Mediagazer: From Russia, With Laziness (Baltimore City Paper)

5:00 PM ET, October 19, 2011

Top News:

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Ignored Aberrant WSJ Data — News Corp. (NWSA), the media company facing an investor uprising over its business practices, was alerted to a plan to inflate circulation at the Wall Street Journal Europe almost a year before the newspaper's publisher resigned, according to a former employee and internal documents.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and The New York Observer

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

WSJ Top Editor: Future Fox Business Deal “Not Necessarily” A Sure Thing — The Wall Street Journal has not decided if it will form a partnership with Fox Business similar to the newspaper's current arrangement with CNBC when that deal ends next year, the Journal's top editor tells Media Matters.

Discussion: Top Digital Journal News, BtoB Magazine, News on News, Future of Journalism and Reuters

Philipp Grontzki / MarketWatch:
Dow Jones to launch online German version of WSJ

Discussion: paidContent

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

Murdochs' Infighting Clouds Future of News Corp. — LONDON — It was a striking display of unity: Rupert and James Murdoch, father and son, walking side by side through central London as they faced a crisis that had laid siege to their company. Pushing through a crush of paparazzi on a street …

Discussion: Reuters, On Media's Blog, Guardian, Gawker, Company Town, NetNewsCheck Latest, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY, NPR, Poynter, Free Press, Press Gazette, @brianstelter and @jeffjarvis

James Robinson / Guardian:

NI lawyer says he knew its ‘rogue reporter’ defence was wrong — Farrer & Co partner tells MPs he was aware company had misled parliament but did not act because of client confidentiality — A lawyer who acted for News International (NI) over phone-hacking claims has told MPs he knew …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

The Independent:
James Murdoch ‘had to sign off hacking payouts over £250,000’

Discussion: Guardian

Gordon MacMillan / Brand Republic: Tom Watson buys News Corp shares and will attend the AGM

Pamela Moreland / Online Journalism Review:

Don't just blame the player - blame the game, too — By Pamela Moreland: I would have hired former Politico.com reporter Kendra Marr. — Why? Because her resume and my resume are so alike. — Same journalism undergrad and grad school. Same love of journalism. We both worked in the San Francisco Bay Area region.

Discussion: Poynter

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Caruso named Smithsonian editor-in-chief — Romenesko+ Misc. — Michael Caruso, who is currently deputy editor of WSJ. magazine, succeeds Carey Winfrey, who retired last month. Caruso has served as editor-in-chief at Details, Men's Journal and Los Angeles. He's also worked at Portfolio and the Village Voice.

Discussion: Adweek

Julie Moos / Poynter:

USA Today managing editor leaves to become Bar Association media relations director — Carol Stevens, who has worked at USA Today for 14 years, is leaving her post as managing editor/news of the Gannett paper to become the media relations director for the American Bar Association.

Discussion: Gannett Blog

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

What Not to Do in Hong Kong (Trust Me on This One) — How shall I put this as delicately as I am known for: So I went to AsiaD in Hong Kong and all I got was this lousy transient ischemic attack. — First off: I'm doing great, have recovered all functions completely, and have even had a couple of scoops while bedridden.

Discussion: GeekWire, Business Insider, The Next Web, The Loop, 9to5Mac and Poynter, more at Techmeme »

Bucky Turco / ANIMAL:

Huffington Post Writer Naomi Wolf Arrested in Front of Huffington Post Event — A little after 9PM, academic and feminist writer Naomi Wolf joined Occupy Wall Street demonstrators in front of Skylight Soho, a space that was hosting an event she attended for the Huffington Post, a website she contributes to.

Discussion: GalleyCat and Gothamist

Naomi Wolf / Guardian:
How I was arrested at Occupy Wall Street

Discussion: Washington Post, City Room, The New York Observer and New York Magazine

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

The Daily Is No. 1 On Apple's Newsstand — Apple's Newsstand app seems to be a boon for publishers, and no one's benefiting from it more than The Daily. News Corp.'s eight-month-old iPad-only publication has been the No. 1 seller in the digital storefront since it launched last week …

Thanks:timcohn

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

MSNBC Primetime Shake-up. Ed Schultz Moves to 8pm; Lawrence O'Donnell Back to 10pm — Ed Schultz, whose “The Ed Show” on MSNBC began the year at 6pmET, before moving to 10pm, is now going to lead off MSNBC's primetime at 8pm. “The Last Word with Lawrence O'Donnell” will move back to its original 10pmET timeslot.

