Mediagazer: Matt Lauer Finally Talks (Howard Kurtz/The Daily Beast)

4:15 PM ET, March 11, 2013

Top News:

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Who's About to Acquire News Reading App Pulse? Try an Unlikely New Content Powerhouse: LinkedIn. — According to several sources close to the situation, the nifty news reading app Pulse is in advanced talks to be acquired by a major “platform” company. — I've been trying to track …

Discussion: VentureBeat and NetNewsCheck Latest

Henry Blodget / @hblodget: LinkedIn buying Flipboard killer. Interesting... RT @karaswisher: http://dthin.gs/ZfN8UB

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

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

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, SocialTimes, The Next Web, T3, Fast Company, Tubefilter, WebProNews, Gizmodo and App Advice

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

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

Bill Keller / New York Times:

Private Manning's Confidant — In early 2010, Pfc. Bradley Manning methodically uploaded a digital mother lode of classified United States military and diplomatic documents to the Internet insurgents of WikiLeaks. As everyone knows, WikiLeaks made these secret archives available to a few major news outlets, including this one.

Discussion: Poynter, Pressing Issues and @mlcalderone

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:
The Danger of Suppressing the Leaks

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, @katehnyc and @mlcalderone

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, TVNewser and Business Insider

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

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Where WordPress is headed: Longform content, curation and maybe even native ads — WordPress is a content company, CEO Matt Mullenweg stressed in a panel Saturday at SXSW Interactive — and longform content is an area that the company is especially interested in. That could include native ads.

Discussion: AllThingsD and TechCrunch

Jim Romenesko:

WSJ staffers told to ‘stay the course - and accelerate’ — From: Narisetti, Raju — On an average weekday in the last 12 months, our total circulation was 2.3 million for all three print editions of The Wall Street Journal combined. We should all be very proud of the great print offerings we provide …

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, Mediaite, Capital New York, Business Insider, Media Nation, The Raw Story and The Huffington Post

Mayer Nissim / Digital Spy:

Ceri Thomas named BBC News head of programmes — Ceri Thomas has been promoted to head of programmes at BBC News. The current editor of Radio 4's Today programme will assume the role from March 18, taking over from Stephen Mitchell who is leaving the corporation.

Discussion: Guardian, Radio Today and MediaTel

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 …