Mediagazer: What's the best price for a self-published ebook? $3.99, Smashwords research suggests (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

8:40 AM ET, May 10, 2013

Top News:

Top Editors Abruptly Leave Village Voice — Will Bourne, who became editor in chief of The Village Voice in November, and Jessica Lustig, the deputy editor since January, are leaving the weekly publication. — They met with the staff at 11 p.m. on Thursday and said that Christine Brennan …

Discussion: Poynter, Gawker, mediabistro.com, @simondumenco, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Daily News’ chief Colin Myler tells staff layoffs were ‘inevitable,’ announces new digital initiative in boroughs — Colin Myler, editor of the Daily News, and Bill Holiber, the paper's president, have just addressed the layoffs that claimed around 20 jobs in the paper's newsroom over the past two days.

Discussion: Capital New York and New York Times

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

What's the best price for a self-published ebook? $3.99, Smashwords research suggests — Self-publishing platform and distributor Smashwords analyzed ebook sales for nearly a year. CEO Mark Coker draws some interesting conclusions on the best way to price a self-published ebook.

Discussion: Smashwords, AppNewser and GalleyCat

Chris Grosso / AOL Blog:

Cyndi Stivers Joins AOL as Editor-In-Chief of AOL.com — It's my pleasure to announce that AOL has hired Cyndi Stivers, a decorated journalist and digital media expert, to join our team as Editor-in-Chief of AOL.com. — In her new role reporting to me, she will drive all editorial …

Discussion: Adweek, The New York Observer and FishbowlNY

Ben Flanagan / Al Arabiya:

‘Low-pay’ TV firm targeting tens of millions of Arab viewers — A Dubai-based TV company is targeting “tens of millions” of customers in the Arab world, aiming to sell monthly subscriptions costing the same as a cup of coffee from Starbucks. — But My-HD, which currently offers about 30 channels …

Janko Roettgers / paidContent:

YouTube launches its paid subscription channels with select partners — YouTube's long-rumored paid channels are live: The Google-owned service started its new subscription offering with select partners Thursday. — YouTube has officially launched a paid subscription offering …

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Wall Street Journal:

ESPN Eyes Subsidizing Wireless-Data Plans — Smartphone users who binge on video, games and other content must monitor their usage to ensure they don't run over monthly data caps that wireless carriers have put in place in recent years. — Now, some media companies whose mobile content gets …

Discussion: Electronista, Gizmodo, The Verge and Pocket-lint

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Say Media Lays Off 10 Percent Of Staff, Aims For Profitability In Second Half Of 2013 — Matt Sanchez, co-founder and CEO of Say Media (which owns xoJane, ReadWrite, and Dogster), just told me that the company has laid off about 10 percent of its 400-person staff.

Discussion: The Wall Blog

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Rdio And Shazam Expand Full Music Track Streaming Partnership To UK, Canada, Australia, Brazil And Mexico — Shazam and Rdio have offered something wonderful for U.S. users as of fall 2012, providing full track streaming for tagged music via Rdio, thanks to a “Listen Free on Rdio” link within the Shazam app.

Discussion: Pocket-lint and The Next Web

Matt Sledge / The Huffington Post:

Bradley Manning Trial Stenographer Crowdfunded By Nonprofit — NEW YORK — Fed up with the military's limits on access to the court martial of Bradley Manning, the Army private who has admitted to sending hundreds of thousands of sensitive documents to the transparency organization WikiLeaks …

Discussion: Freedom of the Press … and Guardian

Eric Deggans / Poynter:

Is Truth-O-Meter the real issue in Maddow's latest blast at PolitiFact? — The Tampa Bay Times' fact-checking site PolitiFact has drawn another heated rebuke from MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow, who accuses it of “ruining fact checking” and being “truly terrible.”

Discussion: Mediaite

Sean Ludwig / VentureBeat:

Los Angeles startup Yekra nets $3M for its digital movie distribution platform — Digital entertainment distribution startup Yekra has raised $3 million in new funding to give studios a way to distribute DRM-protected content without it being burdensome, the company announced today.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, socalTECH.com, pevc.dowjones.com, screendaily.com, Los Angeles Times and The Wrap