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

10:30 AM ET, July 26, 2011

Top News:

Murdoch Veterans Portray a Fully 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, paidContent and Guardian

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

British Journalist Sells Book on Hacking Scandal — The hacking scandal in Britain has caught the attention of the publishing industry. — Nick Davies, a journalist who has covered the story extensively for The Guardian, sold a book about the scandal at News International to Faber & Faber …

Discussion: Guardian, Journalism.org, The Wire, Journalism.co.uk, GalleyCat, The Book Bench, The New York Observer, Publishers Weekly, The Wrap, Jacket Copy and New Yorker

Paul McNamara / New York Times:

News of the World's Desperate Final Hours — As day broke over Libya a few weeks ago, so did reports that News of the World hacked the phones of a murdered teenager, the victims of the 7/7 London bombings and possibly soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Guardian, Guardian and Future of Journalism

Financial Times:

Hacking fears prompt Trinity Mirror review — Trinity Mirror, the Daily Mirror publisher, has launched a review of its editorial controls amid investor anxiety that phone-hacking allegations could spread

Discussion: Jon Slattery, Future of Journalism and Guy Fawkes' blog

Bloomberg:

BSkyB Directors Facing $4.2 Billion Payout Quandary After Murdoch Scandal — British Sky Broadcasting Group Plc's board of directors faces a dilemma over a potential 2.6 billion- pound ($4.2 billion) payout to shareholders that would also go to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. …

Dean Starkman / CJR:
No, Actually, News of the World Won't Happen Here

Discussion: professional.wsj.com and The New York Observer

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: City Room, WWD Media Headlines, Erik Wemple, Mediaite, Future of Journalism, TVNewser, The New Yorker Blog, Gothamist, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, Gawker, Kirk LaPointe's …, Metropolis, The First Post, New York Times and Media Decoder

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, AdAge, paidContent, NetNewsCheck Latest, Pocket-lint, Future of Journalism, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, CNNMoney.com, Techland, GeekWire, CNET News, GalleyCat and FM Blog, more at Techmeme », Thanks:tcarmody

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 …

Discussion: Poynter and Noted

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: TVNewser and CNN

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 …

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.

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: Online Video News and Media Decoder

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Live In the U.S.? No Cool Netflix Facebook Integration for You. — Netflix has been talking up its plans for a big Facebook integration for some time now, and given that CEO Reed Hastings is now on the Facebook board, it ought to be here any day. — Right? — Nope. I mean: Not if you live in the U.S.

Discussion: GigaOM, NetNewsCheck Latest, Digital Media Wire and Bloomberg, more at Techmeme »

Lauren Rabaino / 10,000 Words:

Problems with AP's new “linking” policy — If anything, the AP's decision to start linking to original sources is a hindrance. Because now, in addition to news outlets everywhere reproducing the same exact stories, they will all include unlinked bit.ly URLs. — Trust me, I'm all for hyperlinking.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, eBookNewser and FishbowlNY