Mediagazer: Sinclair Broadcast Group Adds Station Heft With Fisher Communications Buy (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)

6:10 PM ET, April 11, 2013

Top News:

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Yep, LinkedIn Acquires Newsreader Startup Pulse for $90 Million — LinkedIn announced on Thursday it has acquired mobile news aggregation startup Pulse, as Kara Swisher reported last month that it would, signaling another step by the massive professional network toward becoming an online content powerhouse.

Discussion: Official LinkedIn Blog, GigaOM, LinkedIn media information …, CNET, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, Forbes, GalleyCat, ZDNet, Reuters, ReadWrite, The Verge, AppleInsider and Mashable

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Ebooks made up 23 percent of US publisher sales in 2012, says the AAP — Ebooks accounted for nearly a quarter of the U.S. trade book business in 2012, according to statistics released Thursday by the Association of American Publishers. The ebook industry appears to be maturing, however …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, PublishersWeekly.com and Digital Book World

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

Netflix users watched four billion hours of video in Q1 — Looks like House of Cards is starting to have an impact: Netflix members watched more than four billion hours of video during the first three months of 2013, according to the company's CEO Reed Hastings, who took to Facebook to publish the milestone Thursday.

Discussion: AllThingsD, Deadline.com, Home Media Magazine and Variety

Eric Mark Do / MediaShift:

Toronto Star Tests Monthly E-Book Subscriptions — The Toronto Star is testing the e-book market with a dedicated subscription model. Launched in November 2012, Star Dispatches is the brainchild of the Toronto Star's marketing department. The Star already has more than 20 titles …

Discussion: @jeffsonderman

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

AOL Confirms Ned Brody Has Resigned As Head Of AOL Networks, CEO Armstrong Takes Over In The Interim [Memo] — Some turmoil in the management ranks at AOL, with Yahoo, apparently, hoping to profit as part of its ongoing hiring spree. AOL (which owns TechCrunch) has confirmed to us that Ned Brody …

Discussion: AllThingsD, AdAge, Business Insider, FishbowlNY, SlashGear and MinOnline

Jim Romenesko:

Missing the good old days when Pulitzer finalists were leaked — I responded: “I think the demise of the old E&P, which was obsessed with the prizes, has a lot to do with it.” Joe Strupp used to do a great job getting judges to leak the finalists to Editor & Publisher.

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

‘The Bible’ on Fox News Channel? It almost happened — News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch, right, wanted the miniseries “The Bible” for the Fox News Channel. (The Bible/Lightworkers Media and Hearst Entertainment/Rupert Murdoch/Associated Press / April 10, 2013)

Discussion: TVNewser

Sue Marek / FierceWireless:

Verizon CEO: 50% of our wireless traffic is video — LAS VEGAS—Video accounts for 50 percent of Verizon Wireless' (NYSE:VZ) network traffic today and by 2017 the carrier estimates video will make up two-thirds of all traffic over the network. Speaking at the National Association …

Discussion: BGR, ZDNet, The Verge, App Advice, MacRumors, Business Insider, SlashGear, 9to5Mac, Softpedia News, AppleInsider and GigaOM

Nitasha Tiku / Betabeat:

String of Executive Departures Leaves a Leadership Vacuum at the Top of Tumblr — Late Tuesday night, while most of New York City was “afk” enjoying the balmy weather, Tumblr CEO David Karp snuck a post onto the staff blog paying tribute to Storyboard—a team of journalists and editors assigned to …

Discussion: Digiday, Marketing Pilgrim, @justinnxt, Mashable, AppNewser and Mashable

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Sinclair Broadcast Group Adds Station Heft With Fisher Communications Buy … Sinclair Broadcast Group is adding some large-market heft to its station holdings with a $373.3 million deal to acquire Seattle-based Fisher Communications. — The cash buyout will give Sinclair …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Radio & Television …, Broadcasting & Cable, Bloomberg, TVNewsCheck.com, STBlogs Alpha, Greenfield Daily Reporter, KOMO News, Reuters and Deadline.com

Joseph Ax / Reuters:

Howard Stern loses appeal in lawsuit vs Sirius XM over pay — NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York state appeals court declined to revive a $330 million lawsuit brought by disc jockey Howard Stern against satellite radio broadcaster Sirius XM Radio Inc for refusing to pay him stock awards he said he was due.

Brooke Sutherland / Bloomberg:

Dish Deals Made Possible by Exxon-Like Cash: Real M&A — Dish Network Corp. (DISH) Chairman Charlie Ergen has accumulated a record $10 billion in cash, leaving investors to speculate whether he's setting his sights on a takeover of T-Mobile USA Inc. or a merger with rival DirecTV.

Discussion: dailywireless.org, Denver Business Journal and FierceWireless