Mediagazer: YouTube's New Sell: Want to Buy a Web Series for $3.5 Million? (Michael Learmonth/AdAge)

1:55 AM ET, July 15, 2011

Top News:

In Interview, Murdoch Defends News Corp. — In his first significant public comments on the tabloid newspaper scandal that has engulfed his media empire, News Corp. Chairman and Chief Executive Rupert Murdoch vigorously defended the company's handling of the crisis but said it would establish …

Tom Hays / Associated Press:

AP source: FBI reviews News Corp. 9/11 phone claim — The FBI has begun a preliminary inquiry based on concerns in Congress over a report that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sought to hack into the phones of Sept. 11 victims, a law enforcement official said Thursday.

Discussion: CJR, Felix Salmon, Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, paidContent:UK, Mediaite, TVNewser, New York Magazine, The Raw Story and PC Magazine

Brian Braiker / Adweek:

The Murdoch Maelstrom Comes West — Editors at the New York Post pulled junior staffers into two closed-door meetings on Tuesday and told them, “We have to be on our P's and Q's and not engage in any kind of obvious, unethical journalistic things,” according to a source close to the Post.

Tom Hays / Associated Press:

AP source: FBI investigating News Corp. — Below: — updated 2011-07-14T18:18:48 — NEW YORK — A law enforcement official says the FBI has opened an investigation into allegations that media mogul Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. sought to hack into the phones of Sept. 11 victims.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Adweek, Guardian, The Wire, Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, Future of Journalism, Gothamist and msnbc.com

New York Times:

Murdochs Now Say They Will Appear Before Parliament — LONDON — In an abrupt about-face, News Corporation said Tuesday afternoon that Rupert Murdoch and his son James would testify next week before a British parliamentary panel looking into phone hacking. They will appear along with Rebekah Brooks …

Discussion: Poynter, Guardian, The Lede, The Wire, Mediaite, Guy Fawkes' blog, BBC and The Rumpus.net

Guardian:

Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch calls in PR firm Edelman — PR company will report directly to general manager of News International — Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has called in PR and lobbying specialists Edelman to help the embattled company handle mounting public anger …

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines, Mixed Media, Kempton, Mogulite, paidContent, On Media's Blog, FishbowlNY, Mediaite and Reuters

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times: For Murdoch Loyalist, Another Stint in the Spotlight

Dylan Byers / Adweek:
The Ben Bradlee of Phone Hacking

Discussion: Kempton, Guardian, TVNewser, Media & Entertainment and The Independent

Ken Doctor / Newsonomics:
The Myths of Murdoch: Real, Unreal and Surreal

Discussion: Time and Capital New York

Hélène Mulholland / Guardian:
Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch summonsed to appear before MPs

Discussion: Adweek, Gothamist, The Wire, Media Law Prof Blog and The Politico

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Handicapping Who Survives the Coming Purge at News Corp.

Discussion: MediaPost, Guardian, paidContent, Mediaite, Press Gazette, On Media's Blog, Crikey, Gordon's Republic, News Desk and The Wire

New York Times:
Father and Son Split on Tactics in Murdoch Family Drama

Discussion: Time, Guardian, Business Week, DealBook, Company Town, The Wire, The First Post, Gordon's Republic, New York Magazine, Los Angeles Times and Wall Street Journal

Julie Moos / Poynter:
Whatever happened to the WSJ editorial integrity committee?

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Tom Watson, Yahoo! News, The Nation, Stop Big Media News, Bloomberg, New York Magazine, Media Nation and CJR

Jxpaton / Digital First:

Our Next Big Step — Today we announced that the Journal Register Company has been bought by Alden Global Capital. And that's terrific news for us. — Alden has been an investor in our Company for some time and they have had a courtside seat to the Journal Register Company's radical makeover following our Digital First strategy.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, CJR, Poynter and paidContent

Journal Register Company:

Journal Register Company Acquired by Alden Global Capital — Yardley, PA - Journal Register Company, a leading multi-media company in local news and information, announced today that Alden Global Capital ("Alden") has purchased the Company. — “This is a great vote of confidence from Alden …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Poynter and Deal Journal

Jonathan / awe.sm:

Twitter drives 4 times as much traffic as you think it does — Over the last few weeks, TechCrunch has run a couple posts using their own referrer logs to measure how sharing on various social services drives traffic. In these and other analyses based solely on referrer information …

Discussion: TechCrunch and AllThingsD, more at Techmeme »

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

YouTube's New Sell: Want to Buy a Web Series for $3.5 Million? — Pursuing TV Dollars With Big-Money Web Series from Howcast, Endemol, Ben Silverman's Electus and Others — YouTube has pitched advertisers on funding big-budget web shows featuring stars like Kobe Bryant, Lady Gaga and …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Techdirt

Andy Plesser / Beet.TV:

Exclusive: U.S. Mobile Ad Sales to Top $1 Billion in 2011, IAB's Anna Bager — While mobile advertising is a tiny slice of the global advertising pie, “its growth is huge.....and exponential” says Anna Bager who heads the IAB's Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Peter Apps / Reuters:

Analysis: Press barons lose information monopoly in Twitter era — (Reuters) - Britain's celebrities might no longer have to worry about the News of the World hacking phones or rifling their bins, but the manner of the paper's demise shows controlling information is getting much more difficult.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Ruth Brown / Willamette Week:

The Blogfather — MetaFilter founder Matt Haughey put the blog in blogosphere. Now he looks to the future. — Thirty-five miles from Portland is the home of one of Oregon's hottest tech properties. It's a long way from the “Silicon Forest” of local startups.

Discussion: Poynter

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

MSNBC Chief on ‘Incredible’ Fox News, Life After Olbermann, More — This Friday is the 15th anniversary of the launch of MSNBC. To mark the occasion, I spoke with Phil Griffin, the network's president and the guy whose job it is to put out the fire when one of his hot-blooded hosts …

Discussion: Inside Cable News