Mediagazer: Amazon launches “Send to Kindle” button for web publishers and WordPress blogs (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

10:15 AM ET, March 20, 2013

Top News:

Why I left news — I get asked two questions several times a week, and I brush off both with a verbal swat. One — because I'm in my late 20s, I suppose - is when are you getting married? And the other, because it seems like small talk, is why did you leave the newspaper?

Discussion: @jeffsonderman, @ckanal and @jayrosen_nyu

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Amazon in talks with record labels about subscription music service — Subscription music is all the rage with the big Web music stores — Subscription music services have yet to profit but that hasn't stopped some of the internet's biggest media distributors from jumping into the business.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, hypebot, Business Insider, Music Week, Tech Digest, GeekWire, Pocket-lint and CNET

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Evening Standard leaks details of George Osborne's budget — Journalist suspended after tweeting picture of embargoed front page before chancellor had even uttered a word — When George Osborne took to his feet in the Commons on Wednesday lunchtime, he might not have expected to be greeted …

Discussion: Guido Fawkes, pressgazette.co.uk, Guardian, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and @joshhalliday

Tom Chivers / Telegraph:

Budget 2013: don't scapegoat the Evening Standard's tweeter. It's probably just some poor kid on £23k — The Evening Standard is at the centre of a furious row this afternoon, after its Twitter account put out a picture of its front page which, essentially, gave away all the key points …

Discussion: @fieldproducer

Matthew Yglesias / Slate:

The Glory Days of American Journalism — Ignore the doomsayers: The news-reading public has never had more and better information at their fingertips. — American news media has never been in better shape. That's just common sense. Almost anything you'd want to know about any subject is available at your fingertips.

Discussion: Daily Download, @emilybell, @jayrosen_nyu, The Fix, Beyond Search, TheBlaze.com and Adam Sherk

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon launches “Send to Kindle” button for web publishers and WordPress blogs — Amazon is now allowing publishers to add “Send to Kindle” buttons to their websites and WordPress blogs, the company announced on the Kindle blog Tuesday. It can be integrated into WordPress blogs as well.

Discussion: Kindle Post US, GalleyCat, Journalism.co.uk, NetNewsCheck Latest, TechCrunch, The Verge, Engadget and Softpedia News

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Journalism Professor Sues Columbia, Claiming Misuse of Endowment Funds — A tenured professor at Columbia's Graduate School of Journalism and co-director of that school's business program filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing the university of misdirecting $4.5 million in funds over the last decade.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Talking Biz News and Inside Higher Ed

Fraser Nelson / Spectator:

Why The Spectator said ‘no’ to David Cameron's Royal Charter for regulation of the press — After due consideration, we at The Spectator have decided our response to the proposed Royal Charter system of press regulation. Our answer is given on the cover of the new magazine (above).

Discussion: pressgazette.co.uk, Guardian and Telegraph

Guardian:
Press regulation: newspapers may form breakaway bodies

Discussion: @rupertmurdoch and @jackmirkinson

Boris Johnson / Telegraph:
Leveson report: Only a gutter press can keep clean the gutters of public life

Discussion: National Review

Jeff Clabaugh / Washington Business Journal:

Washington Examiner cuts 87 jobs, drops local news — The Washington Examiner is dropping local news coverage, cutting 87 jobs and changing into a weekly magazine and daily website focused on political news. — Denver-based Clarity Media Group Inc., which owns the Examiner …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter, Washington Examiner, City Desk, FishbowlDC and Washington City Paper

Will Sommer / Washington City Paper: Washington Examiner Memo: New Weekly Paper to Target “Key Influencers”

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

Here's When People Actually “Read Later” — Eighty percent of reads happen in the first 35 days. Outside of read-later apps, that only takes six days. — “Read later” service Pocket ran the numbers on this longform story, published on BuzzFeed in November of last year.

Discussion: @pkafka and Pocket Blog

Guardian:

Sun deputy editor charged over alleged payments to public officials — Geoff Webster due to appear in court on 26 March after information from Operation Elveden investigation led to charges — Geoff Webster, the deputy editor of the Sun, has been charged over alleged criminal offences relating …

Discussion: The Independent, Telegraph, Daily Mail, BBC, seattlepi.com and itn.co.uk

Tom Gara / Corporate Intelligence:

End of an Era for eMusic, Subscription Music Pioneer … eMusic, the online music service that pioneered the subscription approach before Spotify was a glimmer in Daniel Ek's eye, quietly merged Monday with an e-book distributor, in an unusual bit of digital-media consolidation.

Discussion: Music Week and Engadget

Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo in Talks to Buy Stake in Video Site Dailymotion — Yahoo Inc. is in talks to buy a controlling stake in France Telecom SA's online-video site Dailymotion, according to people familiar with the talks, in what would be Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer's first major acquisition since taking over the Internet pioneer last year.

Discussion: Betabeat, Fast Company, NetNewsCheck Latest, Business Insider, ZDNet, VatorNews, AdExchanger, Softpedia News, The Next Web, VentureBeat, CNET, Digits, @jwherrman and The Verge

Mitch Dudek / Chicago Sun Times:

Time Out Chicago bowing out of print business, going all digital — Time Out Chicago magazine is ceasing print operations and going all digital, according to sources. — No firm date has been set to shut down print operations for the magazine, which features nightlife, music and shopping information …

Discussion: Chicago Business

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Google Embeds March Madness Bracket In Search, Because Screw Sports Sites — Who wins basketball games is an immutable fact. No one owns that information, so why should some random sports sites get the windfall of traffic as millions of sports fan search Google for the NCAA March Madness bracket?

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, The Next Web and Search Engine Land

Eric Deggans / Daily Download:

Cable News Is Still Unbearably White — It's easy to sound like a broken record when you're talking about the lack of diversity among major cable TV news anchors. — Critic and columnist Rachel Sklar wrote about it back in 2010, with a trenchant piece for the Daily Beast called …

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Rebecca Shapiro / The Huffington Post:
Roland Martin Out At CNN

Discussion: Politico, The Maynard Institute … and Chickaboomer

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

ReadWrite Editor-In-Chief Dan Lyons, A.K.A. Fake Steve Jobs, Is Leaving For Hubspot — Dan Lyons, the editor-in-chief at tech blog ReadWrite, is leaving for a position at marketing software company Hubspot. We heard the news from knowledgeable sources, and the part about Lyons' departure …

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

2012 data puts Daily Mail top for total print and web readers — New data released by the National Readership Survey and comScore places the Daily Mail top of UK national newspapers for combined readership in 2012 — Copyright: By Alex.muller on Wikimedia Commons. Creative Commons licence.

Discussion: Media Week and @pressgazette

Nicole LaPorte / Fast Company:

How Digital Agent Sarah Penna Makes Hollywood And YouTube Click — The cofounder of digital agency Big Frame (half of a YouTube power couple with her husband MysteryGuitarMan) is leading Tinseltown's march from pictures to pixels. — I first heard about Sarah Penna when I met with YouTube brass …

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

DoJ Investigations Spark Meta Media Coverage at Reuters and WSJ — Covering breaking news from inside one's own publication is tricky business. — Last week, when Reuters deputy social media editor Matthew Keys was indicted by the Justice Department for “conspiring with members …

Discussion: MediaShift