Mediagazer: Who Needs Netflix? Paramount Streams Latest ‘Transformers’ Directly to Consumers (Jason Del Rey/AdAge)

7:35 PM ET, October 4, 2011

Top News:

Money Dispute May End ‘Simpsons’ — A money dispute between Fox and the actors who voice the characters on The Simpsons may force the long-running hit series to shut down next spring. Lloyd Grove reports exclusively. — As Homer Simpson would put it, “D'oh!”

Discussion: rbr.com, Company Town, Splitsider, Deadline.com, Company Town, Washington Post, NME News, Mediaite, AOL TV, newsfeed.time.com, The Huffington Post, Gawker, ArtsBeat, TVLine, The Awl, Gothamist and TVbytheNumbers

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Who Needs Netflix? Paramount Streams Latest ‘Transformers’ Directly to Consumers — ‘A Little Toe-Dip’ in New Distribution Method for Paramount and Viacom — Paramount Pictures has quietly introduced an online streaming option for “Transformers: Dark of the Moon,” taking home viewing straight …

Discussion: VentureBeat, VatorNews, AllThingsD, Future of Journalism and fiercecable.com/news/frontpage

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Peacock poaches ruffle CBS feathers — CBS News boss Jeff Fager is angry after losing some talent to rival NBC as the Peacock network gears up to launch a prime-time news magazine this fall, The Post has learned. — The magazine, “Rock Center With Brian Williams” — run by former …

Discussion: WNYC News Blog and Chickaboomer

RBR:
Brian Williams newsmagazine replaces Playboy Club

Discussion: TVNewser, Mediaite, Media & Entertainment, Hollywood Reporter, Media Decoder, Media Decoder, AdAge, rbr.com and TVSpy

Adrianne Jeffries / The New York Observer:

From Blackout to Circus: The Evolution of Media Coverage at Occupy Wall Street — Geraldo Rivera interviewing protesters at Zuccotti Park on Saturday, Oct. 1. (Photo: Hannah Grant) — THE PROTESTERS AT OCCUPY WALL STREET have had at least one of their demands met: the perceived …

Discussion: Gawker, Capital New York, Forbes, Media Matters for America, Mediaite, Mogulite, Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post, Thanks:adrjeffries

Steve Myers / Poynter:

AP adds to its ‘Beat of the Week’ contest to recognize state-level news — The Associated Press told its employees Tuesday that it's adding to its “Beat of the Week” contest with a category specifically for state-level news. National or international stories usually win “Beat of the Week” …

Bradley Johnson / AdAge:

Digital Takes the Jobs Lead in New Mainstream Media — Staffing at Internet-Media Businesses and Web-Search Portals Soars — When it comes to jobs, digital is the new mainstream media. Consider this: U.S. employment at digital-media ventures is on track to pass employment in broadcast TV and in magazines by early 2012.

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Apple announces NewsStand partners: New York Times, Wired, National Geographic and more — At its Let's Talk iPhone event in Cupertino, Apple has just announced the launch partners for its NewsStand service, the ‘iBooks for Magazines’ announced at WWDC. — As this image from The Verge confirms …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, New York Magazine, Poynter and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

The author of the greatest sorry-to-see-our-downsized-colleague- go letter has died — Former Chicago Tribune journalist (and occasional Romenesko Letters contributor) Steve Daley died Sunday of unknown causes. He was 62. “Daley could do sports, Daley could do politics, Daley could do media criticism …

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Federated Media Buys Lijit Networks — San Francisco-based Federated Media Publishing said it has bought Lijit Networks, a smaller online advertising analytics and tools firm. — The price for the Boulder, Colo., start-up — which was founded in 2006 — was undisclosed …

Discussion: VentureBeat, John Battelle's Searchblog and paidContent, more at Techmeme »

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

The Daily scolds UK's Daily Mail for lifting its Scientology series — Staffers from the Daily iPad newspaper spent more than five weeks of reporting, writing, fact-checking and editing a two-part report on the most prestigious boarding school in the Scientology world.

