Morning Links: Kevin Spacey Will Haunt HBO, Showtime, AMC and More

Al Gore and Andrew Wylie teamed up to ditch Penguin and Rodale for the former veep's future tome, still untitled. It's the first book acquired by Jonathan Meacham as Random House executive editor, his post-Newsweek move. [Keith Kelly]

WWD asks glossy editors why they came back to print after leaving for online-only projects. Sample response: "The whole print model allows me to have 30 women who trawl the market who find the best espadrilles for spring." [WWD]

Self magazine has "like-gated" some of their April content, which means you can only access it if you "like" Self on Facebook. Can't a person buy service content from a place of secret shame and self-loathing anymore? Also, Tom Wallace says all Conde Nast magazines will be trained in "Adobe Software" by year end. [WWD]

HarperCollins will make public libraries "renew" their e-books every 26 check-outs. [New York Times]

Netflix is very close to buying "House of Cards," an original series directed by David Fincher and starring Kevin Spacey, effectively making the web-only rental company a web-only subscription cable network. This is every television broadcaster's worst nightmare. It's also one of our worst nightmares! Kevin Spacey! So creepy. [New York Times, Deadline]

TechCrunch is backpedaling slightly over that "AOL Asks Us to Tone it Down" stunt yesterday. Oh, nevermind, they just want the Editor in Chief of Moviefone to be fired or resign in shame, not CEO Tim Armstrong. [TechCrunch]

Katie Couric will probably have a syndicated TV show in 2012, just in time to make infamous whatever nut jobs the next election churns out. She's being advised by former NBC honchos Ed Wilson and Jeff Zucker and it looks like NBC is the frontrunner for distribution. [Broadcasting and Cable]

kstoeffel@observer.com :: @kstoeffel