Mediagazer: Shielding Reality (Clint Hendler/CJR)

5:25 AM ET, January 18, 2011

Top News:

James Robinson / Guardian:

NoW ‘rogue reporter’ line unravels — Glenn Mulcaire tells high court that News of the World's head of news asked him to hack voicemail messages — News Corporation's defence that phone hacking at the News of the World was the work of a single “rogue reporter” was on the verge of collapse tonight …

Discussion: psmith, journalist and The First Post

Guardian: News Corp braces for new hacking lawsuits

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Media World Awaits The Daily to Forge Model for iPad Content — Macy's, Verizon, Pepsi, Land Rover and Virgin Sponsor News Corp./Apple Project — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — In the coming weeks, News Corp. is set to unveil one of its more audacious content bets in recent years: The Daily …

Discussion: 9 to 5 Mac and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:
For Magazines, a Bitter Pill in iPad

Discussion: MediaPost, AppleInsider, The Business Insider, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, MacRumors and 606 Tech Forums

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:
iPad is Driving 10 Percent of New Digital Subscriptions for the Financial Times

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Edmund Lee / AdAge:

Facebook Books $1.86B in Advertising; Muscles In on Google Turf — New Estimate From eMarketer Shows Majority of Social Network's Ad Revenue Comes From Small Businesses — NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — It turns out Facebook is a lot like Google after all. — As the social network steams past …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, TechCrunch and Mashable!, Thanks:edmundlee

Apple:

Apple Media Advisory — Apple CEO Steve Jobs today sent the following email to all Apple employees: — Team, — At my request, the board of directors has granted me a medical leave of absence so I can focus on my health. I will continue as CEO and be involved in major strategic decisions for the company.

Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:
Leave Steve Alone!

Discussion: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, TechCrunch, ReadWriteWeb, 9 to 5 Mac, The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs and The Atlantic Online, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Under Pay Model, Little Effect Seen on Papers' Web Traffic — While newspapers around the world are anxiously asking themselves what would happen if they started charging readers to view articles online, a few answers have started to emerge. — Steven Brill's Journalism Online experiment …

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Exclusive: Roku Lands Its First Cable Channel — Roku is expected to announce Tuesday an unlikely addition to its programming lineup: WealthTV. This will mark the first time a cable channel has joined the streaming device, which begs an obvious question: How is this even possible?

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Company Town, The Next Web and Multichannel, more at Techmeme »

Craig Silverman / Regret the Error:

What would a Twitter correction function look like? — I dedicated my most recent Columbia Journalism Review column to the current debate about whether or not a news organization or journalist should delete an incorrect tweet. I also outlined how a Twitter correction function might work:

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

CNN's Piers Morgan puts Twitter to work for TV debut — With a taped interview with Oprah as the premiere episode of “Piers Morgan Tonight” on CNN on Monday night, the show's host and staff gathered in the Presidential Suite of Mandarin Hotel in New York to watch the show's debut.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, New York Observer, Mediaite, Guardian and The Wrap

Clint Hendler / CJR:

Shielding Reality — Take the time on this holiday to read SF Weekly's fascinating and troubling look from last week at Bait Car, a reality show on TruTv. — The show's producers, collaborating with the San Francisco Police Department, sprinkled cars around the city, keys in them, engines left running.

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

Exclusive: Comcast-NBCU Merger Expected to Close Jan. 28 — The Comcast-NBCU merger is poised to go to the FCC for final approval this week, with a final close of the deal to create a new cable and programming giant planned for Jan. 28, TheWrap has learned.

Discussion: Media Moves, Company Town, rbr.com, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable, Gawker and TVWeek.com

New York Times:

Ex-Banker Gives Data on Taxes to WikiLeaks — LONDON — A former senior Swiss bank executive said on Monday that he had given the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, details of more than 2,000 prominent individuals and companies that he contends engaged in tax evasion and other possible criminal activity.

Discussion: Guardian, The Next Web and Mother Jones, more at Techmeme »

Andrew Wallenstein / paidContent:

Netflix Enrages Subscribers By Limiting DVD Queue — Converting to a streaming-only business isn't easy, as Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) discovered Monday when the company's blog was bombarded by complaints over its decision to remove the ability to add to DVD queues from connected devices.

Discussion: The Official Netflix Blog, ReadWriteWeb, New York Magazine and New York Observer, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / MediaMemo:

Hulu Rolls Out a Highlights Show-"The Morning After" — Here's Hulu's version of a highlights show: “The Morning After,” a five-minute survey of last night's TV. — It's the show I told you about last month, and I believe it's the first one the Web video site-owned by GE's NBC …

Discussion: Hulu Blog

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Goldman Blames Media Attention For Killing Off Its U.S. Facebook Offering — Both The Wall Street Journal and The New York Times are reporting this morning that Goldman Sachs has decided to limit its much ballyhooed private offering of up to $1.5 billion in Facebook shares to international investors only.

Discussion: DealBook, Felix Salmon, Techdirt, Bloomberg, VentureBeat, On Media's Blog and New York Observer, more at Techmeme »

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch Europe:

Populis, the “European Associated Content”, acquires blog network Blogo for €6m — Populis (formerly GoAdv), which we've previously described as the “European Associated Content”, has just announced that it's acquiring Blogo, a blog network that operates in Europe and South America owned by Dada …

Discussion: paidContent:UK

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:

AOL Bets on Hyperlocal News, Finding Progress Where Many Have Failed — SAN FRANCISCO — City council meetings, high school football games and store openings may seem like small town news, but they are critical to AOL's revival effort. — Over the last year and a half, AOL …

Discussion: Beyond Search, The Political Surf, Inman News and BrauBlog