NBC has made a commitment to make Jimmy Fallon, the 38-year-old host of its “Late Night” show, the host of the “Tonight” show and to move the show from Burbank, Calif., back to New York, Bill Carter reports. Mr. Fallon would succeed Jay Leno, who will turn 63 next month and whose show still regularly leads the late-night ratings. The change would by fall 2014 at the latest. NBC has been desperate to avoid acrimony that often surrounds one of the biggest changes in late-night television; their attempt to replace Mr. Leno with Conan O’Brien three years ago ended with recriminations and a reversal, as Mr. Leno was reinstated and NBC endured weeks of negative coverage.
The Advertising Council and Connect2Compete, a nonprofit group dedicated to eliminating digital illiteracy in the United States, are introducing a public service campaign to help those on the wrong side of the digital divide find free classes to learn relevant new skills, Jane L. Levere writes. The campaign will reach out to what the chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, Julius Genachowski, said were the approximately 100 million people, mostly low-income families and minorities, who still do not have broadband in their homes. Ads will appear on television, radio and outdoors, and will feature a toll-free telephone number and texting service that provides information about free classes nearby after callers send their ZIP codes.
The new Big East college athletic conference chose an appropriate location for the its first party, given that its seed money is coming from Fox Sports 1: the Manhattan headquarters of News Corporation. On Wednesday, in the Fox News studio where “The Five” is produced, leaders from the seven Catholic universities that left the Big East gathered for a news conference with officials from Butler, Creighton and Xavier, their newly added conference mates, Richard Sandomir reports. The Big East presidents took a big risk two years ago when they rejected an ESPN contract for $140 million a year. Starting this season, the 10 colleges will share in a 12-year, $500 million contract with Fox Sports 1, a sum that will rise to $600 million if, as expected, the league expands to 12 members.
Critics of the government of the rightist Hungarian prime minister, Viktor Orban, are decrying what they call bald attempts by his party to control the news media, judiciary, central bank and education, Dan Bilefsky reports. A long clash between Klubradio, a radio station that is often critical of Mr. Orban’s government, and Hungary’s news media council, which hands out frequencies to radio stations and is stocked with Orban supporters, is a primary example of the conflict; the station’s license was renewed last week after years of contention. Mr. Orban’s restrictive news media law has come under fire from the European Commission, news media watchdog groups and the Council of Europe. Government officials assert that since nearly 75 percent of Hungarian media is foreign-owned the idea of government control is ludicrous.
The computer networks of three major South Korean banks and the country’s two largest broadcasters were frozen Wednesday in cyberattacks that some experts suspect came from North Korea, Choe Sang-hun writes. The attacks, which left South Korean news crews staring at blank computer monitors and many people unable to withdraw money from ATMs, originated from an Internet provider with a Chinese address but the responsible party was still unknown, the Korea Communications Commission said. Many analysts speculate that North Korean hackers hone their skills in China, but their is little evidence to back them up.
Facebook’s Graph Search is a new tool that lets users search via phrase rather than keyword, and can turn up some interesting results if used correctly. Paul Boutin writes about how to make the most of the new tool.
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