Mediagazer: Comcast Winds Down NBCU Digital Studio; Online To Emphasize Current Shows (David Kaplan/paidContent)

10:10 AM ET, July 2, 2011

Top News:

Dawn Chmielewski / Company Town:

Google Inc. in preliminary talks to buy Hulu — Google Inc. is in preliminary talks to buy online video pioneer Hulu, people familiar with the situation said. — Hulu has begun meeting with potential buyers including Google, Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo Inc. to drum up interest in a sale …

Doug Aamoth / Techland:
Google and Microsoft Reportedly Both Kicking Hulu's Tires

Discussion: Future of Journalism and The Atlantic Wire

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Comcast Winds Down NBCU Digital Studio; Online To Emphasize Current Shows — NBC Universal (NSDQ: CMCSA) Digital Studio, three-year-old unit charged with creating original web content, will cease operations over the next few months, Ad Age reported. NBCU parent Comcast wants to shift …

Discussion: AdAge

Sofia M. Fernandez / Hollywood Reporter:

Ashton Kutcher and Village Voice Twitter Feud Leads to Advertiser Loss … Social media master Ashton Kutcher has taken his Twitter feud with New York's Village Voice to a new level by contacting its advertisers to complain about the newspaper's “Back Page” personal ads.

Discussion: Gawker, Runnin' Scared, Felix Salmon and The Marquee Blog

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

New York Times Co. Sells 55 Percent of Fenway Stake For $117 Million — It took The New York Times Co. (NYSE: NYT) longer to find buyers for a substantial part of its stake in the Boston Red Sox than it did to build the metered paywall for NYTimes.com—and it still isn't done with the Fenway Sports Group.

Discussion: Adweek and Forbes.com

David Kravets / Threat Level:

Lawyer to Judge: I Swear My Browser Ate My Homework — A lawyer for copyright troll Righthaven is declaring under penalty of perjury that an update to his computer's browser prohibited him from electronically submitting a legal filing before an angry judge's deadline.

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

TheWrap Replaces THR as Reuters News Partner — We have big news today. TheWrap, which struck a partnership with Reuters last year, becomes the global news agency's main entertainment news provider as of July 1. — This new partnership replaces a long-time alliance between Reuters and The Hollywood Reporter and Billboard.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and The Wire

Megan Garber / Nieman Journalism Lab:

ProPublica's newest news app uses education data to get more social — Yesterday, the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Civil Rights released a data set — the most comprehensive to date — documenting student access to advanced classes and special programs in public high schools.

Discussion: Christian Science Monitor, U.S. Department of Education and Mother Jones

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

AllThingsD Plans Expansion of Reviews Section: Kara Swisher Wants “Little Walt Mossbergs Everywhere” — All Things Digital, the fast-growing events and publishing unit of Dow Jones, headed by Kara Swisher and Walt Mossberg, plans to expand its reviews section, says Swisher in this video interview with Beet.TV

Discussion: Future of Journalism

David Folkenflik / NPR:

New CNN News Chief Takes Stock … It's pretty easy to see the winning formula for Fox News and MSNBC. They spend their evening hours stoking outrage from the political right and left, respectively. — But it's not as clear what the missing secret sauce should be for CNN.

Discussion: TVNewser, Inside Cable News and On Media's Blog

Kelvin MacKenzie / Guardian:

Thank God for Rupert Murdoch | Kelvin MacKenzie — Twenty years after flirting with disaster, the News Corp chief is on the verge of his biggest deal. We need more like him — Two decades ago Rupert Murdoch was sitting at his desk in Wapping as a financial firestorm engulfed his company.

Amie Parnes / The Politico:

White House press pool losing scoops to Twitter — The temptations of Twitter are clashing with a White House press corps tradition: the pool report. — Some reporters in the rotating pool of journalists who chronicle the president's movements are sending TwitPics, revealing factoids …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

Gannett layoffs accelerated demise of InJersey hyperlocal news sites — When Ted Mann started Gannett's InJersey hyperlocal news sites two years ago, he wanted them to become a nexus of community conversation. He envisioned that about half of the sites' content would come from Gannett staffers …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Street Fight, Freehold and Common Sense Journalism