Mediagazer: Rupert Murdoch receives $12.5m bonus (Josh Halliday/Guardian)

5:45 PM ET, September 2, 2011

Top News:

Dan Primack / Fortune:

CrunchFund confusion — If Michael Arrington is leaving TechCrunch, what does that mean for the investors in CrunchFund? — Yesterday we were first to report that tech blogger Michael Arrington has launched a $20 million venture capital fund, which is being backed by AOL (AOL) and a group of Silicon Valley's top VC firms.

Discussion: MediaFile, The Business Insider, The Business Insider, Poynter, @eldon, @jayrosen_nyu, New York Magazine, Future Journalism Project, CNET News, broadstuff, Adweek, paidContent and Betabeat, more at Techmeme »

The Business Insider:

AOL SPOKESMAN: Mike Arrington Is No Longer Employed By This Company* — Update: WAIT! Now AOL Says Mike Arrington Is Still An Employee - In The Business Development Division — Earlier: TechCrunch founder and editor Michael Arrington is “not employed by AOL” anymore, AOL Huffington Post spokesperson Mario Ruiz tells us.

Discussion: AllThingsD, The Business Insider, Bits, Mercury News, Forbes, VatorNews, L.A. Times Tech Blog, @pkafka, VentureBeat, @pkafka, @lyneka, Digits, Between the Lines Blog, mediabistro.com, FishbowlNY, WebProNews and Editors Weblog, more at Techmeme »

Paul Carr / TechCrunch:

The CrunchFund: Actually, Tim, We Don't All Have “Different” Standards — Yesterday afternoon, Mike Arrington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong announced the launch of “the CrunchFund”, a venture fund that will — according to the New York Times — “invest in start-ups, including some that [Arrington] and his staff write about”.

Discussion: MediaFile, Tweetage Wasteland, The Snitch, Forbes.com, ReadWriteWeb, FT Tech Hub and PC Magazine, more at Techmeme »

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Mike Arrington, AOL Employee, Won't Have “Influence on Coverage,” Says AOL — You thought a story about Mike Arrington would be clean and easy? Ha. — So here's the latest (for those just tuning in, we'll do backstory later — who said the inverted triangle was dead?):

Discussion: Forbes and The Loop

Dave Winer / Scripting News:

Arrington is the future of what we used to call journalism — Interesting but not too surprising how the tech press is spinning the new VC fund being run by Mike Arrington of TechCrunch. — There's not any real controversy here, however. — 1. It's not news. He's been investing in tech startups for a long time.

Discussion: Anil Dash, VatorNews and Mark Evans Tech

The Business Insider: AOL Left Arianna Huffington In The Dark About Arrington's Controversial VC Fund

Nicholas Carlson / The Business Insider:
AOL Is Replacing Michael Arrington At TechCrunch - He'll Still Write

Discussion: Betabeat, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, Future of Journalism and Gizmodo

Mat Honan / Gizmodo:
Aol: You've Got Conflicts

Discussion: Venture Capital Dispatch, Betabeat, The Business Insider, @kemcke, @zee, @fromedome, L.A. Times Tech Blog, GeekWire, @karaswisher and @soslist

Dan Primack / Fortune:
Michael Arrington launching venture fund

Discussion: The Business Insider, Felix Salmon, New York Times, @arrington, Forbes, Venture Capital Dispatch, Adweek, Fast Company, VentureBeat and The Next Web

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch receives $12.5m bonus — News Corp chief's total pay package soars 47% to $33m, though his son James has declined $6m bonus — Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, received a $12.5m (£7.7m) cash bonus for the last financial year …

Discussion: rbr.com, Multichannel, Adweek, Media & Entertainment, Broadcasting & Cable, FishbowlNY, Media Decoder, Hollywood Reporter, Runnin' Scared, Media News, Advertising …, New York Magazine and Media Law Prof Blog

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

James Murdoch Turns Down $6 Million Bonus, Citing PhoneGate — News Corp. executive James Murdoch says he'll decline a $6 million bonus the company gave him for his performance in its last fiscal year, citing the ongoing PhoneGate scandal. — Murdoch, who is Deputy Chief Operating Officer …

Discussion: rbr.com

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

Phone hacking: 34-year-old man arrested — Unnamed man arrested by officers from the Met police's Operation Weeting team in connection with phone hacking and perverting the course of justice — Today's arrest is the 15th by the Met police's Operation Weeting phone hacking investigation

Discussion: Guardian and Press Gazette

James Cusick / The Independent:

Gordon Brown issues challenge over Sunday Times recordings — Gordon Brown has stepped up his campaign against Rupert Murdoch's News International media group, sending tape recordings to the Metropolitan Police earlier today which he says challenge the Sunday Times's assurances that it broke …

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Jim Breyer Joins News Corp. Board as Tom Perkins Departs

Discussion: paidContent, AllThingsD, FishbowlNY, TechCrunch, Adweek, Forbes and Globe and Mail

Reuters:
Insight: Murdoch's tough guy Carlucci under pressure

Discussion: The Slog, Stop Big Media News and Crikey

Felix Gillette / Business Week:
Matthew Freud Will See You Now — If the PR whiz can steer himself …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Company Town and Felix Salmon

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Who gets Starz digital rights now? Probably no one — Starz dropped a bomb on Netflix Thursday, announcing to the world that it was ending negotiations for a renewal of their deal and pulling its content from the streaming service next March. That's led many to speculate about who might pick up those rights when they lapse.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Company Town

Ben Fritz / Company Town:
Netflix offered $300 million-plus, but Starz wanted higher consumer prices

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:
How the Starz-Netflix Divorce Will Remake Video

Discussion: GigaOM, The Next Web and Between the Lines Blog, more at Techmeme », Thanks:tcarmody

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

Fashion Week Flameout: Why the Industry Is Erupting at Tumblr and Rich Tong — Earlier this year Tumblr was the toast of fashion week. The company's fashion director, Rich Tong, negotiated access for influential Tumblr users to cover swanky events. The bloggers, once the red headed step children …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Ben Popper / Betabeat:
The Legal Risks of Rich Tong's Tumblr Fashion Week Proposal

Discussion: The Corsair

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Oprah calls on tech bigs to save Web site — Oprah Winfrey is in need of an Internet intervention. — The talk show queen plans to huddle with top tech players next week to gin up some ideas for reviving her flagship site, Oprah.com, whose traffic has plummeted since her daytime talk show ended in May, The Post has learned.

Discussion: Gawker, AllThingsD, The Business Insider, The Next Web, VatorNews, The Huffington Post, The New York Observer and TVWeek.com

NPR Topics:

As Media Lines ‘Blur,’ We All Become Editors … For years now, media watchers have warned that the dwindling popularity of traditional media would change how we follow the news. They've predicted that news consumers would need to learn the difference between a credible source and an interested party …

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:UK:

Digital-First Guardian Cuts Down MediaGuardian, Two Other Print Supplements — More developments on the theme of printed newspapers going digital first. The Guardian has announced that the MediaGuardian, plus two other weekly supplements on education and society, will cease to be a standalone printed supplements after next week.

Discussion: Guardian and Press Gazette

Amy Wicks / WWD:

Details Moves into E-Commerce — DETAILS GOES SHOPPING: Details made news and drew some criticism a few weeks ago when it released a digital magazine guest-edited by Ashton Kutcher, an investor in many of the tech companies that he covered in the issue. The magazine's next foray on the Web …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and MediaPost