Before Pretty Little Liars was an award-winning hit on ABC with its own spin-off,  it was the brainchild of YA writer Sara Shepard. The prolific scribe managed to publish over 20 books in eight years and get two of her series optioned as TV shows. In the latest installment of Mediabistro’s So What Do You Do?, Shepard tells how her series ended up on the screen and what she thinks of the TV incarnations of Pretty Little Liars and Lying Game. 

“Pretty Little Liars I’m really satisfied with. Pretty Little Liars more sticks to what the books are,” she said. “[The TV writers] take their own liberties, and sometimes their ideas are just great. Sometimes I’m like, “Oh, why didn’t I think of that?” So that’s always really fun. But, I mean, it’s just pretty amazing to see it on TV at all. Even if it wouldn’t have lasted a season, it still would have been this pretty incredible thing.”

For more, read So What Do You Do, Sara Shepard, Author of Pretty Little Liars?

The media ice has turned out to be particularly slippery this week.

On Twitter last night during Game 4 of the Kings-Sharks series, Kevin & Bean co-host Kevin Ryder posted a very unfortunate guest tweet @LAKings for which he later apologized. Brad Pitt meanwhile in the pages of the upcoming June/July issue of Esquire is doing himself no favors by once again giving the voracious celebrity news blogosphere misdirect-coverage ammo about his marriage to Jennifer Aniston.

Finally, today on ESPN Radio’s The Herd with Colin Cowherd, Golf Channel reporter Steve Sands called in from London to recount how shocked he and everyone else in the room was Tuesday when Sergio Garcia answered the reporter’s question with an offensive joke about Tiger Woods. Garcia has since apologized, twice.

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Do you have the New York Times Best Seller list memorized? Do you have a passion for books and want to get into the publishing business?

In this episode of “Score That Job,” career expert, author and mediabistro editor Vicki Salemi sat down with Andrea Weinzimer of Hachette Book Group to get the inside dirt on what they’re looking for in a candidate.

Here a few tips — know the industry and know which authors they publish (hint: rhymes with James Patterson, Nicholas Sparks, David Sedaris…). Or just watch the video.

You can view our other MediabistroTV productions on our YouTube Channel.

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Sources: ESPN Laying Off Hundreds (Deadspin)
ESPN laid off a portion of its staff Tuesday, a network spokesman confirmed to us. How many? ESPN won’t say. A tipster told us earlier that it would be more than 400 staffers. A source at ESPN said that number is a little high, but it appears to be in the hundreds. FishbowlNY An ESPN spokesperson emailed to tell us that they hadn’t cut 400 staffers. When we asked how many were let go, “We’re not getting into particulars but it is fewer than 400″ was all we got back. USA Today / Big Lead Sports According to an ESPN source, the layoffs will come mostly, but “not exclusively,” from tech and sales departments (think regional offices: Denver, Las Vegas, Seattle). ESPN is reviewing its entire studio production department over the next three-to-four weeks, which is about 2,800 employees. It is possible some shows will be cut. These layoffs are part of a Disney-wide process. THR News of layoffs comes less than two weeks after Disney’s media networks segment rose 6 percent to $4.96 billion, with operating income up 8 percent to $1.86 billion. One of the company’s most consistently lucrative properties, ESPN has enjoyed increased affiliate revenue in 2013.

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Congrats to all finalists (so far) for the LA Press Club’s 55th annual SoCal Journalism Awards, to be presented at the Biltmore Hotel Sunday June 23. In perusing the honor rolls, here are some of the categories that most intrigued us:

Journalist of the Year – Print (Over 50,000 Circulation):

The name we were not completely familiar with – alongside those of Gustavo Arellano (OC Weekly), Matthew Belloni (THR), Gene Maddaus (LA Weekly) and Matthew Garrahan (Financial Times) – is U-T San Diego’s Fred Dickey (no relation to TMZ managing editor Josh). Even if this Dickey wins, he will still have a tough road to hoe in that department at home. According to his website bio, microbiologist wife Kathleen has lent her name to nine U.S. patents.

Journalist of the Year – Online

These are dark days for Patch, with a conference call last Friday as reported by Romenesko revealing more rough tactical agenda items. But here in SoCal, the sun is shining on Rancho Santa Margarita local editor Martin Henderson. He is nominated in this category together with Dennis Romero (LA Weekly), Dylan Howard (Celebuzz), Chris Hedges (Truthdig) and Catherine Green (Neon Tommy). This guy has paid his dues, winning his first journalism award in high school and starting at the LA Times all the way back in1990.

