Mediagazer: British university attacks BBC over covert North Korea trip (Michael Holden/Reuters)

9:05 AM ET, April 15, 2013

Top News:

Dish Launches $25.5 Billion Bid for Sprint — Satellite-TV provider Dish Network Corp. is making a $25.5 billion bid for Sprint Nextel Corp., an effort to derail the No. 3 U.S. wireless carrier's acquisition by Softbank Corp. of Japan. — Dish said Monday it is offering to pay $4.76 in cash …

Discussion: GigaOM, Dish, Forbes, TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, USA Today, ABCNEWS, Associated Press, Reuters, The Verge, Seeking Alpha, SlashGear, SlashGear, Electronista, The Next Web, ZDNet and App Advice

Chris Velazco / TechCrunch:
Dish Network Chairman Said To Be Seeking A Merger With T-Mobile USA

Discussion: AllThingsD, Broadcasting & Cable, Reuters, CNET, Complete Dish Solution, Bloomberg, Forbes and BGR

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Great Long-Form Journalism, Just Clicks Away … In the age of hundreds of cable channels, millions of 140-character bulletins and an untold number of cat videos, a fear has been growing among journalists and readers that long-form storytelling may be getting lost.

Roy J. Harris Jr / Poynter:

Winners to watch for when the Pulitzers are announced today — About a half-dozen journalism organizations have already weighed in on their versions of 2012's best reporting, commentary and press photography. Today at 3 p.m. ET, it's the Pulitzer Prize Board's turn — for the 97th time …

Discussion: New York Times, PARADE Magazine, Daily Texan, @mlcalderone and @sulliview

David Carr / New York Times:

More Cracks in Television's Business Model — For the longest time in the media business, the concept of the bundle has been foundational. Ads go with editorial content in print, commercials go with programming on television and the channels you desire are paired with ones you did not in your cable package.

Discussion: @cdixon

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Jeff Zucker at CNN Hires Michael Bass, a Deputy From His NBC Past — Jeff Zucker, who left Katie Couric's syndicated talk show, “Katie,” at the end of last year to take over CNN Worldwide, is bringing in one of the show's top producers to join him. — Michael Bass, a longtime deputy …

Discussion: Deadline.com and Chickaboomer

Michael Holden / Reuters:

British university attacks BBC over covert North Korea trip — (Reuters) - A leading British university criticized the BBC on Sunday for arranging an academic trip to North Korea to make an undercover documentary, saying it had put students who were unaware of the plans in danger.

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, Guardian, pressgazette.co.uk, Deadline.com, Gawker, The Beaver, BBC and The Independent

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Texas Tribune Scores $1.5 Million Knight Foundation Grant — There's not a lot of good news about the the economics of serious public-interest journalism these days, so pay attention, because this is pretty good. — The Knight Foundation is giving a $1.5 million grant to the Texas Tribune …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Nieman Journalism Lab:

The end of big (media): When news orgs move from brands to platforms for talent — Editor's note: On April 23, Nicco Mele's new book The End of Big: How the Internet Makes David the New Goliath will be released. — Nicco — a lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, a political and digital strategist …

Discussion: The Corsair, @steverubel, @dabeard, @jayrosen_nyu, paidContent and @cyberjournalist

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

My team, my publisher: The new world of competition between leagues and media in sports — The Internet has made for an explosion in choices for sports fans. Online distribution has turned over the keys of publishing to everyone, and increasingly that means entities like the NFL, the NBA …

Christopher Heine / Adweek:

NBC News Turns Big Flipboard Presence Into Ad Sales — About a year ago, NBC News established an account on Flipboard—the increasingly popular magazine-formatted, social mobile app—and has since grown its presence to a whopping 1.3 million monthly active readers.

Robin Wauters / The Next Web:

EU Commission approves Liberty Global's $22.5 billion acquisition of Virgin Media — The European Commission has announced that it has approved the proposed acquisition of UK cable operator Virgin Media by the US company Liberty Global under the EU Merger Regulation, as expected.

Discussion: Digital Spy, Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Reuters, neurope.eu, thinkbroadband, Fox Business, Broadband TV News and Digital TV Europe

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Thin Reads Launches to Track E-Book Singles Market — Database contains information on more than 700 titles going back to 2010. — A new web-based e-book singles aggregator launched this week. Called Thin Reads and started by Howard Polskin, who left his executive vice president post …