Mediagazer: Signals Weak for TV-Ad Market (Wall Street Journal)

9:50 PM ET, March 25, 2013

Top News:

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: UPI, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, Radio & Television …, NewsMax.com, LA Observed, Media Decoder, FishbowlNY, TheBlaze.com and Capital New York

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Hulu Isn't for Sale — Yet. But Buyers Are Asking ... Two years ago, Hulu's corporate owners put the video site up for sale — and then took it off the block. — New version of a similar story: Hulu's corporate owners still aren't sure what they want to do with the site.

Discussion: VentureBeat, CNET, Variety and @tcarmody

Reuters:
Exclusive: Hulu's board has reached out to potential buyers to gauge interest

Discussion: Deadline.com, Broadcasting & Cable and The Next Web

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 …

Discussion: Fast Company, AppleInsider, SocialTimes, The Week, The Verge, FierceOnlineVideo News, VentureBeat, Rolling Stone, @brianstelter, Pocket-lint, Home Media Magazine, Softpedia News, Digital Spy, WebProNews and NetNewsCheck Latest

Paul Sloan / CNET:
Is Spotify gearing up to take on Netflix?

Discussion: Forbes

Rebecca Dana / The New Republic:

The Roger Ailes of MSNBC: How Phil Griffin Created the Left's Fox News — To MSNBC president Phil Griffin, news is war. And not one of those fancy modern wars fought by drones and computer hackers, either. Â"We are in a knife fight for every viewer,Â" he says often, and …

Discussion: TVNewser, New York Magazine, Mediaite, @jayrosen_nyu, The Huffington Post and TheBlaze.com

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

BBC launches ‘expert women database’ to help its journalists diversify sources — The BBC has launched an “expert women database” and a related YouTube channel to try to get more female sources on air. — BBC Women's Editor Emma Barnett says the database features the names of 60 women …

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: @lheron, @emilybell, The FJP, @fieldproducer, @michaelwolffnyc, @dangillmor, @jayrosen_nyu, @rafat, @stevebuttry, @robinjp, @jackshafer and @samgustin

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.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Digg Hints Its Google Reader Replacement Will Go Beyond RSS Alone To Include Content From Social Media, HN, Reddit & More — Digg today responded to early user feedback about its plans for a Google Reader replacement announced earlier this month, saying that it has narrowed down incoming requests …

Discussion: Digg Blog, The Next Web, eMedia Vitals, VentureBeat, Forbes, CNET, Pocket-lint, BetaNews and NetNewsCheck Latest

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: GalleyCat, Street Fight and Kirk LaPointe's …

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: FishbowlNY and @mlcalderone

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

Blip to publishers: we're going to monetize your videos, whether you like it or not — Video hosting site Blip has come up with a new way to make more money with advertising: The site, which has been specializing on web-exclusive serialized content, is going to turn on preroll advertising …

Adam Liptak / New York Times:

Anthony Lewis, Who Transformed Coverage of the Supreme Court, Dies at 85 — Anthony Lewis, a former New York Times reporter and columnist whose work won two Pulitzer Prizes and transformed American legal journalism, died on Monday at his home in Cambridge, Mass. He was 85.

Discussion: Boston Globe, Columbia University …, Committee to Protect …, Slate, WebProNews, Politico and Media Law Prof Blog

Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:

Trying to make paywalls work, Andrew Sullivan offers Dish access for $2 a month — Blogger Andrew Sullivan has changed the pricing model for his popular blog The Dish, now offering access for $2 a month rather than only a $20-a-year option. — Sullivan moved from The Daily Beast …

Discussion: The Dish and paidContent

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

We are Manning — I have just one problem with David Carr's good column decrying government opacity in the prosecution and trial of Bradley Manning: He lets us in the press (as well as in the chattering blog class) off easy. — Carr doesn't mention the wrist-slap given The Times by its own public editor …

Discussion: @niemanlab, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, @jeffjarvis and New York Times