Mediagazer: Study: China Surpasses Japan to Become Second-Largest Pay TV Market Behind U.S. (Patrick Brzeski/Hollywood Reporter)

8:50 AM ET, March 27, 2013

Top News:

Hashtags considered #harmful — The noble hashtag is cursed by a problem Yogi Berra could appreciate: Too many people use it, so no one goes there. — Presumably, most Twitter users use hashtags intending to add their tweet to a river of similar information and to expose their own thoughts to a wider, interested audience.

Discussion: @jbenton, @mykola, @marksluckie, @aschweig, @pwthornton, @chanders, @caseymcdermott, @smalera, @digiphile, @michaelroston, @kev097, @jaredbkeller and NetNewsCheck Latest

Andrew M. Barker / Variety:

RIAA Reports Year of Relative Stability in Record Biz … Things might not exactly be returning to normal, but the record business can take some comfort in the fact that the long industry-wide slide appears to have reached ground level, as the RIAA reported a second consecutive year …

Paul Sloan / CNET:

The one bright spot for the music labels: Digital — The financial picture of the music industry is still bleak, but YouTube, Spotify, and other services are helping. — The music industry is still in rough shape, based on data released today by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Discussion: Billboard, Tone Deaf and The Verge

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

Anderson Cooper Approached For Matt Lauer's ‘Today’ Job — Embattled Today anchor Matt Lauer, already the focus of blistering criticism for the ouster of co-anchor Ann Curry and the ratings slide at NBC's morning show, has long been rumored to be on the chopping block …

Discussion: Contactmusic.com, The Hollywood Gossip, Inside TV and New York Magazine

Guardian:

The Sun joins Telegraph in charging website users — News International says offering free content is ‘just untenable’, while Telegraph announces erection of metered paywall — Britain's biggest selling daily newspaper, The Sun, is to start charging for its online content in the second half …

Discussion: Media Week, The Independent, Agence France Presse, TechRadar.com, imediamonkey, UK News and Opinion, London News, HEXUS.net Business …, The Week UK, atvtoday.co.uk, CMU, the Econsultancy blog, TheMediaBriefing, The Next Web, Shiny Shiny and Digital Spy

Mike Shields / Adweek:

Bloomberg Wants to Win at Video — It's time for Bloomberg TV's noon news meeting on this Thursday, a meeting that is sandwiched around two momentous events; the day after the new Pope was announced and the day Samsung will release its new Galaxy s4 phone. — The packed conference room …

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

USA Today announces ‘two big changes’ — USA Today is making “big changes” by putting the cover story in the newspaper “on hiatus” and keeping story jumps to a “bare minimum, if at all,” editor in chief Dave Callaway announced to staffers in a memo on Tuesday.

Discussion: @andreastonez and @mathewi

Patrick Brzeski / Hollywood Reporter:

Study: China Surpasses Japan to Become Second-Largest Pay TV Market Behind U.S. — A new report says the Asia-Pacific region will add 420 million pay TV households by 2018, more than triple the number of households in the entire United States. — A new study released by a U.K.-based …

Discussion: Broadband TV News and Rapid TV News

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Flipboard launches new edition, lets readers create magazines — (Reuters) - Social magazine app Flipboard launched on Tuesday one of its biggest overhauls to date allowing readers to create and share their own magazines in a bid to keep growing in popularity.

Discussion: Inside Flipboard, Forbes, Mashable, Guardian, Fast Company, PC Pro, Digital Spy, USA Today, Cult of Mac, Good E-Reader, SlashGear, Media News, Shiny Shiny, Trusted Reviews, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo UK, The Bulletin, GigaOM, 9to5Mac, Engadget, ReadWrite, AppleInsider, CNET, MacRumors, TIME, Wired and TechCrunch

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:

Scratch Freston from Time Inc. CEO derby — Scratch Mtv founder Tom Freston from the list of potential Time Inc. CEOs. — Even before the search begins in earnest, Freston told Media Ink he isn't interested in the job. — That is sure to dash the dreams of Time Inc.'ers.

Discussion: Guardian

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Tumblr crosses 100 million blogs, with 44.6 billion posts inside — Tumblr has today quietly ticked over the 100 million blog mark, with those blogs containing some 44.6 billion posts. We noticed that the ticker on the popular blogging platform's about page had ticked over and Tumblr confirmed …

Discussion: Softpedia News, VatorNews, Mashable, The Verge and ParisLemon

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

BBC suspends Sri Lankan broadcasts — The BBC's World Service has suspended all its broadcasts on the Sri Lankan Broadcasting Corporation (SLBC) because of what its calls “continued interruption and interference” to the corporation's Tamil programming. — World Service director Peter Horrocks said …

Discussion: Committee to Protect …