Mediagazer: Tories ask why left-wing blogger with ‘little journalism experience’ made Newsnight economics correspondent (Dominic Ponsford/Press Gazette)

10:20 AM ET, March 17, 2014

Top News:

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

New cash, new questions for Business Insider — Business Insider, one of the sites at the forefront of creating a native digital publishing model, happily announced the other day an additional investment of $12 million, bringing its total to about $30 million.

Discussion: @rorybrown, @michaelwolffnyc, @sarahkendzior, @moorehn, @gregory, @losowsky, @danprimack, @mathewi, @jeffmacke, @raju, @jackshafer, @zerohedge, @jeffjohnroberts, @carr2n and @jayrosen_nyu, Thanks:@steverubel

Chris O'Brien / Los Angeles Times:

Subject of Newsweek Bitcoin story hires lawyer, “unconditionally” denies its accuracy — Dorian S. Nakamoto hires lawyer to ‘clear his name’ of bitcoin claim — Dorian Satoshi Nakamoto of Temple City, the man recently named by Newsweek as the mysterious creator of bitcoin …

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Consumerist, Mashable, @adrianchen, BuzzFeed, @tyrangiel, @jayrosen_nyu, ReadWrite, The Next Web, Business Insider, New York Magazine, Guardian, TechCrunch and Engadget

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:

UK's Channel 5 to float on stock market for £700M, say sources — Media Boss Desmond Eyes £700m Channel 5 Float — Celebrity Big Brother is a Channel 5 hit — The media tycoon Richard Desmond is considering a stock market flotation of Channel 5 even as bidders firm up offers …

Discussion: Reuters, @markkleinmansky and Variety

Ivor Tossell / The Walrus:

The Story behind the Rob Ford Story — A little-known Supreme Court ruling unmuzzled reporters—and changed Canadian journalism — R OBYN DOOLITTLE could not sleep the night before the Toronto Star broke the story about what happened at the Garrison Ball. Not that she was too busy; the article had already been put to bed.

Discussion: Page-Turner

Alex Weprin / Capital New York:

Sarah Palin plans “Rogue TV” channel on Tapp, the upcoming $10 per month online network — Sarah Palin plans ‘Rogue TV’ — Fox News contributor and former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin will be launching her own digital video channel, tentatively called “Rogue TV,” a source familiar with the project told Capital.

Discussion: Adweek, @zseward, The Wire, Mashable, The Raw Story, Hot Air, Mediaite, Erik Wemple, Talking Points Memo, Politico and The Huffington Post

David Carr / New York Times:

A New Model for Music: Big Bands, Big Brands — I like Doritos as much as the next guy. More, probably. And I admire Lady Gaga for her handcrafted rise to the top of pop culture. In Austin last week, the salty, cheesy wonder of Doritos was brought to you by the sweet, uplifting allure of Lady Gaga.

Discussion: @qhardy

Gerry Shih / Reuters:

Twitter CEO Costolo to make first China visit — (Reuters) - Twitter Inc CEO Dick Costolo will meet Shanghai government officials, academics and students in his first visit to China, signaling Twitter's interest in cracking a lucrative but thorny market with 600 million Internet users.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, PC Advisor, International Business Times, CNET, The Week, The Next Web and Engadget

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Tories ask why left-wing blogger with ‘little journalism experience’ made Newsnight economics correspondent — BBC head of news James Harding has been asked to explain why a left-wing blogger currently working for the TUC who has “little journalistic experience” has been made Newsnight economics editor.

Press Gazette:

BBC breached editorial guidelines by using university students to access North Korea — A BBC Panorama documentary about North Korea which was accused of putting university students at risk has been found in breach of a number of the broadcaster's editorial guidelines by the BBC Trust.

Discussion: Guardian, bbc.co.uk and Forbes

Los Angeles Times:

Who will succeed Disney CEO Robert Iger in 2016? — Media networks executive Anne Sweeney's departure could set up important moves on a corporate chess board as Disney prepares for bigger changes. — Disney executive Anne Sweeney was not considered a top contender for CEO …

Discussion: @mistercoat

Susannah Nesmith / Columbia Journalism Review:

When public officials skirt open meetings laws, what can we do? — With enforcement weak, the best remedy may be to do what The Atlanta Journal-Constitution did: Expose it — MIAMI, FL — When officials in Cobb County, GA, wanted to lure the Atlanta Braves out of Atlanta …

Lisa Campbell / The Bookseller:

UK launch for Nook's self-publishing platform — Nook is set to launch its self-publishing platform Nook Press in the UK at the Oxford Literary Festival this weekend (22nd March). — The digital arm of the American bookseller Barnes & Noble is providing the festival marquee along …

David Meyer / Gigaom:

Vodafone buys Ono for $10B to offer mobile, fixed-line and TV bundles in Spain — As was reported to be likely last week, the British telecoms group Vodafone is to buy the Spanish fixed-line operator Ono for €7.2 billion ($10 billion). — Vodafone recently sold its stake in Verizon Wireless …

Discussion: Vodafone, Globe and Mail, Reuters, BBC and TheAustralian

Moisés Chiullan / TechHive:

Why Veronica Mars embraced UltraViolet and angered fans — The campaign to revive Veronica Mars delivered a number of cool things—an enormous number of new Kickstarter users and, lest we forget, a full-length motion picture of a deeply loved TV series that arrived Friday.