Mediagazer: With High Hopes and Deep Pockets, The Times Gambles on NYT Now (Margaret Sullivan/New York Times)

6:35 PM ET, March 11, 2014

Top News:

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

CNN ex-president Jon Klein talks about TAPP, the new online network he's starting with Jeff Gaspin — Jon Klein on His New Online Venture: 'We've Created the Company That I Feared Would Come Along' — Former CNN President Jon Klein and former NBC Universal Chairman Jeff Gaspin announced …

Discussion: Bloomberg

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

CNN, NBCU Alums Jon Klein, Jeff Gaspin Team Up for Online Video Venture — Sarah Palin reportedly target by firm for channel akin to Glenn Beck's TheBlaze — Two of the biggest names sitting on the sidelines in the media business are teaming up for a new online video venture.

Discussion: TVNewser and The Wrap

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Disney TV Shakeup: Anne Sweeney Leaving to Pursue Directing Career — Disney's longtime TV chief Anne Sweeney will leave her post in January 2015 to pursue a career as a television director. — “The past 18 years at Disney have been the highlight of my executive career.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, TVNewser, Mediaite, AdAge, Capital New York, Fortune, @kerrywashington, @peterlauria3, Reuters and TVSpy

Jethro Nededog / The Wrap:
Anne Sweeney Exiting Disney-ABC to Become TV Director

Discussion: Variety

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Disney Ponders the Biggest Big Media YouTube Bet Yet: Buying Maker Studios — Disney has been talking to Maker Studios about an acquisition that would value the YouTube network at $500 million or more, according to people familiar with the negotiations. — A deal isn't guaranteed.

Discussion: Deadline.com, The Wrap, Business Insider, Variety, @insidethemagic and Tubefilter

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Upworthy partners with ProPublica and advocacy media groups on original content — When Upworthy raised an additional $8 million in September of last year, they wrote a blog post thanking their readers and making them a promise. The new funds, they wrote, will “help us branch out into new editorial areas.

Discussion: Guardian, Upworthy Insider, @lheron, @gabrielarana and @niemanlab

Erik Wemple:

John Cook bolts Gawker for the Intercept — John Cook had fun as editor in chief of Gawker. For instance: When he wanted to commandeer a video of Toronto Mayor Rob Ford smoking crack, he fired up a “Crackstarter” campaign that raised $200,000 for the cause. Publicity followed.

Matthew Shaer / New York Magazine:
Raging Against Hacks With Muckraker Turned Magazine-Maker Matt Taibbi

Discussion: @nymag, @kierafeldman, @sarahljaffe, The Corsair and The Raw Story

Margaret Sullivan / New York Times:

With High Hopes and Deep Pockets, The Times Gambles on NYT Now — It could hardly be more clear that The Times has high hopes for its new NYT Now mobile app. — Jill Abramson, the executive editor, unveiled it publicly with considerable fanfare a few days ago at South By Southwest Interactive …

Discussion: @sulliview

John McDermott / Digiday:

Twitter testing ‘click-to-call’ button which allows mobile users to call advertisers directly — Twitter's direct response pitch: a new ‘click-to-call’ button — As part of its continued effort to evolve and broaden its advertising capabilities, Twitter is now touting itself …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @digiday, Street Fight and SocialTimes

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Baljeet Singh, developer of skippable pre-roll ads for YouTube, joins Twitter

Discussion: Marketing Pilgrim, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, @mamoonha, SocialTimes, VentureBeat, Business 2 Community, Silicon Republic and @kevinweil

Tony Haile / TIME:

Chartbeat CEO: “We confuse what people have clicked on for what they've read.” — What You Think You Know About the Web Is Wrong — If you're an average reader, I've got your attention for 15 seconds, so here goes: We are getting a lot wrong about the web these days.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …, @emilysteel, @hiddenbrain, @adamostrow, @magnus_, @clarkgilbert, BuzzMachine, @moore, @neilvoss and @ryanchittum

Peter Kafka / Re/code:
No One's Looking at Your Native Ads, Either

Discussion: @themediaisdying and @lererventures

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:

Gawker Demands Dismissal of Quentin Tarantino Lawsuit — The news site says that reading a screenplay is not a copyright infringing act. — Gawker is asking a California federal judge to reject a lawsuit filed by Quentin Tarantino over a leak of the director's unproduced script Hateful Eight.

Discussion: Plagiarism Today, Variety, Deadline.com, Home on Entertainment, Guardian, FishbowlNY and The Wrap

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Obama bypasses traditional media again in interview with Zach Galifianakis, showing how to take advantage of fractured landscape — Obama will sit down with celebrities but not The Washington Post — President Obama's interview with Zach Galifianakis, a plug for Healthcare.gov …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, ABC News, The Fix, TechCrunch, NPR and Talking Points Memo

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Men's Journal contributing editor Matthew Power dies on assignment in Uganda — Matthew Power dies in Uganda — Matthew Power has died while reporting in Uganda, Outside reports on its Facebook page: — Post by Outside Magazine. — Power was a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine …

Discussion: Nieman Storyboard, Longform, FishbowlNY, Associated Press, New York Magazine, @andrewburton, @williams_paige, @jeffsharlet and @sethmnookin

Katharine Houreld / Reuters:

Swedish journalist shot dead in central Kabul — (Reuters) - A gunman shot dead a Swedish journalist outside a restaurant in a brazen attack in one Kabul's most heavily guarded districts on Tuesday, police and embassy sources said, underscoring growing insecurity threatening next month's elections.

Discussion: New York Times, Guardian, Washington Post, Poynter, BBC, Sydney Morning Herald and NPR

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Gawker's Nick Denton Says BuzzFeed is ‘Pointless.’ Also a ‘Perfect Competitor.’ — Convenes a Company Meeting on Kinja Platform — Gawker Media founder Nick Denton used his company's own commenting platform to field a virtual company meeting on Tuesday, taking questions on the company's competition …

Discussion: Talking Points Memo and FishbowlNY

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Jimmy Kimmel: It's ‘easy’ to fool the media — In an interview from Austin, Texas, Peter Kafka asked Jimmy Kimmel about his hoax videos, like the Sochi wolf and the twerking disaster video. — “I've heard people suggest that these will get harder for you to do, because people will catch on.

Discussion: Re/code and @poynter

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks: no one told me about lead on Milly Dowler's whereabouts — Ex-NoW editor tells phone-hacking trial that if she knew about a call suggesting schoolgirl was alive, it would have been big news — No one at the News of the World informed their editor, Rebekah Brooks …

Discussion: Hacked Off and Guardian

Kim Fletcher / British Journalism Review:

Despite longer titles, influence of editors in digital age is inevitably diminishing — A recent sacking reveals an historic change in the traditional structure of the newspaper industry — British newspaper editors rise and fall like football managers, the beneficiaries or victims of proprietorial whim.

Discussion: New York Times and Guardian