Mediagazer: TMZ's Harvey Levin Makes Way For Variety Editor Josh Dickey (Sharon Waxman/The Wrap)

3:00 PM ET, March 25, 2013

Top News:

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, @fieldproducer, @emilybell, @michaelwolffnyc, @dangillmor, @rafat, @stevebuttry, @jackshafer, @samgustin, @robinjp and @jayrosen_nyu

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

Rebecca Dana / 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. “We are in a knife fight for every viewer,” he says often, and: “We are on the battleground.”

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

Joe Hagan / New York Magazine:

Long Night at Today — The 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 on the morning-show set, Lauer, meticulously outfitted …

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

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 and @jeffjarvis

David Carr / New York Times:
In WikiLeaks Trial, a Theater of State Secrecy

Discussion: Prof Chris Daly's Blog

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.

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: VentureBeat, Home Media Magazine, Rolling Stone, SocialTimes, Softpedia News, @brianstelter, Digital Spy, The Verge, Pocket-lint and WebProNews

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

Discussion: Forbes

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 …

Wall Street Journal:

Signals Weak for TV-Ad Market — Lower Broadcast Ratings, Fragile Economy and Web Rivals Mute ‘Upfront’ Outlook — Broadcast-television ratings have dropped sharply this season. And that, combined with the weak economy and competition from other media, augurs badly for the spring ad-sales market, ad buyers and analysts say.

Discussion: Radio & Television …

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 …

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 $20 a year. — Sullivan moved from The Daily Beast to his own independent operation …

Discussion: The Dish

Erik Wemple:

CNN media show didn't mention CNN controversy — CNN's “Reliable Sources” yesterday covered quite an array of pressing media issues. Jay Leno's alleged dethroning, cable-news and nonstop opinionating, the new Roger Ailes biography, media coverage of the Republican Party …

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, Forbes, The Next Web, BetaNews, CNET and Pocket-lint