Mediagazer: Apple-Comcast TV Pact? Don't Hold Your Breath (Andrew Wallenstein/Variety)

7:55 PM ET, March 24, 2014

Top News:

Ben Richardson quits Bloomberg News over handling of investigative piece — Ben Richardson has resigned from Bloomberg News after 13 years to protest editors' handling of an investigative piece reported from China - a story that the bosses feared would get them expelled from the country.

Discussion: Mediaite, Politico, The Huffington Post, @edbott, @sanammkhi, @eisingerj, @jimsciutto, @ryanchittum and Talking Biz News

Hunter Walker / Business Insider:

Meet Business Insider's Newest Political Columnist — Anthony Weiner — Business Insider is very pleased to announce former New York City mayoral candidate and Congressman Anthony Weiner will be contributing a new monthly column to our politics page. — The new column, which will be titled …

Ronald Grover / Reuters:

Exclusive: Disney to buy YouTube network Maker Studios for $500 million — (Reuters) - The Walt Disney Co has agreed to buy Maker Studios for $500 million, becoming a major online video distributor through the purchase of one of YouTube's largest networks, according to a person familiar with the deal.

Discussion: The Wrap, Re/code, Gigaom, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Hollywood Reporter, Los Angeles Times, TIME, Variety and Mashable

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

Bob Iger: ‘Work Ethic, Intellect and Curiosity’ Helped Ben Sherwood Land Top Disney Job — It was no knee-jerk appointment: Bob Iger's decision to name ABC News chief Ben Sherwood as Anne Sweeney's successor atop Disney/ABC TV Group had been in the works for nine months. as far as Iger was concerned.

Discussion: TVNewser, Radio & Television …, The Wrap, Forbes and Mediaite

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:
Ben Sherwood To Succeed Anne Sweeney As Disney/ABC Television Group President, ABC's Paul Lee Closing In On New Contract

Discussion: Business Wire, AdAge, The Wrap, Variety, MediaPost, New York Times, Los Angeles Times, @rosslevinsohn, Capital New York and @piersmorgan

Jason Abbruzzese / Mashable:

Bloomberg hires Inside.com CCO Gabriel Snyder and ex-AOL Live president Nathan Richardson — Bloomberg Media Makes First Moves Toward New Digital Products — Justin Smith has taken the first major steps in his revamp of Bloomberg Media with the hiring of former AOL Live president Nathan Richardson …

Discussion: @katies, @edmundlee, @justin_b_smith, @felixsalmon, @gabrielsnyder, FishbowlNY, Capital New York and The New York Observer

Joseph Lichterman / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Back to the newsroom: A new program lets professors go back to the thick of today's news work — Before joining the faculty of Savannah State University last year to teach multimedia journalism, Jessica Sparks had spent her career working for local, community news organizations like Bluffton Today …

Discussion: @raju

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Apple-Comcast TV Pact? Don't Hold Your Breath — A long history of failed dealmaking should cast doubt on this one working out — The mere prospect that Apple and Comcast could be joining forces for a new joint TV service, as the Wall Street Journal first reported Sunday, has revived a fresh round of hyperventilation.

Discussion: Guardian, Broadcasting & Cable, Globe and Mail, Washington Post, Forbes, Businessweek, Bloomberg View, CNNMoney.com and VideoNuze Analysis

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix Shares Tumble Following Apple-Comcast Report

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter

Wall Street Journal:
Apple in Talks with Comcast About Streaming-TV Service

Nitsuh Abebe / New York Magazine:

Watching Team Upworthy Work Is Enough to Make You a Cynic. Or Lose Your Cynicism. Or Both. Or Neither. — Rebecca Eisenberg, an editor for the viral website Upworthy, works from the back of her Jersey City apartment, surrounded by Star Trek posters, felt Muppet versions of herself …

Discussion: @dgardner, @erikmal, @codybrown, @raju, @pkafka, @kyliesobel, @agolis, @mischa, @keder, The Hairpin, @thewayoftheid, @amy_lombard, @kevinroose, @mattyglesias, @jayrosen_nyu, @ezraklein, @elipariser, @timoreilly, @defcon_5, @megsokay, @asmantz, @elanazak and @gabestein

Tim Peterson / AdAge:

The Verge hires Matthew Schnipper as deputy Managing Editor to oversee longform and culture — Don't call it a tech blog. Vox Media's The Verge may be best known for its Apple event liveblogs and product design deep-dives, but the site has also reviewed films like “Divergent” and reported on the U.S. military's toxic burn pits.

Discussion: @joshuatopolsky, @mattschnipper and FishbowlNY

Kara Swisher / Re/code:
Nilay Patel, No Longer Managing Editor of The Verge, Moves to Vox.com

Discussion: @reckless and @mathewi

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

BuzzFeed teams up with ex-Gawker editor Neetzan Zimmerman and Whisper for access to its content — BuzzFeed Unites With an Alumnus of Gawker — Neetzan Zimmerman, an editor who rose to prominence at Gawker with an uncanny knack for posting popular news articles and videos …

New York Times:

Journalists Group and Internet Lawyers Challenge Turkey's Ban on Twitter — ANKARA, Turkey — Turkey's leading press organization and two experts in Internet law took legal action Monday to try to overturn a government ban on Twitter, even as the government intensified its efforts to block access to the social media site.

Discussion: ExtremeTech, WorldViews, Mashable and SlashGear

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

iTunes Radio Gets News Radio, Via NPR — When iTunes Radio launched last fall, the service was designed for music fans (and music labels). Now it is branching out: National Public Radio is adding the first news station to Apple's audio streaming service, with more on the way.

Discussion: NPR, VatorNews, VentureBeat, Pocket-lint, @nprrussell, The Next Web, The Verge, App Advice, @waltmossberg, 9to5Mac, MacStories, @btrpkc, TechCrunch, MacRumors, Knight Foundation and Electronista

Bloomberg:

Murdoch-Backed Vice Media Weighs IPO With Gonzo Reports — Vice Media Inc., the company that combines punk culture with online journalism, is poised to double revenue to $1 billion by 2016 and may pursue an initial public offering, co-founder Shane Smith said.

Discussion: @jacobwe, @buzzfeedben, @abeaujon, @rorybrown and @rafat

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Slate to Introduce a Variation on the Paywall — In the hunt for revenue in the digital era, news publications have tried everything from putting up paywalls to soliciting donations. — The digital magazine Slate, nearly two decades old, plans to experiment with a strategy somewhere in between.