Mediagazer: Expanding EveryBlock — The hyperlocal Web site's new president sees … (Andrew Damstedt/American Journalism …)

2:05 PM 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, New York Times, Poynter, paidContent, The Daily Dish and Media Law Prof Blog

Hollywood Reporter:

Confessions of a News of the World Reporter (Exclusive) … My first assignment was cake. I tagged along with a features reporter to interview Baywatch actress Traci Bingham because she was on the U.K.'s Celebrity Big Brother (or Big Bruv, as they call it) that season. Nothing unusual.

Discussion: The Wire

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

In the Murdoch Hacking Scandal, Roger Ailes Stands to Gain — Roger Ailes — As the metastasizing phone-hacking scandal engulfs the senior-most reaches of News Corp., the Murdoch family, and the British government, a winner may yet emerge from the corporate wreckage: Roger Ailes.

Discussion: TVNewser

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: Wall Street Journal, New York Times, rbr.com, Guardian, Reuters, Guardian, New York Magazine, Hillicon Valley and The Wrap

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

James Murdoch To Stay On As BSkyB Chair After News Corp Abandons Bid — News Corp today walked away from its bid to buy out all shares in UK broadcaster BSkyB (NYSE: BSY), but one of its most senior executives will continue to have a role there. Sources at BSkyB say that James Murdoch …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, paidContent:UK and Christian Science Monitor

Reuters:
Legal head of News International leaves company: source

Discussion: Guardian and FOXBusiness.com

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

Discussion: Guardian, Poynter, Forbes.com, The Lede, Media Nation, The New York Observer, Media & Entertainment, Adweek, Hillicon Valley, Media Matters for America and Bloomberg

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.

Discussion: Poynter

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:
Thanks for the Apology, Huffington Post. Now Please Apologize to the Writer You Suspended

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

Yahoo! News:
HuffPo controversy highlights cavalier online editorial culture

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Kirk LaPointe's … and Gawker

Bill Keller / New York Times:

Let's Ban Books, or at Least Stop Writing Them — There was exciting news last month among the Twitterati. Brian Stelter, The New York Times prodigy and master of social media, announced to his 64,373 followers that he is going to write a book. The obvious question: What's up with that?

Discussion: Poynter, The New York Observer, The Wire and Gawker

John Cook / Gawker:

In Defense of Sleazy Journalism — As delightful as it's been to watch Rupert Murdoch's British fiefdom slowly drown in a foul swamp of wickedness and criminality, it's worth remembering that all good reporters are amoral monsters and that without a lot of highly questionable behavior …

Discussion: CBS News, BBC and New York Magazine

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, The Huffington Post, The New York Times Company, Media & Entertainment and The Wire

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: Gawker and Company Town

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.

David Kaplan / paidContent:

NYT On The ‘Psychology Of Sharing’: E-Mail Still Rules — When the New York Times first began talking about creating a metered paywall for its website last year, the company was quick to note that social media links would be exempt in order to keep the traffic flowing.

Discussion: ANA

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

Andrew Damstedt / American Journalism Review:

Expanding EveryBlock — The hyperlocal Web site's new president sees a much bigger footprint in its future. Wed. July 13, 2011 — Andrew Damstedt (adamstedt@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — When Revamping the Web site earlier this year to allow visitors to start discussions …

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Vogue Casts 1,000 ‘Influencers’ for Network — It's not enough that a brand like Vogue can sway people to buy certain products by virtue of its clout. Brands today want to use the magazine's readers to spread the word about their products. — To that end, the Condé Nast fashion bible …

Discussion: The Wire

AdAge:

The Surprising (Content) Future of Google+ — It seems that there is a path that Google+ is headed down, with, or without our complicity: a media-sharing and discovery powerhouse.

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, Future of Journalism, Runnin' Scared and New York Magazine