Mediagazer: Kobo launches $169 ‘Porsche of e-readers’ for power users (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

5:05 PM ET, April 15, 2013

Top News:

2013 Winners and Finalists — Winners Letters, Drama, and Music Fiction The Orphan Master's Son by Adam Johnson (Random House) Drama Disgraced by Ayad Akhtar History Embers of War: The Fall of an Empire and the Making of America's Vietnam by Fredrik Logevall (Random House) …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, GalleyCat, Poynter, NewspaperAlum, Poynter, New York Times, Poynter, InsideClimate News, @deanstarkman, Jim Romenesko and @froomkin

Wall Street Journal:

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 …

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:
This Man Wants To Kill Your Cable And Wireless Companies

Discussion: Business Insider

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Boston explosions: Twitter acts as journalism's ombudsman — When tragedy strikes America, Twitter remembers bad reporting. — Within hours of the massacre in Connecticut that claimed the lives of 20 elementary school children and six adults, the news media had passed along a full story's worth of erroneous information.

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: Columbia Journalism Review, Knight Foundation and eMedia Vitals

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.

Discussion: The Blotter and The Huffington Post

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Kobo launches $169 ‘Porsche of e-readers’ for power users — Kobo is launching a higher-end e-reader, the $169 Aura HD, aimed at users who read several ebooks a week. While the Aura is more expensive than the competition, Kobo says its market research supports customers' desire for such a device.

Discussion: TechCrunch, CNET, BBC, Wired, International Business Times, Crave, Engadget, Pocket-lint and Bookseller news

BBC:

Harding to be named BBC News chief — The ex-editor of the Times, James Harding, will be named as the BBC's director of news on Tuesday, BBC media correspondent Torin Douglas understands. — Mr Harding resigned in December, saying it had been made clear that publishers News International wanted a new editor.

Discussion: Guardian and @mediaguardian

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Simon & Schuster launches ebook lending pilot with New York City public libraries — Simon & Schuster will finally make its ebooks available to libraries, through a one-year trial with New York City's public libraries. The publisher is making all of its titles available in the trial …

Discussion: PublishersWeekly.com, Mashable, GalleyCat and FishbowlNY

Sara Morrison / Columbia Journalism Review:

New from NYT R&D: Quips — Now you can highlight and mark up an online New York Times article just like you would a book — Those who have walked through the New York Times lobby have no doubt seen Mark Hansen and Ben Rubin's data-art installation “Moveable Type,” a series of small screens …

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: Hollywood Reporter, Chickaboomer, The Huffington Post and Deadline.com

Lorelei Marfil / WWD:

Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design Opens in London — STYLE SCHOOL: The first students to study at the Condé Nast College of Fashion & Design will sit down at their desks today. For 10 weeks, the inaugural intake of 45 students from 23 countries will take part …