Mediagazer: The New Yorker Goes Digital - But Leaves Its Iconic Covers Behind (Philip Bump/Mediaite)

4:25 PM ET, July 28, 2011

Top News:

Katie Benner / Fortune:

The Forbes family's big deal causes big trouble — After default, emergency restructuring was needed to satisfy lenders. — Malcolm's sons (from left): Timothy, Christopher, Robert, and Steve in 1993 — FORTUNE — The Forbes family has poked itself in the eye with its “capitalist tool.”

Discussion: The Business Insider, Poynter, Adweek, The Huffington Post, Mr NYC and FishbowlNY

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Here's What Steve Forbes Is Telling His Staff About That Brutal Fortune Article — Fortune depantsed longtime rival Forbes today with a story detailing the business magazine's finances, which have been terrible. — Don't worry about it, Forbes chairman Steve Forbes tells his staff, via an internal memo which you can read below.

Discussion: New York Magazine, FishbowlNY and The Business Insider

Guardian:

News of the World targeted phone of Sarah Payne's mother — Evidence found in private detective's notes believed to relate to phone Rebekah Brooks gave to Sara Payne — Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was abducted and murdered in July 2000, has been told by Scotland Yard …

Discussion: Poynter, New York Magazine, Gawker, Adweek, The Huffington Post, NetNewsCheck Latest, The Wire, The Daily Beast, Press Gazette, msnbc.com and Financial Times

Wall Street Journal:
U.K. Tabloid's Lawyer Had a Ringside Seat

Discussion: The New York Observer

Ian Katz / Guardian: The Coulson affair: Guardian questions to Downing Street

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of Netflix and the digital shift — Editor's Note: Each week, Ken Doctor — author of Newsonomics and longtime watcher of the business side of digital news — writes about the economics of news for the Lab. — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings says he is surprised that customers …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Can news publishers learn anything from Netflix?

Thanks:bradfordcross

Greg Sandoval / Media Maverick:

A defense of charging more for Web TV (Q&A) — So apparently we were just kidding ourselves and the Internet really isn't going to send us to some digital TV Shangri-La, where all the content was free of charge, available at our fingertips, and killed commercial breaks.

Discussion: CNET News, mediabistro.com, Most Recent Home Page Posts …, GigaOM, Public Knowledge and AllThingsD

Nielsen Wire:
What Netflix and Hulu Users are Watching... and How

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Netflix Is for Movies, Hulu Is for TV Shows. Neither Is for Your iPad or Your iPhone.

Discussion: Media Maverick and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Jane Martinson / Guardian:

James Murdoch back to chair BSkyB board meeting — Broadcaster claims ‘back to business as usual’ but pressure continues to mount on James Murdoch — James Murdoch will on Thursday chair a full board meeting of BSkyB for the first time since his family firm dropped its bid for full control of the satellite business.

Discussion: CJR, Company Town, Media News, Advertising …, Crikey and On Media's Blog

Ben Fenton / Financial Times: BSkyB directors back James Murdoch

Wall Street Journal:
BSkyB Likely to Buy Back Shares

Discussion: Guardian

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Why The Atlantic joined up with Pulse — and what the app's usage stats can tell data-hungry publishers — Just last week Pulse struck a new partnership agreement, adding The Atlantic, The Atlantic Wire, and The National Journal to its list of featured content providers.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and Cision

Lens:

Back in Action and Back on Page 1 — “He will be missed until — as I have no doubt he will — he returns to action, cameras blazing.” — Bill Keller, the executive editor of The New York Times, offered this brave prognosis to the staff in October, hours after the photographer Joao Silva lost …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Poynter, Mediaite, New York Magazine and New York Times

Stuart Dredge / Guardian:

BBC iPlayer goes global with iPad app launch in 11 countries — Western Europe first for subscription-based service, with US to follow later in 2011 — BBC Worldwide is launching its global iPlayer service on Thursday, via an iPad app that will be made available in 11 countries in Western Europe.

Discussion: VentureBeat, MediaPost, The Next Web, PC Magazine, MacRumors, SocialTimes.com, 9to5Mac, ITProPortal, Mobile Entertainment, MacStories, Crikey, Gizmodo and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Sharpton's Push for Comcast Raises Issues About Possible MSNBC Job — Last year, Comcast was lining up the Rev. Al Sharpton to lobby for its bid for NBCUniversal. This year, the cable news channel owned by NBCUniversal, MSNBC, is weighing whether to make him a daily television host.

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Poynter, Company Town, Free Press, On Media's Blog and Inside Cable News

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Anatomy of a Twitter rumor: When a story's too juicy not to retweet — The latest example of ‘think before you retweet’ emerged today when a false rumor spread like wildfire that British journalist and TV presenter Piers Morgan had been suspended from his position as a CNN talkshow host.

Discussion: Felix, Guardian, Poynter, Lost Remote, American Journalism Review, Adweek, AdAge and Kirk LaPointe's …

Philip Bump / Mediaite:

The New Yorker Goes Digital - But Leaves Its Iconic Covers Behind — An issue of the New Yorker may be long and densely packed, but at least one only comes every seven days. It's possible that the incarcerated manage to read every issue. I am skeptical of anyone else who makes that claim.

Discussion: Poynter

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Jon Stewart Points Out the Downside of TV's Twitter-Love — Excellent twofer from “The Daily Show” last night: Deflating Twitter and TV news in one three-minute segment. — The Daily Show — Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook

Discussion: Lost Remote, WebProNews, TechCrunch and The Huffington Post

Nikki Finke / Deadline.com:

LA Times Layoffs Due To Movie Ad Falloffs — The Los Angeles Times began another round of buyouts and layoffs extending into August. And all because of what internal sources say is a dramatic shortfall in movie advertising revenue. “Film advertising is down -25% under the projections for this time of year.

Scrivs / Drawar:

Redesigning And Re-Thinking The News — Whenever someone does an aesthetically pleasing redesign of a popular site it draws the attention of the industry. Andy Rutledge had a crack at The New York Times and it seems to be the buzz. Whenever a redesign like this occurs though it is important …

Discussion: digiday:DAILY and PSFK

Peter Horrocks / BBC:

BBC stringer killed in Afghanistan — This morning we received the extremely sad news that the BBC's stringer in Oruzgan province in Afghanistan, Ahmed Omed Khpulwak, had been killed. He died in the city of Tarin Kowt during a prolonged assault involving suicide attackers.

Discussion: BBC, TVNewser, Committee to Protect … and Guardian