Mediagazer: Fusion Taps Ryan Nerz as TV's First Chief Cannabis Correspondent (Andrea Seikaly/Variety)

5:50 PM ET, April 3, 2014

Top News:

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

David Letterman to Retire From CBS in 2015 — Tells studio audience: 'It's been great ... but I'm retiring' — In a move that will complete the generational transition in latenight, David Letterman is preparing to retire from CBS next year. — Letterman is expected to discuss his plan …

Star-Ledger:

Star-Ledger cuts 167 jobs, including 40 newsroom positions — The Star-Ledger, New Jersey's largest daily newspaper, said today it is cutting 170 jobs, including 25 percent of the newsroom staff. (Frances Micklow/The Star-Ledger) — In a grim day of reckoning at the state's largest newspaper …

Discussion: New York Times, Columbia Journalism Review, New Jersey 101.5, Guardian, NorthJersey.com, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, The Alternative Press, pressofAtlanticCity.com, Poynter, Gawker, USA Today and New York Magazine

Associated Press:

US govt secretly created “Cuban Twitter” to stir unrest, sought funding from Jack Dorsey — US secretly created “Cuban Twitter” to stir unrest — WASHINGTON (AP) — In July 2010, Joe McSpedon, a U.S. government official, flew to Barcelona to put the final touches on a secret plan …

Discussion: The Verge, Adweek, The Switch, PandoDaily, Ars Technica, @vivian, @jilliancyork, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Talking Points Memo, International Business Times, Slate, Daily Mail, The Switch, Reuters, CNNMoney.com, BBC, Voice of America, The Technology Chronicles, Associated Press, Engadget, @paullewis, The Week, @zeynep, Opposing Views, @oireachtas_rx, Gigaom, VentureBeat, Vanity Fair, The Voice of Russia, News, Motherboard, WorldViews, @privacyint, @atotalmonet, @malonebarry, VatorNews, @aminespn, RT, Riptide 2.0, Telegraph, Gizmodo, @thekarami, @dougsaunders, Softpedia News, Capital New York, Techdirt, @lindsaycampbell, @zeynep, Gawker, @dan_beeton, dissenter.firedoglake.com, Quartz, TechCrunch, @themurdochtimes, @ashk4n, @drixander, @jpacedc, @texasinafrica, @dandrezner, @bengoldacre, @b_fung, The Independent, @peterlattman and The Awl

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Gawker bans ‘Internet slang’ — “We want to sound like regular adult human beings, not Buzzfeed writers or Reddit commenters,” new Gawker Editor Max Read says in a memo to the publication's writers. Words like “epic,” “pwn” and “derp” are no longer welcome on the site.

Jesse Holcomb / Pew Research Center:

News revenue declines despite growth from new sources — Total revenues supporting American journalism has declined by one-third since 2006, according to a new analysis by Pew Research Center. The sources of the estimated $63-$65 billion dollars supporting print, online and broadcast news has also shifted …

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, Poynter, @sarakgoo, @facttank, @jesseholcomb, @themediaisdying, @christophclarey, @pewjournalism, @pewresearch, @newswhip and @mathewi

Kim Zetter / Wired:

Barrett Brown Signs Plea Deal in Case Involving Stratfor Hack — Barrett Brown, whose case became a cause célèbre after he was charged with crimes related to the Stratfor hack, has agreed to a plea deal with prosecutors, according to court filings.

Discussion: Gawker, @nathantempey, The Verge, @onekade, @youranonnews, @dellcam, Free Barrett Brown, FrontBurner and Daily Dot

David Meyer / Gigaom:

European Parliament passes strong net neutrality law, along with major roaming reforms — European fans of the open internet can breathe a sigh of relief: the European parliament has passed a major package of telecoms law reform, complete with amendments that properly define and protect net neutrality.

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Tribune Buys TV Research Site TV by the Numbers, and Relaunches a TV Portal — Do we need more websites about TV shows? We're getting one anyway — or, at least, a revamped one: Tribune Co. is buying TV ratings site TV By the Numbers, and is using it to relaunch Zap2it.com …

Discussion: Adweek, TVNewser, Variety, Deadline.com, TVbytheNumbers, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, @brianstelter and BroadwayWorld.com

Reuters:

Turkey lifts Twitter ban after court ruling — (Reuters) - Turkey's telecoms authority lifted a two-week-old ban on Twitter on Thursday after the constitutional court ruled the block breached freedom of expression, an official in Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan's office said.