Discussion: NBC Universal, rbr.com, Mediaite, Deadline.com, The Huffington Post, On Media's Blog, Broadcasting & Cable and Media Decoder

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

The Company Behind WordPress Invests in Newspaper Toolmaker OwnLocal — The open source blogging start-up Automattic has made its first investment, leading a round of funding in Austin, Texas-based OwnLocal, which offers tools for newspapers to help local businesses with their Web presence.

Discussion: GigaOM, VentureBeat and VatorNews

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

The Economist Bows To Apple Terms As iOS 5 Breaks Its App — The Economist is finally moving to an iPad strategy compliant with Apple's new developer terms, after what it calls “iOS bugs” under the new iOS 5 broke its non-compliant app edition. — The newspaper's debut app appears …

Discussion: News for Digital Journalists, CNET News and GigaOM

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Kobo Announces Kindle Fire Competitor, The $199.99 WiFi Vox Tablet — In an effort to compete with Amazon's Kindle Fire, e-reading company Kobo is launching a tablet of its own: The $199.99 Kobo Vox, a 7-inch Android, WiFi color tablet that starts shipping October 28. How does it stack up to the Kindle Fire?

Discussion: Forbes, TechCrunch, Company Town, Softpedia News, Broadcasting & Cable, ZDNet, eBookNewser and paidContent:UK

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Reuters Chief Addresses Flap Over That Soros Story, Sort Of — Journalists at Reuters are scratching their heads today after receiving a puzzling memo from their editor in chief, Steve Adler. Headlined “Editorial Update,” the memo appears to have been drafted in response …

Discussion: Poynter and Guardian

Keach Hagey / On Media's Blog:

POLITICO, Random House launch online bookstore — POLITICO has taken its second step into the book business today with the launch of an online bookstore, in partnership with Random House, of political books curated by POLITICO's editors. — “POLITICO Bookshelf” will be operated …

Discussion: Poynter, GalleyCat, mocoNews and Erik Wemple

James Rainey / Los Angeles Times:

On the Media: Gary E. Knell wants to ‘retell’ the NPR story — The incoming president of the public radio network plans to make the case to Congress for its value. — Big Bird, Elmo and their pals made huggable toys and helped turn “Sesame Street” into a durable worldwide brand.

Discussion: Poynter

Baltimore City Paper:

From Russia, With Laziness — The following is an actual e-mail received by City Paper last week.

Discussion: Erik Wemple

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

How the Print-Digital Divide Endures at The New York Times — On Thursday, Jill Abramson, executive editor of The New York Times, announced that the paper sought to eliminate up to 20 newsroom positions through voluntary buyouts. — Unlike the round of 100 buyouts that occurred in 2009 …

Meagan Fitzpatrick / CBC News:

Internet links not libel, top court rules — Hyperlinking to defamatory material on the internet does not constitute publishing the defamatory material itself, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled Wednesday. — The ruling will alleviate fears that holding someone liable for how they use hyperlinks …

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Netflix adds Android app support for Honeycomb tablets — Netflix is releasing a new version of its Android app that will add support for Honeycomb tablets and expand availability beyond the U.S. With version 1.5 of the Netflix app, which is now available as a free download on the Android Market …

Discussion: The Official Netflix Blog, Multichannel, PC Magazine and SlashGear, more at Techmeme »

Rick Robinson / Street Fight:

Jim Brady Reflects on WaPo, ‘Blown Up’ TBD and the Do or Die Future of Local — Combine digital community journalism and the New York Jets? Jim Brady might call that heaven. The longtime leader in online journalism and hyperlocal endeavors (though he avoids the term hyperlocal) …

Discussion: Poynter