In Media Res: The Awl loses publisher; AP gets North Korea bureau; Paste returns

Joe Pompeo
·Media Reporter

Awl gone

: David Cho, the wunderkind publisher who helped Choire Sicha and Alex Balk turn The Awl into a well-trafficked website that advertisers pay to market themselves on, is leaving the small start-up to join Bill Simmons' new sports website, Grantland, as director of business development, the New York Observer reports. "The opportunity at Grantland and to work with Bill and to work with some of the people at ESPN is the only job that ever could have made me even consider leaving what Choire and Alex and myself have built at The Awl," Cho, who is 27, wrote in an email to friends. The good news, for The Awl, is that they've already found a replacement: "I can officially upgrade that new publisher hire from Cho's '99%' to 100%, as in, it is a done deal, and can also reveal that he is 'totally awesome,'" Sicha told The Observer. Sicha would not, however, reveal the publisher's name when The Cutline pestered him on G-chat. "Next week," he assured us, is when the official announcement will go out. Suspense! (Disclosure: The Cutline's editor, Chris Lehmann, has regularly written for The Awl.)

A new taste of Paste: It's been almost a year since the folding of well-loved indie mag Paste, which kept its website afloat even after shuttering its printed version. But the spirit of the paper magazine has returned, via a new weekly digital edition called the Paste mPlayer, which pairs long-form music journalism with video and audio content. "We decided to resurrect the magazine electronically, but rather than just pretending that a computer screen, tablet or mobile device was a piece of paper, we wanted to start from scratch and reinvent what a magazine could be in digital form," said Tim Regan-Porter, Paste's president, in a statement. Paste editor-in-chief Josh Jackson adds: "When we launched the print magazine in 2002, we included the sampler CD so our readers could experience the music we wrote about. The mPlayer takes that original idea to the next level with an intuitive, integrated media experience." Sold? It'll cost you either 99 cents an issue or $36 for a 48-issue yearly subscription.

Minnow to swallow whale?: Are the owners of New York City hyperlocal website DNA Info in line to by the Daily News from Mort Zuckerman? That's what New York Post Media Ink columnist Keith Kelly hears. "That would seem to be akin to a minnow swallowing a whale," Kelly writes. "But consider the fact that DNA Info is bankrolled by the billionaire Ricketts family, which made its fortune in the online brokerage business by founding TD Ameritrade." Zuckerman, for his part, denies the rumor. "I never heard of them. I never met them. I never had dinner with them," he told the veteran Post (and former Daily News) scribe. "The first time I heard of them was when a reporter named Keith Kelly called me up and asked me about them."

AP takes North Korea by storm: The Associated Press is opening a North Korea bureau in the totalitarian nation's capital, Pyongyang. From a press release announcing the news: "It would be the first permanent text and photo bureau operated by a Western news organization in the North Korean capital. Five years ago, AP Television News, headquartered in London, became the first Western news organization to establish an office in North Korea." AP president and CEO Tom Curley said in a statement: "This agreement ... is historic and significant. AP is once again being trusted to open a door to better understanding between a nation and the world. We are grateful for this opportunity and look forward to providing coverage for AP's global audience in our usually reliable and insightful way." You can read more here.