Mediagazer: Rupert Murdoch Goes All-In on College Sports (Evan Weiner/The Daily Beast)

9:30 PM ET, March 11, 2013

Top News:

Matt Lauer Finally Talks — The Today host tells Howard Kurtz that NBC mishandled Ann Curry's ouster and describes how the network is rebuilding the show. Plus, his secret talks with Katie Couric. — One day last fall, Matt Lauer walked out of his 30 Rock office and took the elevator …

Discussion: Gawker, TVNewser, Deadline.com, Business Insider, Vanity Fair, New York Post, Mediaite, Guardian, PopWatch, Chickaboomer, The Huffington Post, @brianstelter, @bobbymacreports, @moorehn, @steph_griff, @howardkurtz and Softpedia News

Bryan Goldberg / PandoDaily:

Gawker admits defeat, tries to replicate Bleacher Report and Huffington Post — I don't cover news for PandoDaily, but I figured that I would give it a shot today. — Gawker has thrown in the towel on their old model. Today, their popular Deadspin blog has announced that they are creating a …

Tommy Craggs / Deadspin: Welcome To The New Deadspin — Hi. The place looks different, doesn't it?

Tim Peterson / Adweek:

YouTube Co-founder Prepping Possible Rival — YouTube has had its share of competition over the years. Companies like Vimeo and DailyMotion (plus copyright lawsuits and crushing overhead costs) led Chad Hurley and the video-sharing site's co-founders to sell YouTube to Google.

Discussion: Wired, The Verge, Fast Company, T3, SocialTimes, The Next Web, Tubefilter, Electronista, WebProNews, Gizmodo and App Advice

Andy Fixmer / Bloomberg:

Spotify Said Expanding Pandora-Like Web Radio Worldwide — Spotify Ltd., the subscription music-streaming service, is close to agreements with record labels to expand its free mobile radio product outside the U.S., said three people with knowledge of the talks.

Discussion: paidContent, CNET and The Verge

Jennifer Howard / Chronicle of Higher Education:

In the Digital Era, Our Dictionaries Read Us — For Peter Sokolowski, a high-profile event like the 9/11 attacks or the 2012 vice-presidential debate is not just news. It's a “vocabulary event” that sends readers racing to their dictionaries. — Sokolowski is editor at large for Merriam-Webster …

Erik Wemple:

Boston.com had no control over bogus Krugman post — The Daily Currant makes another round of headlines with its satire. Weeks ago, it bamboozled the Washington Post into believing that Sarah Palin had signed on with Al Jazeera as a commentator. — Now it has hoaxed the journalism world …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Business Insider, Slate, msnbc.com, Mediaite, The Week, Capital New York, Media Nation, The Raw Story and The Huffington Post

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

Can E-Books Work for Publishers? — This is the second in a four-part series, “Fixing The Publisher Model,” looking at how publishers are experimenting with new models that can bring in additional revenue. — Publishers across the board are hunting for dollars beyond advertising …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, @tcarmody and @tcarmody

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

From YouTube to the Cineplex — LOS ANGELES — How fast is YouTube building new media companies? Consider the case of AwesomenessTV, a YouTube-based channel for teenagers. — Last year at this time, Awesomeness had not introduced its MTV-esque programs. Now the channel has about 400,000 subscribers and 80.6 million video views.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Mail Online expands, has bigger audience in U.S. than in U.K. — The Daily Mail's Web presence is “putting more firepower behind expanding its international digital media empire, hiring teams of reporters and ad executives across the US,” Emily Steel and Andrew Edgecliffe-Johnson report.

Discussion: Financial Times

Wall Street Journal:

Al Jazeera in Site Hunt — Broadcaster Looks at Former New York Times, Other Offices for U.S. Operations — Al Jazeera has taken a look at the former New York Times building as part of its hunt for a New York headquarters for the U.S. cable channel it plans to launch in July, according to multiple people familiar with the matter.

Discussion: Politico, Gothamist, Business Insider and TVNewser

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

“Zero TV” Households Now At 5 Million, Says Nielsen, Up From 3 Million In 2007, But Still Just 5% Of Market — Nielsen today released new data that examines trends in the “Zero TV household” - a definition which refers to those who no longer watch traditional television offered by cable …

Discussion: Nielsen, Broadcasting & Cable, Variety, Multichannel, Deadline.com, Los Angeles Times and Mashable!

Evan Weiner / The Daily Beast:

Rupert Murdoch Goes All-In on College Sports — News Corp. is about to shower hundreds of millions of dollars on big sports schools in exchange for the right to broadcast the games. Evan Weiner on how the athletes get short-changed. — As college basketball's March Madness approaches …