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2:50 PM ET, July 26, 2011

Top News:

Murdoch Veterans Portray an Engaged Boss — LONDON — It was the political scoop of the year, a damning, serialized exposé in The Daily Telegraph about how British politicians were abusing their parliamentary expense accounts to pay for things like moat-cleaning and wisteria-trimming.

Discussion: Free Press, Media News, Advertising …, Time and paidContent

Damien McCrystal / Guardian:

Phone hacking: the case for the defence | Damien McCrystal — Celebrities encourage intrusion, and we have a right to know about anything that affects politicians' ability to do their jobs — The most extraordinary thing about the News International crisis is the way in which it has caused …

Discussion: Jon Slattery and themediablog.typepad.com

Paul McNamara / New York Times:
News of the World's Desperate Final Hours

Discussion: Guardian, Wall Street Journal and Future of Journalism

Bloomberg: BSkyB Directors Facing $4.2 Billion Payout Quandary After Murdoch Scandal

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:
British Journalist Sells Book on Hacking Scandal

Discussion: Guardian, Adweek, Journalism.org, Publishers Weekly, The Wire, The Wrap, The New York Observer, GalleyCat, Jacket Copy, CJR and New Yorker

Financial Times:
Hacking fears prompt Trinity Mirror review

Discussion: Jon Slattery and Guy Fawkes' blog

The Daily Beast:

ABC Bans Paying News Subjects — After the embarrassment of giving Casey Anthony a huge payday, the network is effectively ending the practice. Howard Kurtz on why ABC is breaking from the pack. — ABC News has quietly decided to get out of the business of paying news subjects in connection with exclusive interviews.

Discussion: Adweek, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, TVWeek.com, City Room, WWD Media Headlines, Erik Wemple, Future of Journalism, Mediaite, The New Yorker Blog, Gothamist, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Kirk LaPointe's …, Gawker, Metropolis and The First Post

Felix Salmon:

The NYT paywall is working — Back in April, I was very skeptical that the NYT would achieve its leaked goal of getting 300,000 paying digital subscribers, and I put my money where my mouth was, entering into a bet with John Gapper. John wouldn't bet me that the NYT would get to 300,000 within a year …

Mark Joyella / Mediaite:

Erin Burnett Debuts On CNN, Immediately Breaks News, Sends Twitter Aflutter — The former CNBC anchor Erin Burnett made her debut on CNN last night, appearing with Wolf Blitzer in the hour leading up to President Obama's speech to the nation on the debt ceiling impasse.

Discussion: The Wire, On Media's Blog, TVNewser and CNN

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Report: We are a YouTube nation — Further evidence that we are all YouTube addicts comes from the Pew Internet & American Life Project this morning: 71 percent of U.S. adults used video sharing sites like YouTube and Vimeo in May, according to a new Pew report, compared to 66 percent a year earlier.

Discussion: Pew Internet, more at Techmeme », Thanks:beet_tv

Los Angeles Times:

Hollywood awaits how Peter Chernin will fare with new venture — The upcoming ‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ film and ‘Terra Nova’ TV series form the foundation of the former News Corp. president and longtime Hollywood power broker's media company, Chernin Entertainment.

Discussion: Company Town

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Gawker-Christie Lawsuit Likely to Be Dropped — Yesterday we noted that Gawker and the ACLU were planning to sue New Jersey Governor Chris Christie to obtain records related to his communications with Fox News CEO Roger Ailes. Today, the ACLU says it is likely to drop the lawsuit. Why?

Discussion: National Review and CBS 3 Springfield

John Cook / Gawker:
Gawker v. Christie [Updated]

Discussion: Poynter, The New York Observer, PolitickerNY, Stop Big Media News, NetNewsCheck Latest, ACLU-NJ News, Bloomberg, Media Decoder, On Media's Blog, Mediaite, The Wire, Media & Entertainment and rbr.com

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Sidestepping Apple: From Amazon to Condé Nast, Companies Rethink App Strategies — We all knew that once Apple starting enforcing new rules for in-app purchases, it would change how media companies do business on the iPhone and iPad. Now, we're beginning to see just what that looks …

Discussion: GigaOM, paidContent, Pocket-lint, 9to5Mac, Future of Journalism, AdAge, Good E-Reader Blog, CNNMoney.com, FM Blog, CNET News, Techland, Engadget, GeekWire and eMedia Vitals, more at Techmeme », Thanks:tcarmody

Shira Ovide / Wall Street Journal:

Crunch Time at Thomson Reuters — CEO Glocer Is Under Pressure After Restructuring Backed by Controlling Family — The family that controls Thomson Reuters Corp. has grown impatient with the company's performance and pressed for a recent shake-up, putting pressure on Chief Executive Tom Glocer …

Martin Belam / currybetdotnet:

4 key pieces of audience engagement missing from Andy Rutledge's news redux — Andy Rutledge published a fascinating blog post last week looking at the design of digital news, and to illustrate his points he did a redux of the New York Times design. — This post isn't going to make much …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, 10,000 Words, The Wall Blog and The Business Insider

AdAge:

Time Magazine Has Highest ‘Digital IQ’ in Ranking of 87 Titles — Time took top honors in a new ranking of 87 magazines' digital intelligence from an NYU Stern professor and his think tank, L2.

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Plan to move cancelled ABC soaps to Web looks for union label — Moving television shows from the TV screen to the computer screen is not easy, as the folks who want to give new life to soap operas “All My Children” and “One Life to Live” are learning. — Prospect Park, a company headed …

Discussion: Media Decoder, TVLine, Online Video News and AOL TV

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

NYTimes, TV stations among ‘most social’ companies — The New York Times is the most social company in the U.S., and local TV is the top industry on Twitter, finds a report by NetProspex (.pdf). The report measures the number of employees with social media accounts (using a company email address) …

Discussion: Steve Rubel

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Rolling Stone Web Editor Nick Catucci Exits as New Digital Content Chief Settles In — Almost one year after he was plucked from New York magazine to lead Rolling Stone's revamped web presence, Nick Catucci has left Wenner Media. — The Observer reached Mr. Catucci by e-mail on a bus, but he declined to comment.