Mediagazer: Amazon moving ahead with five original TV series (Alistair Barr/Reuters)

11:10 AM ET, May 29, 2013

Top News:

Ted Johnson / Variety:

IAC Seeking Buyers for Newsweek (EXCLUSIVE) — Newsweek appears to be on the block — again. — According to sources who have been briefed, IAC is sending out inquiries to prospective buyers who may be interested in purchasing the 80-year-old title, which ended weekly publication …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Adweek, Reuters, Politico, @daschles, @peterlauria3, @shirleybrady, @tunkuv, @grahamdavida, @qhardy, @jenzchang, @sarahw, @mattyglesias, @felixsalmon and @jayrosen_nyu

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Barry Diller Is Shopping Newsweek. Here's Why. — Most rational business people wouldn't go out of their way to deprecate the value of an asset a few weeks before they try to sell it. As he has made abundantly clear throughout his career, however, Barry Diller is not most people.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Matthew Cooper / NationalJournal.com:

Why a Media Shield Law Isn't Enough to Save Journalists — The only way journalists will be protected is if prosecutors stop being so quick to go after them. — I'm all for a shield law to protect journalists and their sources from government prosecutors. I hope Congress passes one.

Peter Sterne / The New York Observer:

Shield Law More Like a Cheap Umbrella — Faced with criticism over the government's secret spying on the Associated Press and Fox News, President Barack Obama has tried to burnish his free-press bona fides by pushing for the passage of a federal shield law to protect journalists and their confidential sources.

Discussion: Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, New Yorker and Post Politics

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:
Attorney general signed off on Fox phone records subpoena

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Apple's Tim Cook Has a “Grand Vision” for Television — And Still Won't Talk About It — No surprises here — at our 11th D: All Things Digital technology conference, Apple CEO Tim Cook is still staying mum on the company's plans for a proper TV set. — However!

Discussion: VentureBeat, NYT Bits, Forbes, The Week, CNET, AdAge, GigaOM, The Wrap, The Mac Observer and Softpedia News

Dara Kerr / CNET:

Apple CEO: We rejected DOJ settlement in e-book suit — With an impending trial in June, Apple CEO Tim Cook maintains that the company had nothing to do with facilitating a conspiracy to raise prices of e-books. — As the last company standing in the upcoming lawsuit over e-book price fixing …

Discussion: VentureBeat, AllThingsD and GigaOM

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Thomson Reuters hires Economist Group chief to head news agency arm — Andrew Rashbass to leave publisher after 15 years, having led digital transformation from print to digital business — Andrew Rashbass, the chief executive of the Economist Group, is to join Thomson Reuters …

Discussion: Globe and Mail

PR Newswire:
Thomson Reuters Announces Andrew Rashbass to Join in New Role Leading News and Media Business

Discussion: Talking Biz News

RT:

Larry King joins RT with brand new politics show — Award-winning interviewer Larry King will host a mold-breaking political talk show on RT from next month, speaking to both leading establishment figures, and those who are not afraid to go against the grain.

Discussion: Politico, Gawker, Mediaite, The Wrap, TVNewser, Business Insider, BBC, Variety and The Huffington Post

Bill Mickey / Folio:

Study: One-Quarter of Tablet Owners Prefer Digital Magazines Over Print — As device sales grow, that metric could balloon to 65 percent by 2020. — Digital publishing consultancy Mequoda Group released results of a recent survey that examined the usage and content consumption of tablet owners.

Discussion: Mequoda Daily

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

TuneIn raises $25 million, nabs new CFO from Google to monetize radio streaming — Palo Alto, California-based TuneIn has raised a new $25 million round of funding, and it plans to put that money to good use. TuneIn CEO John Donham told me Tuesday that he intends to spend a big chunk …

Discussion: Forbes, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, CNET and Bloomberg

Ali Velshi / Quartz:

Al-Jazeera host: The solution to what's wrong with American cable news — Lately I've been giving a lot of thought to changing viewer tastes and habits. After 12 years at CNN, I needed to better understand why doing more of the obvious isn't helping to grow an audience, even for long-standing brands.

Discussion: TheBlaze.com

Elias Biryabarema / Reuters:

Ugandan police fire tear gas at journalists protesting crackdown — (Reuters) - Ugandan police fired tear gas at journalists in the capital Kampala on Tuesday who were protesting against a media crackdown after press reports sparked a rare public debate on who will succeed aging President Yoweri Museveni.

Alistair Barr / Reuters:

Amazon moving ahead with five original TV series — Amazon.com Inc said on Wednesday that it will make five original TV series, having used viewer feedback to pick the shows out of a group of 14 pilots filmed by the world's largest Internet retailer earlier this year.

Discussion: Variety, AllThingsD, CNET and The Wrap

Reuters:

News Corp promises “relentless” cuts at newspapers — Robert Thomson, chief executive of the new News Corp, said there will be “relentless” cost cuts in store for the newspaper business as it prepares to separate from Rupert Murdoch's entertainment empire. — The cornerstone of the company …

Discussion: @abeaujon