Mediagazer: Bundled Cable Channels Are Here to Stay — And That's a Good Thing (Jonathan Wilner/Wired)

11:05 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 …

Lacey Rose / Hollywood Reporter:
CBS Approached John Oliver for Late Night Show as Major Shuffle Looms (Exclusive)

Discussion: @thrmattbelloni and @brianstelter

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, The Huffington Post, The Alternative Press, NorthJersey.com, The Huffington Post, New Jersey 101.5, Associated Press, pressofAtlanticCity.com, Poynter, Gawker, USA Today and New York Magazine

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.

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 …

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 and Talking Biz News

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: Jack Shafer, @themediaisdying, Poynter, PandoDaily, @sarakgoo, @facttank, @pewjournalism, @newswhip, @charlesapple, @pewresearch, @christophclarey, @jesseholcomb 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: @douglaslucas, Guardian, @onekade, The Verge, @dellcam, Gawker, @nathantempey, FrontBurner, @youranonnews, Daily Dot and Free Barrett Brown

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, @emptywheel, The Daily Caller and Engadget

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.

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

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Self Magazine Editor and Publisher Both Exit at Conde Nast — Self magazine's Editor-in-Chief Lucy Danzinger and Publisher Laura McEwen are leaving the title, according to parent company Conde Nast, in a shakeup to a title that has shed print ad pages for the last six straight years.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, WWD Media Headlines and Mediawire Daily

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.

Discussion: Guardian

Bloomberg:

NuvoTV, backed by Jennifer Lopez, to buy Fuse TV for more than $200M, sources say — Jennifer Lopez-Backed NuvoTV Said in Deal to Buy Fuse TV — A cable channel backed by Jennifer Lopez, the pop star and entrepreneur, has reached an agreement to buy Madison Square Garden Co.'s Fuse TV …

Discussion: @unclegrambo

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, The Wrap, TVbytheNumbers, Deadline.com, Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times, BroadwayWorld.com and @brianstelter

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: Poynter, Fusion, TVNewser, The Wrap and FishbowlNY

Jonathan Wilner / Wired:

Bundled Cable Channels Are Here to Stay — And That's a Good Thing — These days, barely a week passes in the U.S. entertainment industry without litigation, legislation, or argumentation over bundling-the practice of offering a “package” of channels instead of the option to buy a la carte.

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.

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Heseltine takes control at Haymarket Publishing as it reports £8m loss — Owner of magazines, including Stuff and Autocar, produces one-off results for 18 months and outlines reorganisation — Lord Heseltine has taken full control of Haymarket Publishing. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian

Committee to Protect Journalists:

CPJ condemns attacks, harassment of Mexican daily — The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns an attack early today on Adrián López Ortiz, general director of the Grupo Noroeste, a media group that owns the daily Noroeste, in the state of Sinaloa.

Discussion: Fox News

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: Medium, @digiday and @petersgoodman