Mediagazer: WSJ Ex-Editor on Scandal: News Corp. ‘Incompetent or Complicit’ (Exclusive) (Lucas Shaw/The Wrap)

11:05 AM ET, July 13, 2011

Top News:

BBC:

News Corp withdraws bid for BSkyB — WATCH: Robert Peston says it will have been ‘incredibly painful’ decision for Murdoch — Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has announced that it is dropping its planned bid to take full ownership of BSkyB. — The announcement came as the House …

Discussion: Guardian, TVNewser, Poynter, New York Times, paidContent, New York Times, National Review and The Daily Dish

Reuters:

Legal head of News International leaves company: source — (Reuters) - Tom Crone, the legal manager at Rupert Murdoch's UK newspaper arm, which is fighting widespread hacking allegations, has left the company, a source familiar with the situation told Reuters on Wednesday.

Discussion: Guardian and FOXBusiness.com

Alexandra Topping / Guardian:

Phone-hacking scandal reaches US — US senator Jay Rockefeller warns of ‘serious consequences’ if Rupert Murdoch's journalists have targeted American citizens — A key US senator has called for an investigation into whether any of News Corporation's organisations in the country have hacked US citizens.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Reuters and The Wrap

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:
WSJ Ex-Editor on Scandal: News Corp. ‘Incompetent or Complicit’ (Exclusive)

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Poynter, The New York Observer, Media Nation, Media & Entertainment, Adweek, The Lede and Media Matters for America

Bloomberg:
News Corp.'s Lost $7B Shows Investor Concern

Discussion: New York Times, FishbowlNY, The Huffington Post, Company Town, Gothamist, Gawker, Splice Today, Bloomberg, Los Angeles Times, The Wire, Future of Journalism and Forbes.com

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch's BSkyB bid is slipping with David Cameron's U-turn

Discussion: U.S. Senate Committee …, Mediaite, The Nation, Broadcasting & Cable, Jon Slattery, On Media's Blog, Press Gazette, The Wrap, AllThingsD, Company Town, rbr.com, Media Matters for America, Globe and Mail, Paul Krugman, Telegraph and MediaPost

Gabe Rivera:

Let's call rewriters “rewriters”, not “aggregators”. Also: why Techmeme is wonderful. — Something bothered me about Simon Dumenco's piece about Huffington Post yesterday. Not the substance of his column, which was valid and well-argued, nor the favorable comparison to Techmeme, which was, well, favorable to Techmeme.

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Thanks for the Apology, Huffington Post. Now Please Apologize to the Writer You Suspended — An Open Letter From Our Media Guy to Peter S. Goodman … Dear Peter, — My sincere thanks to you for your gracious apology. Your incredibly swift response to my column was heartening.

Discussion: Forbes.com, New York Magazine, The Snitch, digiday:DAILY, Future of Journalism, The New York Observer, The Wrap, Playboy.com, Erik Wemple, CJR, Fortune and Poynter

Yahoo! News:
HuffPo controversy highlights cavalier online editorial culture

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Erik Wemple and Gawker

Aaron Gell / The New York Observer:

Bin Laden Hunter ‘CIA John’ Identified — The Man in the Yellow Tie, with Clinton and Panetta, and in a college yearbook photo. — Anyone who's ever logged in to a social network while in a jubilant, possibly intoxicated, frame of mind knows the dangers.

Discussion: Mashable!, News Desk, New York Magazine, Future of Journalism and Runnin' Scared

Jana Winter / Fox News:
Gawker Tries to Reveal Identity of CIA Agent Behind Bin Laden Kill

Discussion: The Wire

Steve Myers / Poynter:

U.S. has same number of newspapers now as in 1890s — Stanford has used data from the Library of Congress to illustrate the spread of all kinds of newspapers across the U.S. from 1690 to 2011. Users can see which cities had multiple papers and click on them to learn more about them.

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Times Company to Repay Carlos Slim Early — Updated The New York Times Company said Wednesday that it would pay back the $250 million loan from Carlos Slim Helú, a Mexican telecommunications billionaire, on Aug. 15, freeing itself from one of its larger financial obligations.

Discussion: Poynter

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Yahoo Prepares New Web Ad Push — People are spending less time on Yahoo Inc.'s websites. So in a bid to reverse its waning influence, the Internet company is working on a way to get more of its content and advertising on others' websites instead. — As part of a network it expects …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Adweek, AllThingsD, AdExchanger.com and Future of Journalism

Lauren A. E. Schuker / Wall Street Journal:

Oprah to Take Bigger Role at Her Struggling Network — The queen of daytime television is moving into the corner office. — Oprah Winfrey is poised to become chief executive of her cable channel, OWN: the Oprah Winfrey Network, starting sometime in the fall, according to people close to the venture.

Discussion: Company Town

Rebecca Meany / Idaho Mountain Express & Guide:

Allen & Co. leaves town, takes secrets with it — Conference closes with no news of big deals — Wood River Valley residents typically don't give another thought to a celebrity spotted locally—less so if the famous name is a business executive. — But the collection of VIPs …

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Just 1 in 10 TV newsrooms have beat-based reporters — Diana Marszalek writes that the disappearance of beat-based reporting “may be taking broadcast journalism down with it.” She cites a media strategist's estimate that just 1 in 10 TV stations assign their reporters to formal beats.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Gannett Blog and TVNewsCheck

Daniel D'Addario / The New York Observer:

Errol Morris, Gossip Boy — “Tabloid stories are about affairs of the heart—about why people do the things that they do, what could be their possible motivation.” Oscar-winning director Errol Morris was discussing Tabloid, his latest film, about a 1970s British-tabloid story involving …

Discussion: New York Magazine and Washington Post

Zooey Deschanel / Hello Giggles:

AN OPEN LETTER TO LOS ANGELES TIMES WRITER PATT MORRISSON — This is an open letter in response to a piece entitled Downtown LA: Good enough for the royals, but not for Zooey Deschanel?, written by columnist Patt Morrison, which appeared in the publication on July 10, 2011. — Dear Ms. Morrison,

Discussion: Kempton, Mediaite, The Informer, LA Observed, ZOOEY'S MISCELLANY, Washington Post, Gawker and Opinion L.A.

MediaShift Idea Lab:

Stop Yammering and Start Hammering: How to Build a ‘Maker Space’ for News — Over the next four weeks, a very interesting experiment is going to unfold. The most exciting part about it is that it's entirely open source: You can observe it, interact with it, and improve it.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals