Mediagazer: Paywalls rise — It's paywall season right now: the Washington Post … (Felix Salmon)

5:50 PM ET, March 27, 2013

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Entreaty to Cooper Suggests Shakeup at ‘Today’ — Earlier this month an NBC executive contacted Anderson Cooper with a question that would flatter and intrigue just about anyone. Would Mr. Cooper, the biggest star of CNN, consider replacing Matt Lauer on the “Today” show in the months to come?

Discussion: Capital New York, TMZ.com, The Wrap, Business Insider, Gothamist, From Inside the Box, The Huffington Post, @dylanbyers, @brianstelter, The Corsair, @mbaratz, TV Tattle, Mediaite and Deadline.com

Marisa Guthrie / Hollywood Reporter:

NBC: Anderson Cooper Not Approached for Matt Lauer Job — A source close to Cooper also denies the report, while both men's camps deny that Lauer called Cooper to register his disapproval — NBC's Today show is topic A in media gossip circles. And a report Tuesday about CNN's Anderson Cooper …

Discussion: Deadline.com, TVNewser, mediabistro.com, All Things CNN, Vanity Fair, Contactmusic.com, The Hollywood Gossip, FishbowlNY, Daily Mail, The Huffington Post, Inside TV, New York Post, Mediaite and New York Magazine

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

Upfronts 2013: Participant TV's Cable Network Named ‘Pivot’ — Channel targeting viewers 15-34 will offer broadband-only subscription — New York — Participant TV on Wednesday announced the name of its upcoming cable network targeting millennials: Pivot.

Discussion: Lost Remote, The Wrap, Deadline.com and Variety

AJ Marechal / Variety: Wake Up, Kids: Disruptive TV Is Here Via Participant Media's Pivot Cabler

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Flipboard Wants To Redesign The Entire Internet — The battle to become the next front page of the internet. — Last night, Flipboard launched a new version of its reader app that lets anyone with a smartphone or tablet to create custom “magazines” from virtually any piece of internet content — a tweet, a news story, a photo.

Discussion: Poynter and The Huffington Post

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:
Flipboard launches new edition, lets readers create magazines

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

Reuters:

Portugal media demands Google pays for news — (Reuters) - Portuguese media companies, struggling through the worst recession since the 1970s, are pressing Google to pay for content on its news search engine, echoing similar demands elsewhere in Europe. — Alberico Fernandes …

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 …

Jenna Wortham / NYT Bits:

Instagram and the New Era of Paparazzi — Earlier this week, a rare and new photo of the pop star Beyoncé and her daughter, Blue Ivy, quickly spread around the Internet, on various celebrity and gossip sites. — There was nothing particularly unusual about the photo itself …

Discussion: GigaOM and Daily Dot

Felix Salmon:

Paywalls rise — It's paywall season right now: the Washington Post, the San Francisco Chronicle, the Telegraph, the Sun — all have recently announced plans to erect paywalls in an attempt to extract subscription revenues from their most loyal online readers.

Discussion: Telegraph, Globe and Mail, the Econsultancy blog, CMU and PandoDaily

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

Andrew M. Barker / Variety: RIAA Reports Year of Relative Stability in Record Biz

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: FishbowlNY and Guardian

Steve Rubel / AdAge:

Leaner, Meaner Media Finally Ready to Invade Agency Turf — In a Bid for Survival, Press Cozies Up to the Client Side — Everyone loves a Cinderella story. Whether it's David slaying Goliath or a college basketball team's unlikely journey from dark horse to Final Four contender, it's hard not to root for an underdog.

Thanks:@steverubel

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Sun paywall unavoidable, says News International chief executive — Mike Darcey says continuing to offer free content is untenable as website is threatening circulation and revenue of tabloid — News International's chief executive Mike Darcey has said the company had no choice …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, TheMediaBriefing and BBC

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Twitter's Revenue Forecast Jumps Again, This Time to Almost $1 Billion — Twitter's advertising business is growing so fast, it's hard to get a handle on. — For the second time in six months, eMarketer has revised its revenue estimates for the social messenging service sharply upward …

Discussion: eMarketer and Newsroom Posts, NetNewsCheck Latest, paidContent, Reuters, CNET, Business Insider and AdAge

Bloomberg:

Ericsson Said to Discuss Buying Microsoft's TV-Software Unit — Ericsson AB (ERICB) is in talks to buy Microsoft Corp. (MSFT)'s IPTV business, which makes software used by phone companies such as AT&T Inc. (T) to deliver television over the Internet, people with knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: CNET, Reuters, VentureBeat, IP&TV News, Engadget, Digital TV Europe, The Verge, ZDNet, Electronista, GigaOM and GeekWire

Steve Kovach / Business Insider:

Netflix Hires ‘The Matrix’ Creators To Make A New Original Sci-Fi Series That'll Premiere Next Year — Netflix secured three huge names in sci-fi entertainment this week to produce a new original series called “Sense8” that will start streaming in late 2014.

Discussion: Deadline.com, /Film, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Hollywood Reporter, Associated Press, Inquirer, Pocket-lint, The Verge and Engadget

NetNewsCheck:

SCOTUSblog, NYT's ‘Snowfall’ Win Peabodys — Tucked among the honor roll of television and radio winners of this year's Peabody Awards are two entirely digital efforts: SCOTUSblog, devoted entirely to news about the top court in the land, and The New York Times' much lauded longform multimedia showpiece …

Discussion: George Foster Peabody Awards, Poynter, New York Magazine and From Inside the Box

Los Angeles Times:

Web-based productions are taking off in L.A. — Filming for Web productions in L.A. rose 46% over 2011. Such content has evolved from short episodes to full-length TV productions, some with budgets comparable to conventional TV shows'. — Ed Begley stars in Amazon Studios upcoming series, “Betas.”

Discussion: Variety