Social media is better at creating viewership for new shows than for existing ones, according to a new study by the Council for Research Excellence and the Keller Fay Group. Other tidbits of note from the survey: 37% of respondents used social media in connection with TV one or more times weekly.

Instead of the traditional "three-day party," the cable industry's annual meet -- the National Cable & Telecommunications Assn. convention -- in Washington, D.C., "may be a bit more somber as there are some big clouds on the horizon" for the biz, writes Joe Flint. He details them -- from the high cost of programming to the threat of more government regulation.

The New York Post just laid off a total of 13 employees,  all in editorial, according a source cited by Capital New York. Among those who lost their jobs:  Brooklyn court reporter Mitch Maddux and staff writer Pedro Oliveira Jr.

"The iPad now accounts for 56% of all magazine ad units sold across print and iPad (at least for those surveyed)," in the first quarter, with ad sales on that device up by almost 25% during that time period, writes Mashable's Lauren Indvik. Tablet devices have also benefited subscription numbers; since the launch of the iPad Mini, "paid electronic subscriptions for Hearst magazines [have] skyrocketed," writes Gabriel Kahn."Maybe all the publishing business really needed was the right device to reconnect the reader with the content in the right way. Of course, that's …

News Corp. is considering paying as much as $850 million -- or maybe into the billions --to settle the U.S’s case against the company for violations of the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, reports Michael Wolff.  The charges by the U.S. Justice Department relate to the 2011 phone hacking scandal involving News Corp’s Sun and News of the Worldnewspapers.  The Rupert Murdoch-controlled company is said to want the settlement to occur after June 28, the date when it splits into two distinct entities separating its newspaper properties from the rest of its entertainment empire.  It is also trying to ensure that …

Yesterday's rally to protest the firing of the Chicago Sun-Times photo department drew about 150 picketers and this quote from laid-off Pulitzer-Prize-winning photog John H. White about replacing his work with iPhone photos: “I don’t think it’s the right tool.You don’t go into surgery with a tool that could do a little bit of everything.”

Motorola said it settled its patent suit with TiVo for undisclosed terms. The trial would have otherwise begun Monday.

It's an almost-summer Friday, great time for leisurely speculation about who will be the next dead body on "Mad Men," now gearing up for its finale in three weeks. Will it be Megan, who was recently shown wearing a T-shirt like the one the doomed Sharon Tate wore in the '60s -- or, according to Jen Chaney's theory, Betty?

"While readers have enthusiastically embraced digital publishing, the book industry itself has continually dragged its heels," writes Rachel Edidin in this thoughtful analysis of the heel-dragging syndrome. Revealing anecdote: when Edidin asks a publicist at Book Expo America if she can get a digital version of the hardcover book the publicist is offering, "she stares at me like I’ve just asked her to strip down in the middle of the Javits Center."

Magazines featuring movie actresses on their covers are no longer a big draw at newsstands, with reality show and TV and music stars replacing film folks on best-selling issues,  contends magazine editors. (And we remember when the big deal was movie stars replacing regular models on the cover of fashion pubs -- seems like a very looong time ago.)