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The devil really is in the details. When a stranger entered the LA home of Eddy Salazar in the spring of 2011 – in broad daylight, the writer and star of the upcoming psychological drama The Insomniac was struck by the intruder’s wardrobe.

“The man was wearing a button-down shirt and pants, dressed as if he was coming home from work,” Salazar tells FishbowlLA. “The cops later told me experienced thieves dress like that to blend in with the neighborhood.”

“That’s one of the angles we explore in The Insomniac,” he continues, referring to the resulting film set to premiere at Hollywood’s Chinese Theatres on June 6 as part of the Dances With Films festival. “Anyone can just waltz into your home and dramatically change your life in one quick second. And it’s usually the more inconspicuous individuals.”

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The front page of today’s LA Times business section is going to grate a little at the CAA, WME and ICM coffee table end. Above the fold is a reminder from entertainment reporter Daniel Miller of what UTA has and they don’t… yet.

The spectacular state-of-the-art 165-seat screening room, unveiled last fall at UTA’s new Civic Center Drive headquarters in Beverly Hills, has been put to frequent daily use. Via email, the writer-director of the very first feature shown had this to say to Miller:

“It was fun because the room has perfect sound and picture, the decor is beautiful but not gaudy and it does not have the ghosts of a thousand bad movies,” Judd Apatow said in an email.

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The FADER prides itself on being first on the scene when it comes to up-and-coming artists and music trends. Among the musicians who got their first mag covers at The FADER include Kanye West, MIA, The Strokes, Drake, Bon Iver, Frank Ocean and more. The magazine also holds the distinction of being the first publication to be distributed as a PDF through iTunes.

“We’re always interested in hearing more ideas from outside of our immediate field of vision. If you live outside of New York City and something unusual is happening local to you, that is what’s exciting,” said editor-in-chief Matthew Schnipper. “We’re interested in what we wouldn’t know about otherwise.”

For more, read How To Pitch: The FADER.

The full version of this article is exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

The numbers are already pretty staggering.  The Internet Archive has grown since its launch in 1996 to encompass more than three million daily users and over 300 billion bits of video, music, book content and more.

Now, thanks to a $1 million grant from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, the TV portion of this San Francisco-headquartered archive will be greatly expanding. From this morning’s announcement:

Available at no charge, the public can use the index of searchable text and short-streamed clips to explore TV news. In this way, they can discover important resources, better understand context, verify facts and share insights. The research service does not facilitate downloading, but individuals have the opportunity view whole programs at the Internet Archive’s library in San Francisco or borrow them on DVD-ROMs…

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Fox News: ‘We Will Unequivocally Defend’ Rosen Against ‘Chilling’ DOJ Investigation (TVNewser)
Fox News executive VP of news Michael Clemente released the following statement on Monday to TVNewser with regard to James Rosen being targeted by the Department of Justice: “We are outraged to learn [Monday] that James Rosen was named a criminal co-conspirator for simply doing his job as a reporter. In fact, it is downright chilling. We will unequivocally defend his right to operate as a member of what up until now has always been a free press.” FishbowlNY According to court documents, the DOJ used Rosen’s Justice Department security badge to watch when he came and went from the State Department, acquired a search warrant for his personal emails, and monitored his phone calls with a government advisor suspected of leaking intelligence. The New Yorker / News Desk Rosen was not charged with any crime, but it is unprecedented for the government, in an official court document, to accuse a reporter of breaking the law for conducting the routine business of reporting on government secrets. TVNewser The AP made waves last week after it was revealed that the DOJ targeted the personal and professional phone lines of hundreds of journalists in an apparent attempt to determine who leaked information. Slate They’re going after him not as a witness to a crime — nor as a pressure tactic to get him to give up his source (in this case, the source has already been caught) — but rather, in the words of a Justice Department affidavit, as “an aider, an abettor, and/or a co-conspirator.” In short, as someone who might be indicted under the Espionage Act. This has never happened in this country. (Even in the Pentagon Papers case, several newspapers were served injunctions not to publish stories, but no reporter or editor was ever investigated, much less tried, as a co-conspirator.) If the prosecutors go through with their threat, the entire enterprise of national security journalism — which inherently involves uncovering secrets, to some degree — will be in jeopardy. Politico / Politico 44 White House press secretary Jay Carney wouldn’t comment Monday on the ongoing national security leaks case involving Rosen, after a weekend news report detailing the Justice Department’s surveillance of him. “I can’t comment on an ongoing criminal investigation, nor should I,” Carney said in response to one of several questions on the case, offering a similar answer each time.

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