Mediagazer: Bunim-Murray acquired by France's Banijay (James Hibberd/Hollywood Reporter)

9:20 PM ET, March 25, 2010

Top News:

Magazines' New Barker: iPad — Advertisers Gather Around as Publishers Tout Tablet Device's Bells and Whistles — A laundry list of open questions about Apple's iPad isn't keeping magazine publishers and advertisers from lining up for the launch of the tablet computer next week.

Thomas Ricker / Engadget:

WSJ on iPad for $17.99 a month, magazines to be at or near newsstand prices? — The Wall Street Journal is running a piece that focuses on ad sales for the iPad. Pretty boring stuff except for a few nuggets related to the actual content we crave. Rupert Murdoch already confirmed …

Discussion: Digits and Canadian Magazines

Daniel Farey-Jones / Media Week:

From £665m to £1: The changing shape of Britain's modern newspaper business — LONDON - It's been more than 300 years since The Daily Courant became the first recognisable regular British daily newspaper during the reign of Queen Anne in 1702. — Mastheads in ownership moves in recent years

Daniel Finkelstein / Times of London:
Former KGB spy Alexander Lebedev buys Independent for £1

Peter Kirwan / Wired.co.uk:
Why Lebedev's Indy should go digital

Discussion: Guardian, paidContent, Media Week and Brand Republic

Doree Shafrir / Gawker:

How the Michelle ‘Bombshell’ McGee Story Got Made — Everyone was shocked when, last week, In Touch published a cover story about Jesse James' mistress Michelle “Bombshell” McGee. The surprise wasn't that James was having affairs, but that In Touch had gotten the story—and gotten it right.

Roc / Media is a Plural:

Union Busting, Bloomberg Sale Looming at ABC News? — Turmoil continues at troubled ABC News. Morale among employees was already low after president David Westin's recent announcement that their ranks are to be decimated as part of a “new digital day.” — It plunged even further following …

Michael Schneider / On The Air:
Ex-ABC correspondent Rooney: Massive cuts “will have unintended consequences”

Discussion: LA Observed

Jim Romenesko / Romenesko:

Dozier leaves CBS News to become AP's intelligence reporter — AP Washington Bureau Chief Ron Fournier's memo — I'm pleased to announce the AP's new intelligence reporter: Kimberly Dozier. — You may know Kim as the Middle East correspondent for CBS News, where she earned a reputation …

Discussion: Associated Press, The Wire, TVNewser and Michael Calderone's Blog

PATRICK GOLDSTEIN / The Big Picture:

Variety to studios: Stop giving scoops to the competition! — Variety has been making a lot of news lately. Unfortunately, the news has been pretty much all bad. — In case you've just tuned in, the venerable trade paper has suffered one black eye after another in recent weeks.

Discussion: The Wire, Romenesko, Movieline and LA Observed

Roger Ebert / Roger Ebert's Journal:

See you at the movies — Yes, Chaz and I are still going ahead with our plans for a new movie review program on television. No, Wednesday's cancellation of “At the Movies” hasn't discouraged us. We believe a market still exists for a weekly show where a couple of critics review new movies.

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters, From Inside the Box, rbr.com, The Huffington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, TV Guide Magazine, ArtsBeat and New York Magazine

Hollywoodreporter / The Live Feed | THR:
Long-running review show ‘At the Movies’ canceled

Discussion: The Wire, The Hollywood Reporter, MTV Movies Blog, Company Town, Tower Ticker, The Wrap, Tuned In, ArtsBeat, Thompson on Hollywood, Perez Hilton and New York Magazine

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Newsonomics of online ad spending, and its costs — [Each week, our friend Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of the news business for the Lab.] — It's a complaint we've long heard in the newspaper industry …

Discussion: CJR, Reflections of a Newsosaur, eMedia Vitals, FishBowlNY, MediaPost, The Wire and Media News

Xiao Qiang / chinadigitaltimes.net:

The Ministry of Truth Limits Reporting on Google in China 03/23/10 (Updated) — In China, several political bodies are in charge of Internet content control. At the highest level, there is the Central Propaganda Department, which ensures that media and cultural content follows the official line as mandated by the CCP.

Discussion: Digital Daily, DailyFinance, RConversation, Washington Post, Mashable! and Wall Street Journal

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

TMZ Insider Sues Over Drugs, Alcohol in Newsroom — A former TMZ producer has filed a lawsuit against the site, claiming he was fired for complaining about alcohol and drug use by other staffers on the job after he returned from a medical leave for depression.

Discussion: Romenesko, Gawker and The Wire

Arn / MacRumors:

CBS.com Prepping HTML5 Video Playback for iPad — With the imminent arrival of the Apple iPad, it seems at least one major television network is updating their website to provide video playback support for new tablet device — without Flash. CBS.com's website began displaying a couple of strange …

Discussion: The Other Mac Blog, Lifehacker, NewTeeVee, MediaPost, Fast Company, ReadWriteWeb and Gizmodo

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

The Photo Tool That Could Shake Up Online Publishing — Here's an amazing demo of the “content-aware fill” tool that's apparently forthcoming in Photoshop CS5. The tool makes it easy to delete objects from a complex photo, without any trace they ever existed. The ramifications for internet publishing are frightening.

Discussion: Vanity Fair

Elizabeth Jensen / Media Decoder:

C.P.B. Will Fund Local Reporting Projects — The Corporation for Public Broadcasting, looking to counter what it sees as a decline in local journalism and original reporting nationwide, said it is making funding available to set up seven regional reporting projects that will be collaborative …

Discussion: CPB, MediaPost, Romenesko, BusinessJournalism.org …, blogs.tampabay.com, NetNewsCheck Latest and Online NewsHour

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

TLC Acquires 'Sarah Palin's Alaska' — Discovery Communications' TLC cable channel has acquired “Sarah Palin's Alaska,” a documentary series about the former Alaska governor and her state. — Discovery is expected to announce the acquisition Thursday morning.

NPR Blogs:

NPR Changes Abortion Language — Last week, I wrote a post about how NPR identifies people who support or oppose abortion. It engendered a lively debate inside and outside NPR. Today, some top editors got together to review the 2005 policy and decided to no longer use “pro-choice” or “pro-life.”

Discussion: DailyFinance and Michael Calderone's Blog

James Hibberd / Hollywood Reporter:

Bunim-Murray acquired by France's Banijay — Reality hitmaker will expand in international marketplace — French production company Banijay Entertainment is acquiring reality hitmakers Bunim-Murray Prods., whose credits include “The Real World” and “Keeping Up With the Kardashians.”

Ryan Lawler / NewTeeVee:

YouTube Caught in Net Neutrality Flap in India — Google has long been a proponent of net neutrality, but it appears the company may have unknowingly allowed an advertising partner in India to promote preferential treatment for certain video streams on YouTube.

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

Google Ads Will Now Follow You Across The Web — Advertisers are beginning to realize that ads on the Web have their own lifecycle. People who eventually click on an ad don't always click on it the first time they see it. Just like on TV or in print, they need to be bombarded by the same message before they take an action.

Discussion: Inside AdWords, searchengineland.com, MediaMemo, the Econsultancy blog, AdExchanger.com, Relevant Results, Kirk LaPointe's … and VentureBeat

Jennifer Rooney / AdAge:

Allstate Launches Portal to Gather Media-Buying Ideas — CMO Mark LaNeve Unveils Site to Maximize One of the Smallest Budgets in Insurance Industry — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Allstate is reaching out to media sellers, asking them to submit ideas on everything from product design …

Discussion: Media Buyer Planner, the Econsultancy blog and New York Times