While cable news was key to the coverage of the quake/tsunami, its viewership has actually declined significantly -- down 13.7% overall, and 16% in prime time. This is the first time all three major cable news networks have seen downturns in a dozen years, according to he Project for Excellence in Journalism's annual State of the News Media report.

Hearst's hiring of former Rodale exec David Kang as its first creative director for content extensions signals the company's intention to build new products "on top of existing print and digital titles," writes Paid Content's David Kaplan. For example, Kaplan notes, there's the concept of the "bookazine," a hybrid that can be a one-off title like the Hearst-produced Light & Delish, which was derived from cooking site Delish.

Time's James Poniewozik turned on the TV early this morning to find most news and broadcast networks, along with The Weather Channel, "wall-to-wall in coverage" of the Japanese earthquake and the Pacific tsunami. "One puzzling exception" -- at least before 9:15 a.m. EST, when he posted the story -- was MSNBC, which aired its regular morning programs. Poniewozik also wonders how U.S. news shows -- many of which have "gutted overseas bureaus, including those in Asia" -- can cover the story in any depth.

In light of NPR's many issues -- from federal funding challenges to fund-raising scandals, the most recent of which occurred yesterday -- how can a new CEO turn things around? Poynter's Mallary Jean Tenore surveys a variety of sources from NPR and member stations, who provide some thoughtful responses. Among those specifying what any new CEO's resume should look like was NPR Special Correspondent Susan Stamberg, who "advocated for a new CEO who understands the digital world and has a healthy respect for the complications of broadcasting."

Gigaom's Ryan Lawler analyzes the "double-edged sword" of Hulu's becoming more independent of major media stakeholders, in light of reports that Disney CEO Bob Iger and News Corp. COO Chase Carey might leave Hulu's board of directors.

On the other hand, blogger Doc Searls castigates TV network Web sites for offering no live coverage of the disaster. "Earthquake turns TV networks into print" is the headline for this post, which sums up its main point -- that "emergencies such as wars and earthquakes demonstrate a simple and permanent fact of media life: that the Net is the new TV and the new radio, because it has subsumed both. It would be best for both TV and radio to normalize to the Net and quit protecting their old distribution systems."

As part of its spin-off its Rainbow Media business, Cablevision Systems said it will rename the company AMC Networks Inc., to "capitalize on... strong brand awareness" of the name, according to Josh Sapan, who will become president and CEO of the new public company after serving a long stint as Rainbow's head.

The interactivity that tablet devices bring to magazine reading is not always a good thing because it often takes readers away from the publication itself, according to a study done by publisher Bonnier and its ad agency CP&B. Readers of iPad magazines are "actually bouncing around a lot more than we thought," said Megan Miller, research and development program director at Bonnier, in an Ad Age report on the study.

Three editorial staffers have quit Rupert Murdoch's tablet newspaper The Daily since it launched last month -- and "three makes a trend," according to Adweek's Lucia Moses. Latest to go was staff critic Heather Havrilesky. The first defector, political reporter Jon Ward, "took pains to say his short tenure shouldn't reflect poorly on The Daily," with a quote noting that "The Daily is run by some awesome people," and that he "simply was presented -- out of the blue -- with a difficult choice between two really great options."

Poynter publishes in full a letter from Newsday publisher Fred Groser to his staff detailing the changes the Long Island newspaper will make next week. The updates include everything from a revised cover design to an additional 2,600 pages of content for the year, expanded business and op-ed sections, and "more of the NYC news that is important to Long Islanders."