Mediagazer: Peter Levinsohn Named President and Chief Distribution Officer of Universal (The Wrap)

11:50 PM ET, May 1, 2013

Top News:

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:

The Movie Business Is A Total Drag — On Earnings — CBS's first quarter earnings, released today, shined in part because it doesn't own a major movie studio. At least not yet. — Media magnate Sumner Redstone, actress Emily Blunt, CBS President and CEO Les Moonves and actor Ewan McGregor.

Discussion: Tech Trader Daily

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Time Inc. Revenues, Subscription Dollars Down

Discussion: New York Times, Radio & Television … and FishbowlNY

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:
Time Warner CEO downplays idea of offering HBO Go as stand-alone

Discussion: AllThingsD and @edmundlee

Catherine Saillant / Los Angeles Times:

L.A. councilmen want city to weigh in on possible Times sale — Three Los Angeles City Council members — including a candidate for mayor — asked their colleagues Tuesday to consider pulling city pension money from the investment firms that own the Los Angeles Times if they sell the publication …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Hit & Run and LA Observed

Jack Shafer / Reuters:
Who's afraid of the Koch brothers?

Discussion: New York Times and Free Press

Anthony W. Marx / New York Times:

E-Books and Democracy — WRESTLING with my newspaper on the subway recently, I noticed the woman next to me reading a book on her smartphone. “That has to hurt your eyes,” I commented. Not missing a beat, she replied, in true New York style, “My font is bigger than yours.” She was right.

Discussion: Digital Book World, Associated Press, Digital Book World, GalleyCat, Bookseller news and AppNewser

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent: Following pilot, Hachette will make all of its ebooks available to libraries nationwide

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Every page is your homepage: Reuters, untied to print metaphor, builds a modern river of news — Reuters, as a wire service, has the concept of a minute-by-minute stream of news deep in its DNA. So it's natural that its digital presence would echo that — a flowing river of information …

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Robinson Meyer / The Atlantic Online:

The Company That's Buying Up All the Key Pieces of the Online News Ecosystem — Betaworks has its tentacles in nearly every part of how stories are made, read, and measured. — In the past couple years, an ecology of sorts has come into being among online news sites.

Discussion: Adweek, Kirk LaPointe's …, @axb21, @stilgherrian, @richgor, @lexilewtan, @mededitor and @berkowitzrtrs

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The New York Times launched a revamped mobile site today — You can check it out at mobile.nytimes.com. A few quick thoughts: — In typography and story layout, it's much closer to the Times' iPhone app, edging closer toward cross-platform parity. (Headlines are still just Georgia …

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

Newspapers need to stop lying to themselves — and to advertisers — about their circulation — A trade group says that newspapers like the New York Times have seen large increases in circulation, but that's partly because they are allowed to count their readers multiple times. The industry needs to do better.

Discussion: Crikey, @jackshafer, LA Biz Observed, @jackshafer, The Dish, @stevebuttry, Guardian, Forbes, Bloomberg and Media Nation

The Wrap:

Peter Levinsohn Named President and Chief Distribution Officer of Universal — The Fox executive will report to studio chairman Adam Fogelson — Peter Levinsohn was named president and chief distribution officer of Universal Pictures on Wednesday, the studio announced.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times and Variety

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Howard Kurtz's Connection To Little-Known Website Raises Questions — NEW YORK — Howard Kurtz, the Washington bureau chief for The Daily Beast and Newsweek, has been regularly contributing to, and heavily promoting, a lesser-known media website with no financial ties to his full-time employer.

Discussion: Gawker

Ben Adler / Columbia Journalism Review:

Streams of consciousness — Millennials expect a steady diet of quick-hit, social-media-mediated bits and bytes. What does that mean for journalism? — My first encounters with journalism were the same as most American males: through the sports pages. Sometime in middle school …

Steve Annear / Boston Magazine:

Former Phoenix Reporters Launch Online Alt-Weekly — “The Media” is an ad-free weekly publication trying to fill at least some of the void left by the defunct magazine. — With The Phoenix long gone, and the red boxes that once held it obsolete from city streets, three former staff members …

Jim Romenesko:

Carolyn Ryan is named New York Times political editor — Carolyn Ryan has been named New York Times political editor and Wendell Jamieson replaces her as metro editor. The memo:

Discussion: Capital New York

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer:

Twitter Wants To Get More Journalists On Twitter — Although many journalists are on Twitter and use the social network on an almost obsessive basis, they want to take it official. To use the parlance of another social network, they want to go from “It's Complicated” to “In a Relationship.”

Discussion: The Verge and @mlcalderone

Meg James / Los Angeles Times:

Weak Paramount slate contributes to Viacom's 18% drop in profit — “World War Z” starring Brad Pitt may help Paramount Pictures have a strong summer. ( Jaap Buitendijk / Paramount Pictures / August 24, 2011) — Paramount Pictures turned in another disappointing performance …

Discussion: The Wrap and Reuters

Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:

China's Surprise Tax Prompts Hollywood Standoff — Fox refuses $23 million in “Life of Pi” money as the MPAA fights to enforce a trade deal. — As Iron Man 3 rolls outs in China, it's unclear whether Marvel will hurry to cash any checks from the country.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Former Times-Picayune editors will lead Baton Rouge Advocate, which has a new owner — Former New Orleans Times-Picayune managing editors Dan Shea and Peter Kovacs will serve as General Manager and Editor, respectively, of the Baton Rouge Advocate, which announced it had been purchased …

Discussion: WWL-TV, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit, Columbia Journalism Review and WWL