Social media -- from paid tweets to an active presence on Facebook and Twitter, to live online chats with actors -- has definitely fueled "Downton Abbey'"s success in the U.S., as this case history makes clear.  Key to the success, according to Kevin Dando, Director of Digital Marketing and Communications at PBS: "We’ve all been lucky because we’ve had an immense amount of sustained content from Masterpiece to help fuel these social media discussions.  Every week people wanted more 'Downton Abbey' content, and Masterpiece has been right there, making it available, from videos, to live chats, to games."

Time Inc.'s Sunset, one of the country's biggest regional pubs, tapped Kitty Morgan as its new editor in chief. Morgan was previously executive editor of Better Homes and Gardens. She replaces interim editor Charla Lawhon, who took over after Katie Tamony was fired after 10 years in the job, reports Keith Kelly.

The Wall Street Journal's luxury glossy, WSJ, is gaining momentum, with an increase in ad pages and frequency, heating up the competititon between this pub and The New York Times' T, which is having its own growing pains (a change in editor, some flat-lining in ad pages). John Koblin goes behind the scenes editorially at the Times, discussing how the Times' new executive editor, Jill Abramson, sees T -- but there's nothing on record from its editor herself. Meanwhile WSJ's editor, Deborah Needleman, explains her philosophy of connecting all the disparate subject matters her pub covers to create "a little …

In its third pass toward developing a single-source metrics system, NBC Universal will task both comScore and Google to create new ways of measuring viewership of this summer's London Olympics across a variety of platforms. Google will be working with special algorithyms, a 3,000-consumer panel and a meter-based system, while comScore's 750-consumer panel will be monitored by self-reporting, meters, and set-top boxes.

Here's an interesting post about journalists using Twitter tweets as an accurate source of news, centered around the timely issue of just who broke the story of Whitney Houston's death. Steve Myers contends that it was not really a Twitter user, after all. Analyzing the tweet said to start the death watch rolling, Myers argues that, on the contrary, "I think it shows – along with the other two early tweets that said Houston had died — how hard it is for journalists to find early, reliable accounts of newsworthy events." Myers also reports on a tool that aims to solve this …

Following in the footsteps of the film and recording industries, the newspaper industry is going on the attack against piracy, reports Lucas Shaw.  Specifically, the Associated Press has sued electronic clipping service Meltwater News, charging it with “illegally taking and profiting from its content.”  Shaw notes that the AP has its own service, NewsRight, which is “intended to strike licensing deals with organizations that want to disseminate AP content.”  Meltwater, according to the AP’s lawsuit “place such a partnership out of reach.”

Aereo, a new startup backed by Barry Diller’s IAC and other investors, plans to launch a service providing New York City over-the-air broadcast stations -- and DVR service -- to mobile devices for $12 a month. You can expect possible legal action from broadcasters, reports Todd Spangler, the main issue being the retransmission fees that cable operators pay to send the same stations out to subscribers, Aereo isn’t planning to pay the broadcasters anything.  Spangler explains the  technical rationale for that.  But we’ll let Diller to get in the last words:  Since broadcast TV has been given government-granted licenses to …

Echoing what it does on its website, Hearst will be adding a shoppable element to its Kindle Fire editions by linking products to Amazon. The publisher will get a cut of sales. Hearst general manager John Loughlin addresses "church and state issues," as one analyst puts it in this post, by noting that "the product suggestions are added after editors make their recommendation, so there’s no interference with the editorial process," writes Lucia Moses. "'We’re not saying to the editor, "You should be reviewing pots and pans,'” he said. 'We’re taking their editorial perspective and applying it to what we …

Following 25 years in prominent executive positions at Conde Nast and about a year as senior advisor for fashion at IMG, Tom Florio has joined another publishing house: Advanstar. Yes, he’s gone over to a trade publisher, writes Russell Adams, where he’ll serve as CEO for the firm’s newly formed fashion group. One of Advanstar’s properties, Adams notes, is the Magic apparel trade show being held this week in Las Vegas. That’s ironic, adds MIN’s Steve Cohen, since New York Fashion Week, where Florio and Vogue always held court, is also underway this week.   Among Florio’s new responsibilities, …

OK, it won't be taking advertising, but its launch is definitely an interesting bit of journalism news, of the can-high-quality-survive kind. We're talking about The Chicagoan, a twice-yearly publication, whose first issue will be available only in select locations like boutiques, salons and restaurants.  It will be dedicated to long-form journalism, such as the piece "Enemies, A Love Story: The oral history of Siskel and Ebert."The Chicagoan will be funded by membership in and donations to a nonprofit association.