Mediagazer: BBC investigations to get funding boost (Guardian)

1:30 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: Gawker, Mediaite, Company Town, The Huffington Post, The Awl, Splitsider, newsfeed.time.com, AOL TV and Gothamist

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, Hollywood Reporter, FishbowlDC, Guardian, Media Law Prof Blog, Regret the Error, Business Insider, FleetStreetBlues and Future Journalism Project

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:
‘Daily Mail’ Jumps The Gun On Knox Verdict With Embarrassing Results

Discussion: Guardian, Daily Mail, Forbes, Malcolm Coles, Softpedia News, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, @themediatweets, @mikebutcher, @matthewwells, @marcsettle, @kashhill, @felixsalmon, Gawker and Associated Press

Julie Moos / Poynter:
Amanda Knox verdict plays big & bold on most news home pages

Discussion: Editors Weblog, TVNewser, The Atlantic Wire, Telegraph and Mediaite

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, mediabistro.com, paidContent and John Battelle's Searchblog, 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 …

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: TechCrunch and NetNewsCheck Latest

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: Forbes, Rolling Stone and The Huffington Post, Thanks:adrjeffries

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 …

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: paidContent, DealBook, CNET News, Forbes and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

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: AllThingsD

Bill Keller:

Disrupters and Adapters, Continued: Will the Internet Save Newspapers? — The two visions of higher education's future I described in my column this week - Stanford Professor Sebastian Thrun's mission of a virtual university and Stanford President John Hennessy's devotion to a flesh-and-blood campus …

Discussion: Erik Wemple and New York Times

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Apple expected to introduce Newsstand today at iPhone 5 event — Apple is announcing the latest version of its phone and mobile operating system today, which among many upgrades includes a new Newsstand section for buying and organizing newspaper and magazine apps.

Discussion: VentureBeat and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

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

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Price-Fixing Case Against Apple, Major Book Publishers Mushrooms — Back in August, a class action lawsuit was filed against five major book publishers and Apple (NSDQ: AAPL), accusing them of colluding to jack up the price of e-books in an effort to wrest back pricing power from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN).

Discussion: Techland and TeleRead

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

McSweeney's Publishes Grantland Quarterly, Blog-to-Print Journal — Today Grantland began selling Grantland Quarterly, a print anthology of the best reads from the sports and culture site so far. It is edited by Bill Simmons and Dan Fierman. — ESPN and Grantland have contracted McSweeney's …

Discussion: The Awl and The Corsair

E.B. Boyd / Fast Company:

Yahoo Launches Video Destination Site — More and more people are logging on to the Internet for the kind of relaxation and entertainment they used to look for on the boob tube. Yahoo Screen positions the company to capture some of those audiences. — Move over Hulu. There's a new video hub in town.

Discussion: Forbes, Techland, Mashable!, GigaOM and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Prometheus Shares Ownership Of Back Stage; ‘Wolff Is Not Being Fired’ — Prometheus Global Media, the publisher of Adweek, Billboard and The Hollywood Reporter has struck a strategic alliance with a group of investors led by NYC taxi advertising executive John Amato to run performing arts title Back Stage magazine.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, New York Post, Speakeasy, FishbowlLA and Deadline.com

C. J. Chivers / New York Times:

Tyler Hicks: A Decade in Afghanistan — There are places and times where the politics that drive wars fade and then fade more, becoming abstractions to the people who fight or who are in a fight's way. And there are moments when politics disappear entirely, and more elemental actions and emotions replace them.

Discussion: Future Journalism Project

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

Miriam Elder / Guardian:

Lebedev charged with hooliganism over punch-up — Investigation finds the media tycoon ‘brought bodily harm’ to fellow billionaire Sergei Polonsky on the TV programme — Russian prosecutors have launched a criminal case against the media tycoon Alexander Lebedev on charges of hooliganism …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Business Insider

Guardian:

BBC investigations to get funding boost — Special fund to increase following director general's intervention, but BBC2, BBC4 and World Service likely to be cut — Investigative journalism at the BBC is to be boosted under plans put forward under the “Delivering Quality First” …

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Robert Mackey Returns to The New York Times — Robert Mackey, the former editor of the New York Times' The Lede blog, is returning to the paper, after a very short stint with The Guardian's stateside team. The announcement was just made by Jim Roberts, the Times' Assistant Managing Editor, on Twitter.

Discussion: eBookNewser

Stuart Dredge / paidContent:

More Than Half Of Netflix's Streams Are TV Shows, Not Films — Netflix's background in DVDs-by-mail means it is often seen as mainly a movies service. However, the balance has tipped more towards TV shows in its streaming operation. — “50 percent and sometimes 60 percent of viewing is TV episodes now …

Discussion: CNET News, GigaOM, Deadline.com, FT Tech Hub and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

‘Sun on Sunday’ edges step closer with hiring spree — The possibility of Rupert Murdoch launching a replacement Sunday newspaper for the defunct News of the World increased yesterday as News International created a series of new senior jobs. — The posts are for senior roles on The Sun …

Discussion: Press Gazette and Jon Slattery

Chao Deng / CJR:

Memoirs of a Markets Reporter — Readers demand an explanations for why markets go up and down. But sometimes, nobody really knows. — When reading a typical stock-market story, one that says something like, “Futures Gain Ahead of Obama Jobs Plan,” did you ever think to yourself …

Discussion: Forbes and Globe and Mail

Sharon Waxman / The Wrap:

New Hulu Bids Due This Week, But Sale Probability Wanes — Second-round bids for the streaming start-up Hulu are due this week, but a sale looks less and less likely as the owners debate demands for conditions around the bids, according to individuals knowledgeable about the auction.

Discussion: GigaOM, fiercecable.com/news/frontpage and MediaPost

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Editor: Aug. 2011 ‘Wall Street Journal’ ad revenue up 24 percent over Aug. 2010 — The Wall Street Journal saw a 24-percent increase in print ad revenue in August when compared to August of 2010, an increase that occurred “while other national newspapers have reported distressing declines in advertising …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Media Matters for America and Poynter

Maisie McCabe / Media Week:

International Herald Tribune introduces paid-for app subscription — The International Herald Tribune (IHT) has introduced a paid-for digital subscription for access to its Phone and iPad apps. — International Herald Tribune: introduces digital subscriptions

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

MG Siegler Will Become Our Apple Columnist, And Join CrunchFund As A VC — When I first reached out to MG Siegler to join TechCrunch two and a half years ago, I knew he was an amazing talent who could help cement our place as the premier technology blog on the Internet.

Discussion: Betabeat, parislemon, Gawker, paidContent, @rafat, UNCRUNCHED, Digits, Fred Destin, @betabeat and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Associated Press:

Fox News Channel renews ‘The Five’ after summer replacement of Glenn Beck — NEW YORK — The Fox News Channel talk show given a summer tryout in Glenn Beck's old time slot will be sticking around. — Fox said Monday that it has picked up “The Five,” a 5 p.m. ET political talk show …