Mediagazer: The Man With the Kind Face (Marc Tracy/New Republic)

4:55 PM ET, March 20, 2013

Top News:

Roger Ailes Couldn't Care Less What You Think About His Obama Comments — The Fox News chief tells Howard Kurtz he stands by the laziness charge and says Sarah Palin made ‘mistakes’ and that Dick Morris looked like a ‘jerk’ when he predicted a Romney landslide. Plus, read the 16 juiciest bits from the new Ailes biography.

Discussion: Capital New York, Erik Wemple, Mediaite, Variety, TVNewser and New York Times

Marc Tracy / New Republic:

The Man With the Kind Face — Roger Ailes wanted a friendly biography. Zev Chafets was the man for the job. — asked Roger, 'Why'd you agree to let me do the book?' “ Zev Chafets told me yesterday. We were speeding up Central Park West in a News Corp.-provided town car. ”

Discussion: GalleyCat, Politico, The Atlantic Wire, Erik Wemple, New York Magazine, Business Insider and TVNewser

Allyson Bird:

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: Poynter, Change of Subject, @jayrosen_nyu, @ckanal, @jeffsonderman and @juliemmoos

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, WebProNews, Radio & Television …, Music Week, Tech Digest, hypebot, TechCrunch, Business Insider, GeekWire, Pocket-lint and CNET

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, Reflections of a Newsosaur, Common Sense Journalism, @tcarmody, @emilybell, @jayrosen_nyu, @chadmumm, @tcarmody, @tcarmody, The Dish, Media Notes, The Fix and Beyond Search

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 — The Chancellor has ordered the permanent secretary of the Treasury to review how sensitive budget information …

Discussion: Guido Fawkes, CNET, Reuters, @joshhalliday, Press Gazette, Bloomberg, Telegraph, Spectator, @joshhalliday, Huffington Post, HoldTheFrontPage, Guardian, The Independent and BBC

Tom Chivers / Telegraph:
Budget 2013: don't scapegoat the Evening Standard's tweeter. It's probably just some poor kid on £23k

Discussion: @fieldproducer

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Washington Post seeks blogger to post ‘at least’ 12 times per day — The Washington Post's arts and living section, Style, is looking for a blogger, an internal announcement reads. Whoever lands this position may want to invest in a serious coffee machine:

Discussion: @lavrusik

David Freedlander / The Daily Beast:

The Al Jazeera Charm Offensive — With nearly limitless funds from the Qatari royals and plans to hire up to 700 staffers, Al Jazeera America will launch in 45 million U.S. homes in July. But it needs a star—and a clean slate, says David Freedlander. — Al Jazeera is coming to America.

Discussion: TVNewser, The Huffington Post, The Corsair and TheBlaze.com

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

Sarah Meehan / Baltimore Business Journal:

Baltimore Sun names Trif Alatzas as top editor — Triffon G. Alatzas was promoted to senior vice president and executive editor of the Baltimore Sun on Wednesday. — Alatzas, 46, was previously the Sun's head of digital media, a position he held since 2010.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

The head of the Copyright Office says the law is broken — but can she fix it in time? — Maria Pallante takes on a behemoth task — it took 20 years to complete the last copyright overhaul — The Register of Copyrights needs a drink. — Maria Pallante heads up the US Copyright Office …

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, Inside Higher Ed and Talking Biz News

Elon Green / The Awl:

David Grann, What Is Up With Your Twitter? — Last week, David Grann and I met in his office at The New Yorker, in midtown Manhattan. It is a glorious fire hazard because he doesn't throw anything away. Grann has been a staff writer at the magazine since 2003 and published two books …

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

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell exiting — FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell to step down — FCC Commissioner Robert McDowell is stepping down. (AFP/Getty Images) — Federal Communications Commissioner Robert McDowell, who was seen as a free-market advocate and friend to the media industry …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Reuters, Washington Post and Hillicon Valley

Lance Whitney / CNET:

Comcast scoops up rest of NBC Universal from GE — The cable giant has completed its $16.7 billion deal to acquire the remaining 49 percent of NBCU from former owner General Electric. — Comcast now owns all of NBC Universal. — The cable company shared the news in a filing with the Securities …

Discussion: Bloomberg

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

‘Digital Omnivores’ Devouring Video on Tablets, Study Says — Research firm Deloitte says 26 percent of the U.S. population over age 14 owns a tablet, smartphone and laptop. — There were 160 percent more “digital omnivores” at the end of last year than there were at the end of 2011 …

Discussion: AllThingsD, PR Newswire and Seeking Alpha

Rip Empson / TechCrunch:

Macmillan Buys Late Nite Labs To Help Bring Virtual Science Labs To Higher Ed — Another day, another acquisition in the education technology market. As the old, familiar names in publishing and education move to get in line with the digital revolution, they're finding plenty …

Discussion: PRWeb and EdSurge

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, NetNewsCheck Latest and @pressgazette