Mediagazer: BT chief steps down to take UK government role as Sky Sports battle intensifies (Ben Woods/The Next Web)

1:25 PM ET, June 19, 2013

Top News:

Tim Dickinson / Rolling Stone:

Michael Hastings Dead at 33 — The bold journalist died in a car accident in Los Angeles — Michael Hastings, the fearless journalist whose reporting brought down the career of General Stanley McChrystal, has died in a car accident in Los Angeles, Rolling Stone has learned. He was 33.

Discussion: Guardian, The Wrap, PublishersWeekly.com, Slate, FishbowlDC, FishbowlNY, Guardian, LAist, WorldViews, The Huffington Post, KTLA 5, PandoDaily, BuzzFeed, Publishers Lunch, Business Insider, The Daily Caller, Corey Pein, @romenesko, Los Angeles Times, @7im, GalleyCat, Digital Spy, USA Today, CBC News, msnbc.com, Daily Mail, LAist, LA Observed, Gawker, Capital New York, Newsy, @idreamin4d, @mariamdena, @mollyknefel, @tommyxtopher, Mother Jones, @joseiswriting, @gillianmae, @antwoabboud, @varyagi, @britmccandless, @peterlauria3, @buzzfeedandrew, @rachelsklar, @emptywheel, @trevortimm, @robsondan, @skippable, @scottstenholm, @dtxjoe, @hprynne, Vanity Fair, The Atlantic Wire, Mashable, Mediaite, Pressing Issues, @freedomofpress, The New York Observer, Hollywood Reporter, Democracy Now, The Wrap, Yahoo! News, Politico, @tobyharnden, @ariannahuff, The Maddow Blog, @buzzfeedandrew, @ggreenwald, @trevortimm, @chrisgeidner, @zekejmiller and @adamserwer

Ben Smith / BuzzFeed:

Missing Michael Hastings — One of the great reporters of his generation died Tuesday at 33. The stories he wrote, and the ones he didn't live to write. — Michael Hastings was really only interested in writing stories someone didn't want him to write — often his subjects; occasionally his editor.

Discussion: Slate, Poynter, FishbowlDC, Business Insider, BBC, KTLA 5, Rolling Stone, msnbc.com, Guardian and The Huffington Post

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Michael Hastings - journalists pay tribute to ‘fearless’ war correspondent — Reporter who was killed in a car accident on Tuesday had little time for ‘spinmeisters’ and an incredible instinct, say colleagues — Tributes have poured in for the award-winning journalist and war correspondent …

Discussion: The Week, FishbowlNY, BuzzFeed, Mediashift, Rolling Stone and Business Insider

Adam Haigh / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Spinoff Falls in Sydney After Murdoch Split — News Corp. (NNC), the Wall Street Journal publisher spun off by Rupert Murdoch, fell in its Sydney debut as stock in the billionaire's newspaper assets started trading separately in a split from his entertainment businesses.

Discussion: Guardian, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter, HeraldSun, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, TheAustralian and Business Spectator

Guardian: Rupert Murdoch donates $50,000 in memory of late correspondent

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch splits empire but keeps faith in tomorrow's newspapers

Discussion: Big News Network.com

Beth Healy / The Boston Globe:

At least 8 potential purchasers may give offers to Times Co. — At least eight potential buyers, ranging from former newspaper executives with local roots to private equity investors from the West Coast, are weighing bids for The Boston Globe as the June 27 deadline for submitting offers approaches …

Discussion: Media Nation, FishbowlNY, Poynter and The Huffington Post

Thomas Beller / Page-Turner:

The Ongoing Story: Twitter and Writing — I was in the Time magazine archives recently, doing research for my biography of J. D. Salinger, when I pulled open a drawer and found a small box containing a bunch of discarded typewriter heads for the I.B.M. Selectric typewriter—the cutting-edge writing technology of my youth.

Discussion: @robinsloan and @qhardy

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

U.K. Regulator Launches Review of BT Competition Complaint Against BSkyB — The telecom giant has argued that the pay TV company, in which Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. owns 39 percent, has abused its market power in sports channel carriage talks. — U.K. media regulator Ofcom said Wednesday …

Discussion: Guardian and Reuters

Ben Woods / The Next Web:
BT chief steps down to take UK government role as Sky Sports battle intensifies

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Apple TV Finally Gets HBO GO And WatchESPN, iTunes Shoppers Now Buying 800K TV Shows Per Day — Apple has added two major new content sources to Apple TV today, via HBO GO and WatchESPN integration. The new streaming services adds a considerable selection of content to the company's streaming …

Discussion: Apple, CNET, AllThingsD, AdAge, Broadcasting & Cable, Home Media Magazine, Variety, GigaOM, The Next Web and The Verge

John Reynolds / Guardian:

P Diddy to launch cable music channel Revolt TV — US hip-hop star aims to fill gap left when MTV stopped playing music videos with the ‘first channel of the social media age’ — Sean “P Diddy” Combs is to launch a cable music channel, Revolt TV, which he claims will be the …

Discussion: Business Insider and @peterlauria3

Reuters:

Dish abandons Sprint bid for now to focus on Clearwire — (Reuters) - Dish Network Corp said it would not make a new offer to buy No. 3 U.S. wireless provider Sprint Nextel in time for a Tuesday deadline and will instead focus on its tender offer for Clearwire Corp.

Discussion: Multichannel.com, AllThingsD, VentureBeat, The Verge and Engadget

Jason Deans / Guardian:

ITV buys US production company Thinkfactory Media — UK broadcaster continues US spree, paying £19m for 65% stake in producer behind Kevin Costner drama Hatfields & McCoys — ITV has made its third foray into the US TV production sector, paying $30m (£19m) …

Discussion: The Wrap, C21Media, men, Telegraph, Hollywood Reporter, screendaily.com and Variety

Josh Sternberg / Digiday:

How PBS Won at Digital — Millions of Americans can point to PBS as a third parent, as the network that helped raise them with programs like “Sesame Street” and “Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood.” — But PBS is not immune to the transition from analog to digital and needs to continually reinvent itself.

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

The Advance Publications name game — The old Newhouse Pledge and the company's corporate shuffle — The Oregonian is about to get Newhouse'd. — As the billionaires' Advance Publications has rolled out its newspaper-liquidation plan across the country, it has engaged in a curious bit of corporate name-shuffling.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Feedly Cloud Goes Live To Replace Google Reader's Backend, Power New Web Version Of Feedly's App — In 10 days, Google's RSS feed-reading service Google Reader will shut down for good. In its wake, developers working on products in the RSS ecosystem have been stepping up to deliver apps, tools and other services to fill the void.

Discussion: Building Feedly, CNET, VentureBeat and The Next Web

Ted Johnson / Variety:

Time Warner Cable Sued Over Spending on Lakers, Dodgers Rights — Class-action filing claims sports costs will be passed on to consumers — Time Warner Cable is being hit with a class action suit by four Southern California pay TV subscribers, who claim that the $11 billion the cable operator …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and Deadline.com