Mediagazer: The Pandora-Elevation Deal that Never Closed and a Mid-2011 IPO? (Sarah Lacy/TechCrunch)

12:15 AM ET, December 22, 2010

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

F.C.C. Approves Net Rules and Braces for Fight — Updated The Federal Communications Commission on Tuesday approved a new and still-unpublished set of rules that are intended to preserve open access to the Internet. — There was disagreement Tuesday about whether the F.C.C. had the legal authority …

Sam Gustin / Epicenter:

FCC Passes Compromise Net Neutrality Rules — FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski presides over an open-internet meeting in March 2010. — In a closely watched vote, the Federal Communications Commission approved compromise net neutrality rules Tuesday that would forbid the nation's largest cable …

Discussion: Memex 1.1, Geekosystem and Free Press

Al Franken / The Huffington Post:
The Most Important Free Speech Issue of Our Time

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

The End Of Hulu As We Know It (And Comcast Feels Fine) — What the hell is going on at Hulu? Monday's mysterious story in The Wall Street Journal portends significant changes in 2011 that may just be scratching the surface of what's to come for the service.

Discussion: GigaOM, Techland, NetNewsCheck Latest, Mediaweek, Show Me The Money, Stop Big Media News and Digital Trends

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
No Hulu Plus for Your Cable DVR

Discussion: Ars Technica, Engadget and SlashGear

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Jilted Ex Blasts NY Times Over ‘Vows’ Story: ‘Revisionist History’ — Yesterday I asked whether The New York Times made any attempt to get both sides of the controversial story of two married parents who left their spouses for each other — a question the Times refused to discuss. Now we have our answer.

Discussion: Gawker, Politics Daily, Runnin' Scared, New York Observer, The Daily Dish, Gothamist, Yahoo! News and New York Magazine

EditorandPublisher.com:

Editor & Publisher Partners with MediaSpan to Improve Its Website — Visitors to E&P's website (www.editorandpublisher.com) in the coming months will find it much easier to navigate and jam-packed with a database of articles and exclusive content now that the magazine has partnered …

Discussion: Big News Network.com and FishbowlNY

Jim / Gannett Blog:

All shook up: As Newseum's operating costs soared to $250,000 a day, Freedom Forum's finances sank — [This year's Presley exhibit is a stretch for a news museum] — Four months ago, the Freedom Forum journalism foundation issued a late-afternoon press release that nearly begged to be ignored.

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

Rush Limbaugh's TV Nemesis — Ed Schultz was a right-wing radio talk-show host—until he fell in love with a liberal and hit the big time. Howard Kurtz talks to Schultz about his feud with Rush and why he's mad at Obama. — After bashing the president's tax-cut compromise on MSNBC …

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser, Chickaboomer and The Huffington Post

Robert Ambrogi / Robert Ambrogi's LawSites:

Bloggers Beware of Demand Media's Demand for Ownership — [See my update about this: Clarification on Demand Media: Two Contracts.] — Way back in 2006, I accepted an invitation to enroll this blog in something called the BlogBurst Network. It described itself as “a syndication service …

Michael Starr / New York Post:

Katie, CBS to talk next month — CBS is expected to begin contract negotiations with “Evening News” anchor Katie Couric next month, sources say. — Couric's five-year, $75 million deal expires in May. A report yesterday that she had already begun renegotiating her contract was shot down by insiders.

Discussion: TVNewser, Chickaboomer and Bloomberg

Alex Howard / O'Reilly Radar:

The growing importance of data journalism — One of the themes from News Foo that continues to resonate with me is the importance of data journalism. That skillset has received renewed attention this winter after Tim Berners-Lee called analyzing data the future of journalism.

Sarah Lacy / TechCrunch:

The Pandora-Elevation Deal that Never Closed and a Mid-2011 IPO? — Back in August we reported that Elevation Partners had signed a letter of intent to buy secondary shares in Pandora, the long-suffering, now-hot online radio station. I wondered what ever happened to that deal, so I started digging.

Dylan Stableford / The Wrap:

News Corp. Gets Antitrust Approval for BSkyB Bid, But ‘War’ is Declared — News Corp.'s £7.8 billion bid to buy British Sky Broadcasting won anti-trust approval from the European Commission on Tuesday, clearing a key hurdle on the path to the mega-merger.

Discussion: Telegraph, paidContent, EU Press Room, Guardian and Media Week

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

The ‘Mobisode’ Returns: MTV Planning Original Video Programming for Mobile Devices — NEW YORK — The proliferation of smart wireless devices is creating a need for original content and MTV will be producing original entertainment for the emerging medium says Dermot McCormack …

Discussion: WebNewser