Mediagazer: Japan Times Reaches Deal With Times Co. (Gerry Doyle/New York Times)

11:15 AM ET, March 25, 2013

Top News:

Long Night at Today — And for this he wakes up at 4 a.m.? — T — he knife springs open with a satisfying snap. — Matt Lauer, the co-host of the Today show, turns it over in his hand, marveling at the blade. — “Come to papa!” he says. — Sitting at his glass-topped desk …

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker, TVNewser, FishbowlNY, Mediaite, Inside TV, Los Angeles Times, Boing Boing, Hollywood Reporter, The Huffington Post, @mlcalderone and Inside Cable News, Thanks:@jaredbkeller

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

Columbia flunks relevancy test — Steve Coll, whose books include Ghost Wars: The Secret History of the CIA, Afghanistan, and Bin Laden, from the Soviet Invasion to September 10, 2001, and who has just been appointed dean of the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism — aka the …

Discussion: @samgustin, @jackshafer, @dangillmor, @jayrosen_nyu, @rafat, @michaelwolffnyc, @stevebuttry and @robinjp

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

Murdoch's Appetite for Los Angeles Times May Depend on F.C.C. Changes — In weighing a bid for The Los Angeles Times, Rupert Murdoch finds himself in a familiar role: waiting for rule changes from the government. With the resignation last week of Julius Genachowski, the chairman …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Media Decoder and Capital New York

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Acquires Hipster Mobile News Reader Summly for Close to $30 Million — Yahoo has bought Summly, the mobile news reader app founded by a young British entrepreneur. — In a statement, the London-based company said it had bought the small outfit, which will close its app.

Rebecca Dana / New Republic:

Slyer Than Fox — To MSNBC president Phil Griffin, news is war. And not one of those fancy modern wars fought by drones and computer hackers, either. “We are in a knife fight for every viewer,” he says often, and: “We are on the battleground.”

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post and @jayrosen_nyu

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Washington Post Defends Killing Critical Iraq Media Article — NEW YORK — Greg Mitchell, author of a recently updated book on media mistakes during the run-up to the Iraq War, So Wrong For So Long, revealed Saturday night on his blog that the Washington Post's Outlook section had killed …

Discussion: @gregmitch and Pressing Issues

Greg Mitchell / Pressing Issues:
That Piece Killed by the ‘Post’

Discussion: Chickaboomer

Greg Mitchell / Pressing Issues:
Double Failure — Wash Post killed my assigned piece this weekend …

Discussion: Gawker, Washington Post, @jayrosen_nyu, @gregmitch and The Huffington Post

David Carr / New York Times:

In WikiLeaks Trial, a Theater of State Secrecy — Reporters covering the government's prosecution of Pfc. Bradley Manning, who is being court-martialed for conveying secret information to WikiLeaks, have spent a year trying to pierce the veil of secrecy in what is supposed to be a public proceeding.

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

Timothy Noah: Chris Hughes ‘might be a young man with more money than sense’ — Timothy Noah said he “quietly worried” whether New Republic owner and publisher Chris Hughes “might be a young man with more money than sense” — and he says his firing from the magazine on Friday “is an additional data point” for that thought.

Discussion: @mlcalderone

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

As SpinMedia, Web Firm Aims to Lift Smaller Sites — In the race for Internet advertising, could a few dozen runner-up blogs win in the end? — That is the goal of Buzzmedia, a Los Angeles-based company that owns or sells advertising for more than 40 Web sites that cater to young pop-culture obsessives …

Matt Sokoloff / Street Fight:

Can Newspapers Evolve Into ‘Local Membership’ Organizations? — In the days before MapQuest and Google Maps, the first stop you'd make when planning a long road trip was often your local AAA office. There — if you were a member — you could get directions, maps, listings of hotels and attractions …

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

The “barbell problem” in media: The ends are fine, but the middle is getting squeezed — While in New York this week for a GigaOM event, I had coffee and lunch with a number of media-industry insiders and observers, including Jay Rosen and Clay Shirky - two people I think are among the smartest media analysts in the business.

Discussion: Street Fight

Desiree Everts DeNunzio / CNET:

SF Chronicle erects paywall for ‘premium’ content — The move to offer readers “unrivaled content” separate from the free SFGate.com appears to be an attempt to woo readers back to good old-fashioned print. — Less than a week after The Washington Post announced its paywall plans …

Discussion: San Francisco Chronicle, Poynter, Media Week, SFBay, SF Appeal, San Francisco Peninsula … and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Spotify Plans To Take On Netflix And HBO With Streaming Video Service — Spotify, the on-demand music service, is planning a major change. — According to two sources briefed on the company's plans, Spotify intends to become an on-demand music and video service - one that would invest …