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

Ron Howard, Brian Grazer to Launch Digital Studio with Discovery Communications — Discovery Communications is teaming with Brian Grazer and Ron Howard to launch a digital studio, dubbed New Form. — True to its name, New Form will be focused on creating programming outside the traditional molds …

Discussion: Bloomberg, NetNewsCheck Latest, New York Times, @awallenstein, USA Today, @karaswisher and @awallenstein

Ryan Chittum / Columbia Journalism Review:

Native ads: Advertorial for the digital age — Talking Points Memo, Andrew Sullivan, and advertising as a necessary evil — The native-ad wars have flared up again, this time over Josh Marshall's Talking Points Memo, the longtime standard bearer for serious, digital-first, for-profit news.

Discussion: The Dish and Forbes

Lucia Moses / Digiday:

IBT's new editor: a focus on the “undercovered” parts of the globe — Last week, Peter Goodman started as international editor-in-chief of International Business Times, the site that's been less known for its content than for its founders' controversial religious ties and its parent IBT Media's controversial bitcoin story in Newsweek.

Discussion: @digiday, @petersgoodman and Talking Biz News

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Guardian staffers win top IRE prize for NSA series — The Investigative Reporters & Editors medal for 2014 goes to Glenn Greenwald, Laura Poitras, Ewen MacAskill and others for the Guardian's reports on the NSA, which “revealed a story that continues to reverberate in the United States and across the globe,” the judges say.

Andrea Seikaly / Variety:

Fusion Taps Ryan Nerz as TV's First Chief Cannabis Correspondent — At first blush it sounds like something out of a Cheech & Chong movie, but in fact it's a serious effort. Fusion, the startup cabler run by ABC News and Univision, has named journalist Ryan Nerz as its chief cannabis correspondent.

Discussion: TVNewser, Poynter, Fusion, The Wrap and FishbowlNY

Michael J. de la Merced / New York Times:

Liberty Media to Sell Most of Its Stake in Barnes & Noble — Nearly three years ago, Liberty Media wanted to buy all of Barnes & Noble, before settling for a big stake. Now it appears that the media conglomerate has had enough. — Liberty announced on Thursday that it would divest …

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Forbes, Reuters, Reuters, Bloomberg, Business Wire, Wall Street Journal, USATODAY.com, NASDAQ.com, ABC News, New Jersey 101.5, 24/7 Wall St. and Fox Business

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Digital First isn't a failure of digital publishing or a reason to stop trying to get it right — Lessons from the Digital First implosion — Schadenfreude broke out among some publishers today when Digital First Media killed an ambitious interactive publishing initiative and commenced layoffs …

Discussion: Poynter, @markkatches, @jkrim, Salt Lake Tribune, @mathewi and @carr2n

Ann E. Marimow / Washington Post:

Ex-State Dept adviser Stephen J. Kim sentenced to 13 months for leaking classified information to FOX News — Ex-State Department adviser Stephen J. Kim sentenced in leak case — A former State Department arms expert who leaked classified information to a Fox News reporter was sentenced Wednesday …

Discussion: New York Times, @evanchill, @joshuafoust, @onekade, @rm867 and The Newspaper Guild

Isabel Hülsen / Spiegel Online:

WSJ Editor Gerard Baker: ‘Journalism Is Not a Dying Business’ — ‘Journalism Is Not a Dying Business’ — Interview Conducted By Isabel Hülsen — In an interview, Gerard Baker, the editor in chief of the Wall Street Journal, discusses the wave of billionaires diving head …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Adrianne Jeffries / The Verge:

Leaked NSA documents will be stored in public database — All of the documents detailing the National Security Agency's various surveillance programs released since The Guardian first broke the story back in June are now searchable in a database, the American Civil Liberties Union announced today.

Discussion: ACLU and Engadget

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Those Who Insist Aereo Ruling Won't Impact Cloud Computing Don't Seem To Understand Cloud Computing — A few weeks ago, we wrote about how the Aereo case, which will be heard by the Supreme Court in a few weeks, is likely to have a huge impact on the future of cloud computing, and went into detail to explain why.