET, March 8, 2013

Top News:

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Imagining a Swap Meet for E-Books and Music — The prospect of online stores that sell used e-books and digital music has heartened consumer advocates, but publishers and artists are worried.

Discussion: Media Decoder, paidContent and Digital Book World

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Publishing Starts With $2.6 Billion Cash — News Corp. (NWSA)'s publishing spinoff, set to become a separate publicly held business in June, will start out with $2.6 billion in cash after receiving a $1.82 billion infusion from the parent company.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Wall Street Journal, New York Magazine and Reuters

Alex Seitz-Wald / Salon:

Juan Williams column cribs from think-tank report — EXCLUSIVE: Fox News pundit blames researcher for word-for-word similarities. “Unacceptable,” says Hill editor — Fox News pundit Juan Williams lifted — sometimes word for word — from a Center for American Progress report …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

AOL's CEO to haters: Our content strategy was right after all (and Patch is fine too) — Media companies live a fraught existence but, even by that standard, AOL walked closer to the valley of death than most. A year ago, most observers (including us) believed AOL was in permanent decline …

Guardian:

Four public officials admit selling information to Sun — Duo are first to plead guilty following arrest as part of investigation into alleged illegal payments to public officials — A former police officer and ex-prison officer have admitted selling information to the Sun about high-profile individuals …

Discussion: PressGazette and Reuters

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Times’ names new culture editor — The New York Times has named a new culture editor following the recent departure of Jonathan Landman, who took one of the 30 buyout packages that were offered to the paper's senior editing ranks earlier this year. — The job goes to Danielle Mattoom, who is moving over from the Travel section.

Neo-Guido / Guy Fawkes' blog:

Audio Tape Reveals Mark Thompson DID Know About Savile — Ninety seconds of audio released by The Times media correspondent Ben Webster has undone former BBC Director General Mark Thompson's evidence to both Parliament and the Pollard Review over what he knew about Savile.

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

News Corp.'s ‘The Times’ Honored as U.K. Newspaper of the Year — The “Sunday Times” and “The Sun” also win awards, but the latter continues to deal with fallout from probes launched amid the phone-hacking scandal. — LONDON - The Times, part of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. …

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Former Wired Digital Editor Heads to Obvious Corp. — Evan Hansen, former editor in chief of Wired.com, has joined Obvious Corp. as a senior editor, he announced on Thursday. — Obvious Corp. is the brainchild of Ev Williams and Biz Stone, the two Twitter co-founders who left their daily roles …

Discussion: paidContent and The Next Web

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Billions! Cablevision Takes Its Second Swing at Viacom in Bundling-Breaking Fight. — Here's the next step in the Cablevision/Viacom cable bundling fee fight: After back and forth between the two companies about which stuff they want to keep private, they have released a public version of Cablevision's legal complaint.

Discussion: Variety and Forbes

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable: Cablevision: Viacom Wanted $1B-Plus Premium to Carry Only Must-Haves

Businessweek:

CNN's Soledad O'Brien on Her Entrepreneurial TV Future — I never really hesitated about going to Starting Point [which premiered on Jan. 2, 2012]. I thought there was an opportunity to get beyond the platitudes of “Yes, Medicare! No, Medicare!” and actually look at the Congressional Budget Office report.

Thanks:@jaredbkeller

Andrew Stewart / Variety:

Coming Soon to Theaters: Movies via Satellite … The industry's first digital theatrical delivery service is mere months away after five studios and the nation's three largest exhibitors, Regal, AMC and Cinemark, reached an agreement to partner on a model that delivers films and other content via satellite.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Deadline.com, @mediaredef, /Film and The Verge

Sara Morrison / Columbia Journalism Review:

Nate Thayer accused of plagiarism — Nate Thayer's post on Monday about how much TheAtlantic.com was willing (or, more accurately, not willing) to pay for a re-written version of his NK News article about basketball in North Korean diplomacy created quite the firestorm.

Discussion: jeremyduns.blogspot.se, Jason Fry's Dorkery, MinnPost, New York Magazine, The Dish and Mediaite

Rip Empson / TechCrunch:

Pandora Shares Jump 18% After Better-Than-Expected Earnings, Mobile Revenue Up 111% To $80.3M — Veteran streaming radio platform Pandora released its fourth quarter earnings today, in which it saw its fiscal 2013 revenue of $427.1 million, representing a 56 percent year-over-year increase …

Discussion: Business Wire, Media Decoder, GigaOM, NetNewsCheck Latest, Variety, Forbes, Tech Trader Daily, Fox Business, MarketWatch, VentureBeat and Bloomberg

Malathi Nayak / Reuters:
Pandora Media begins search to replace CEO

Discussion: The Verge, The Next Web, TechCrunch, AllThingsD and AllAccess.com

Alyson Shontell / Business Insider:

Facebook Is Making The World's ‘Best Personalized Newspaper’ — Facebook is making a major News Feed announcement today. — The changes will be the biggest in News Feed's 7-year history. They'll make News Feed easier to sort through and more personalized.