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

U.S. Mobile Ad Spend To Pass $1 Billion For The First Time This Year — Mobile advertising is still a small and young business when you compare it to how much money goes into digital—let alone offline—advertising and marketing campaigns. But there are some clear signs of it growing up fast …

Discussion: MediaPost, eMarketer, TechCrunch and NetNewsCheck Latest, more at Techmeme »

Steven Jacobs / Street Fight:

Philly.com Launches Hyperlocal Site for Main Line — Philly.com, the digital face for the Philadelphia Media Network's traditional news subsidies, the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Daily News, launched a small hyperlocal site yesterday. Taking on the brand of a once-successful community …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and mediabistro.com

Lynne Marek / Chicago Business:

Tribune bonus plan OKd by bankruptcy judge — (Crain's) — The judge in Tribune Co.'s bankruptcy approved a management incentive plan that will pay bonuses of as much as $42.5 million to 640 employees. — “I think it's entirely reasonable to order this relief in these uncertain times,” …

Discussion: Poynter and FishbowlLA

Robert J. Rosenthal / California Watch:

Part 1: Sustaining investigative journalism means finding a new model — I'm not sure I would have become the executive director of the Center for Investigative Reporting in January 2008 if I had really understood the challenges ahead of me and had thought them out carefully; I had no idea what I was getting into.

Bloomberg:

Silver Lake, Alibaba, Digital Sky in Yahoo Talks — The private-equity firm Silver Lake, Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Russia's Digital Sky Technologies are discussing a possible joint bid for Yahoo! Inc., three people with direct knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: MediaPost, paidContent, DealBook, CNET News, Business Insider and Forbes

Michael Yoch / NPR:

NPR Comes To Google TV — NPR has launched a new app for the Google TV platform. The app — featured in the Google TV Spotlight Gallery (video only works in Chrome) — makes it easy for users to watch NPR's best video and multimedia slideshows on a big screen.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Joe Scarborough tells us to turn off our filthy televisions — “When I'm off the air, I have stopped trying to find news on TV networks other than ours,” the host of MSNBC's morning news-talk show “Morning Joe” said during an Advertising Week event at the Times Center on Eighth Avenue yesterday.

Discussion: Mediaite, Inside Cable News and The New York Observer

Press Gazette:

Daily Mail inquiry into ‘Knox guilty’ blunder — The Daily Mail has launched an internal inquiry after mistakenly publishing a story on its website claiming Amanda Knox had lost the appeal against her conviction for murdering British student Meredith Kercher.

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser, Hollywood Reporter, Guardian, Digital Spy, Techdirt, FishbowlDC, Malcolm Coles, Media Law Prof Blog and Regret the Error

Jessica Pressler / New York Magazine:

It's Good to Be Michael Lewis — He could have made a fortune in business. Instead, he made a fortune writing about it. Plus—a fortune for everyone he writes about. — Collins Tuohy has told this story before, and by now her delivery is spot on. It was Thanksgiving morning …

TVNewsCheck:

Scripps Buys McGraw-Hill Station Group — The four ABC affiliates in Denver, San Diego, Bakersfield, Calif., and Indianapolis and five low-power Azteca affiliates go for $212 million in cash. “We are energized by the addition of good people at good stations in good markets,” says Scripps SVP Brian Lawlor.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, BtoB Magazine, MinOnline, rbr.com, Poynter, MediaPost and RBR

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Journalists go to prison to highlight plight of jailed colleagues — Two Swedish journalists have volunteered to go to jail as a way of drawing attention to the plight of three colleagues held in Eritrea and Ethiopia. — Johan Wirfält and Sara Murillo Cortes plan to be locked …

Discussion: Media News

Joe Coscarelli / New York Magazine:

Rupert Murdoch Funds Daily Reporter's Hunter S. Thompson-Inspired Vegas Vacation — Journalism. — News Corp.'s iPad-only newspaper experiment isn't exactly a runaway success so far, but it's being praised as an interesting research and development project.

Discussion: The Daily

Charles Riley / CNNMoney:

Buffett challenges Murdoch on tax returns — NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — Warren Buffett has a message for Rupert Murdoch and the Wall Street Journal: Sure, I'll release my tax returns, if you do too. — Last week, the Wall Street Journal published an editorial that asked Buffett to disclose his tax returns.

Discussion: New York Magazine, Business Insider and Fortune

Lewis DVorkin / Forbes:

Forbes Update: Record Traffic, New Products—and Our Fix-It and To-Do Lists — Every morning at around 6:30 (assuming curiosity doesn't get the better of me when the alarm goes off at 5:50) I check out our traffic. First, I open an Omniture report that rolls up numbers every 15 minutes all the way back to whenever.

Discussion: Talking Biz News