Mediagazer: Former Facebook ME Dan Fletcher: 'It's a Great Time to Launch a New Publication' (Ryan Graff/MediaShift Idea Lab)

3:40 AM ET, May 22, 2013

Top News:

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Report: Justice Dept. seized multiple Fox News, White House phone records — The New Yorker's Ryan Lizza has uncovered more details about the Justice Dept.'s investigation into the former State Dept. contractor who is accused of leaking classified information to James Rosen, the Fox News reporter.

Discussion: New Yorker, Committee to Protect …, CNSNews, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Gawker, msnbc.com and Post Politics

Ann E. Marimow and Scott Wilson / Washington Post:

President Obama says journalists should not be prosecuted for soliciting information — President Obama told advisers that he is not interested in prosecuting reporters for soliciting information from government officials, White House press secretary Jay Carney said Tuesday.

Discussion: Politico, Reuters, TVNewser, Newser, Hit & Run, RT, Mother Jones, New York Times, The Verge, CNN, The Fix, The Plum Line and Erik Wemple

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

Fox News: ‘They went into our computer servers at Fox News’ — Yesterday afternoon on Fox News, host Shepard Smith issued a stunning statement. In a chat with judicial analyst Andrew Napolitano, Smith took apart the revelations about Justice Department snooping into the communications …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, TVNewser, NewsBusters blogs, Broadcasting & Cable, Mediaite and The Week

Ryan J. Reilly / The Huffington Post:
James Rosen Subpoena Doesn't Suggest Charges Against Fox News Reporter, DOJ Says

Discussion: Politico and The Hill

John Koblin / Deadspin:

Sources: ESPN Laying Off Hundreds [UPDATE] — ESPN is laying off a portion of its staff today, a network spokesman confirms to us. How many? ESPN won't say. A tipster told us earlier today that it would be more than 400 staffers. A source at ESPN said that number is a little high, but it appears to be in the hundreds.

Discussion: Big Lead Sports, AdAge, Broadcasting & Cable, mediabistro.com, Reuters, Radio & Television …, Austin360 Blogs, WebProNews, Mashable, @dankennedy_nu, Gawker, @laureni, @espnbook, @espnbook, FishbowlNY, Deadline.com and The Wrap

Dave Winer / Scripting News:

My one talk with Marissa Mayer — It was 2003. Google had just bought Blogger. On the acquisition, they said they wouldn't do anything to tilt the table in favor of Blogger. There was concern in the wider blogging community that Google might use its power in search to give people …

Discussion: Mediaite, Dave Winer, GigaOM, Business Insider, DealBook, ReadWrite and PandoDaily

Nitasha Tiku / Valleywag:
Source: Tumblr Made Even Less Money Than Reported Last Year

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Marketing Pilgrim, Betabeat and Business Insider

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
How Many Users Does Tumblr Really Have?

Discussion: New York Times, Forbes, WebProNews, the Econsultancy blog, Quartz and Business Insider

Ian Morris / Pocket-lint:

Microsoft announces Halo TV series for Xbox One produced by Steven Spielberg — Microsoft has called in the big guns to produce content for Xbox, and names don't come bigger than Steven Spielberg and Halo. So news there will be a Halo live action TV show, commissioned for Xbox Live, and produced by Spielberg is big news.

Discussion: Forbes, Wired, VentureBeat, Forbes, Variety, Wired, AdAge, Speakeasy, Broadcasting & Cable, TechRadar.com, Business Insider, /Film, VentureBeat, The Huffington Post and The Wrap

Devin Coldewey / NBC News:
Xbox One brings speech, gestures, multitasking to TV

Discussion: TechCrunch, SlashGear, SiliconANGLE, PC World, Trusted Reviews, Mirror.co.uk, Los Angeles Times, Gizmodo, CNET, VentureBeat, GigaOM, The Verge and The Next Web

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Jann Wenner Explains Why He Named His 22-Year-Old Son to Run Rollingstone.com — Jann Wenner has picked his son, Gus, 22, to head up Rollingstone.com, overseeing its editorial and business operations. And while critics were quick to cry nepotism, the senior Wenner told Adweek that his son had to prove himself like anyone else.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @raphaelptw, @jamisonfoser and Gawker

Christina Chaey / Fast Company:

Pandora Premieres Lets You Preview Albums A Week Before They Launch — “Radio stations used to play a record all the way through. You'd anticipate that eagerly. That's exactly what we're trying to do.” That's Pandora CEO Tim Westergren on the online radio giant's newly launched Pandora Premieres …

Discussion: CNET

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

Oklahoma governor thanks media for tornado coverage — Tuesday morning, Okla. Gov. Mary Fallin thanked her state's media for saving lives with early storm warnings and non-stop coverage of the recovery efforts. Lt. Gov. Todd Lamb called TV station meterologists “top notch and first-rate.”

Discussion: msnbc.com and Guardian

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:
OKC's TV news excels in another disaster

Discussion: Poynter, New York Times, The Wrap, Gawker, Mediaite, The Wrap, tyndall report posts, MinOnline, Broadcasting & Cable, @nycjim, New Yorker, TVSpy, TVNewser, ABCNEWS and B&C

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

CBS Earns First Full-Season 18-49 Demo Win in 21 Years — Fox slips to second as falling ‘Idol’ deals net biggest declines — With two nights remaining, CBS has won the 2012-13 season in total viewers, adults 25-54 and adults 18-49, according to Nielsen ratings through May 19.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Mediaite and The Wrap

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

The New York Times Reinvents the Boring Banner Ad — An obscure piece on The New York Times' website about Picasso repurposing his canvases by painting over older, abandoned projects was fascinating, at least insofar as stories about master artists and their recycling habits go.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

Lauren Indvik / Mashable:

‘Wired’ Completely Overhauls Print Magazine — Wired is debuting a new look for its June issue, which hits newsstands Tuesday. The magazine has been completely made over by Scott Dadich, who before being named editor-in-chief last November worked as creative director of Wired from 2006 to 2010.

Discussion: ClickZ, Thanks:@mattsf

Ryan Graff / MediaShift Idea Lab:

Former Facebook ME Dan Fletcher: 'It's a Great Time to Launch a New Publication' — Dan Fletcher, the recently departed managing editor at Facebook, seems to be always ahead of the curve. In 2010, at age 22, Fletcher became the youngest person ever to write a cover story for Time magazine.

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

From Cronkite to Couric: Internet Archive gets $1 million to expand TV news collection — The Internet Archive recently launched an ambitious project to collect and index all broadcasts since the start of television. This week it got a major boost. — The 20th century's printed output …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Knight Foundation, Knight Foundation, FishbowlLA and Broadcasting & Cable

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Sorry, Media, America Couldn't Care Less About The Government Taking AP's Phone Records — Here's a healthy reminder that the issues that outrage and fascinate members of the media are often quite different than the ones that media consumers (a.k.a., normal people) care about.

Discussion: Pew Research Center … and The Huffington Post