Mediagazer: Meet Penguin Random House, The World's Largest Book Publisher That Will Counter Amazon (Romain Dillet/TechCrunch)

5:55 AM ET, April 7, 2013

Top News:

Dominic Patten / Deadline.com:

CNN's ‘Crossfire’ Back In June; Cancelled In 2005 — After the failed week long experiment of (Get To) The Point and the unsteady The Lead With Jake Tapper, Jeff Zucker is looking for a blast from the past to revive CNN. The ratings-struggling cable new network is bringing back Crossfire in June, network insiders tell me.

Discussion: Inside Cable News and All Things CNN

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

CNN Looking To Revive ‘Crossfire’ — CNN is looking to bring back “Crossfire,” TVNewser hears. The long-running political debate show was canceled in 2005. — It isn't entirely clear what time the program would air, though we hear it would likely be a 30-minute format.

Discussion: Politico and The Huffington Post

Reuters:

Exclusive: Former News Corp President Chernin bids $500 million for Hulu — (Reuters) - Former News Corp president Peter Chernin bid around $500 million for Hulu, the online video streaming service he helped create in 2007, according to two sources with knowledge of Hulu's sale process.

Discussion: AllThingsD, AllThingsD, Radio & Television …, Electronista, VentureBeat, Home Media Magazine, CNET, Variety, The Verge, Deadline.com, Engadget and Broadcasting & Cable

Nicole Perlroth / NYT Bits:

Fake Twitter Followers Becomes Multimillion-Dollar Business — Far from slowing, the market for fake Twitter followers seems to be taking off. — The fake Twitter follower phenomenon made headlines last summer after Mitt Romney's Twitter following jumped by 100,000 in a matter of days.

Discussion: @martinsfp and Business Insider

Wikimedia France:

French homeland intelligence threatens a volunteer sysop to delete a Wikipedia Article — Wikimedia France strongly condemns pressure on Wikipedia sysop by French homeland intelligence agency (DCRI) — In early March, the DCRI (Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur) …

Discussion: ZDNet and Geekosystem

Rezwan / Slate:

Bloggers in Bangladesh Face Threats Online and Off — Bangladeshi bloggers form a human chain to protest the detention of three bloggers. — This post combines content from two recent posts on Global Voices Advocacy. — With political protests raging in the capital city of Dhaka …

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Dish Network's Charlie Ergen Is the Most Hated Man in Hollywood — His company has been labeled the “worst place to work in America,” he's being sued by all four networks, and his ad-skipping Hopper could decimate TV industry economics as THR examines the troubling potential outcome of the entertainment business' ugliest fight.

Joe Weisenthal / Business Insider:

Jeff Bezos Invests in Business Insider — Jeff Bezos has invested in Business Insider, according to an internal memo we have just obtained. Here's the memo from Business Insider CEO and Editor-in-Chief Henry Blodget: Team, I wanted to share the details of the financing we mentioned last night.

Discussion: Talking Biz News, Quartz, The Drum, VentureBeat, GigaOM, Forbes, Media & Entertainment, VatorNews, CNET, @rafat, Gawker, AllThingsD, @djbentley, @mathewi, @tcarmody, Poynter, ZDNet, The Next Web, 24/7 Wall St., Betabeat, @ivanthek, @choire and GeekWire, Thanks:@max8378

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
Amazon's Jeff Bezos Invests in Blodget's Business Insider Site

Discussion: Felix Salmon, Business Insider, Businessweek, Publishing Executive …, AdExchanger, Mashable, TechCrunch, The Wrap, @nicknotned and www.wnyc.org

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Meet Penguin Random House, The World's Largest Book Publisher That Will Counter Amazon — After the U.S. cleared the deal, the European Commission has officially approved the proposed merger between two of the biggest book publishers in the world, Random House and Penguin.

Discussion: Forbes and Guardian

Jeremy Greenfield / Digital Book World:

Indie Bookstore Sales of Kobo Ebooks Dwarf Google; Still Small — The Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. has sold about 80 e-readers, three tablets and few hundred ebooks with Kobo so far. — Just six months after forging a partnership with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) …

Discussion: Forbes

Associated Press:

Journal Register Sale Complete — NEW YORK (AP) — The sale of Journal Register, which owns newspapers in 10 states, to 21st CMH Acquisition Co., has been finalized, the company said Friday. — The sale stems from a bankruptcy auction that included 21st CMH as its only bidder.

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Kelvin MacKenzie dropped from the Telegraph — Speculation that a Hillsborough backlash caused the Telegraph to drop Kelvin MacKenzie after his first online column — The Daily Telegraph has dropped Kelvin MacKenzie after only his first online column for the newspaper.

Discussion: The Drum and Liverpool Daily Post