Mediagazer: Bloomberg jabs at Comcast on anniversary of NBC deal approval (Joe Flint/Company Town)

12:50 PM ET, January 20, 2012

Top News:

Nate Anderson / Ars Technica:

Why the feds smashed Megaupload — The US government dropped a nuclear bomb on “cyberlocker” site Megaupload today, seizing its domain names, grabbing $50 million in assets, and getting New Zealand police to arrest four of the site's key employees, including enigmatic founder Kim Dotcom.

Discussion: TechCrunch, PC Magazine, CNET, TechCrunch, The Lede, Digits, Guardian, New York Times, Media News, TeleRead, The Not-So Private Parts and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Molly Wood / CNET:

Anonymous goes nuclear; everybody loses? — #OpMegaUpload: like watching “War Games” play out, but with cyber-bombs. — In the aftermath of the Jan. 18 SOPA/PIPA blackout protests, the Internet community had amassed quite a bit of goodwill, flexed its muscles in a friendly, humorous …

Discussion: Mother Jones, New York Times, Forbes, Fast Company, Gawker, WebProNews, Techdirt, rt.com, Pocket-lint, Gizmodo and WatchingTV Online, more at Techmeme »

Ben Sisario / The New York Times:
7 Charged as F.B.I. Closes a Top File-Sharing Site

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Facebook in talks to replace YouTube as Vevo's host — Facebook has held talks with Vevo about moving the music-video service away from YouTube and over to the social network's platform, sources with knowledge of the talks told CNET. — While the sources said the discussions are very preliminary …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, paidContent, The Tech Trade, PC Magazine, Softpedia News, Fortune, VatorNews, SplatF, Mashable!, The Next Web, Electronista, Gizmodo and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Daily Mail publisher loses challenge to Leveson inquiry anonymity ruling — High court declines to grant Associated Newspapers review of decision to allow anonymous submissions from journalists — The Daily Mail publisher, Associated Newspapers, has lost its high court challenge …

Discussion: Editor's Blog, Press Gazette and Associated Press

Telegraph:

News International faces FBI phone hacking probe — Rupert Murdoch's is facing an FBI investigation into phone hacking in America after News International admitted intercepting voicemails of Jude Law, the actor, while it is thought he was in the United States. — Jude Law

Discussion: Deadline.com and The Huffington Post

Guardian:
How News Group hid phone-hacking scandal

Discussion: Press Gazette, CJR, Neville Thurlbeck and The Wire

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:
News Corp. ‘Startling’ E-Mails Trigger New U.K. Computer Search

Discussion: Deadline.com

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

BuzzFeed Makes Another Splashy Hire, This One From Rolling Stone — BuzzFeed, the social Web site that made a splash last month by hiring the blogger Ben Smith away from Politico, will signal its expansion plans on Friday by announcing that it has hired Doree Shafrir of Rolling Stone to oversee culture coverage.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Raju Narisetti leaving Washington Post to return to WSJ — After three years at The Washington Post, managing editor Raju Narisetti is returning to The Wall Street Journal as managing editor of the Journal's Digital Network. Narisetti worked at the Journal for 13 years before stints at Mint and the Post …

Discussion: Dow Jones, paidContent and FishbowlDC

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Leaders In House And Senate Postpone Anti-Piracy Efforts — The push for controversial legislation known as SOPA and PIPA appears to have unraveled completely after leaders in both the House and Senate put the bills on ice. — In a press release this morning, Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Tx) …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Iran's Press TV loses UK licence — Ofcom revokes English-language channel's licence for breaching the Communications Act — Press TV, the Iranian state broadcaster's English-language outlet, has been forced off the air in the UK after Ofcom revoked its licence for breaching the Communications Act.

Discussion: Press Gazette and Reuters

Dan Wineman / venomous porridge:

The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA — Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks. I haven't played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool. However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:

Politico:

CNN's John King puts himself on firing line — CHARLESTON, S.C. — Newt Gingrich's heated exchange with moderator John King at Thursday's CNN debate may help determine the fate of Gingrich's campaign for president and could also be a defining moment for King, whose image as a serious reporter …

Discussion: TVNewser, Media Decoder, New York Times, Poynter, Washington Times, Online NewsHour, The Caucus, WLTX-TV, The Daily Beast, Inside Cable News, Erik Wemple and Telegraph

Cotton Delo / AdAge:

Search Still Drives Google, but Display Ads a $5 Billion Business — Revenue Falls Short of Expectations but Still Up 25% in Q4 — Citing a strong holiday season, Google reported a 25% increase in fourth-quarter revenue and a display advertising business that has doubled in the last two years.

Discussion: Adweek, Epicenter, Google Investor Relations, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, San Francisco Chronicle, eMedia Vitals and Media Buyer Planner, more at Techmeme »

Ananyo Bhattacharya / Guardian:

Nine ways scientists demonstrate they don't understand journalism — If reporters wrote stories the way some scientists seem to want, few people would read science coverage — Have you heard of Futurity? How about The Conversation? In different ways, these sites and others are bypassing …

Discussion: Erik Wemple

John Koblin / WWD:

Condé Nast CEO Plans Meeting for Editors — NEW BFFS: Ever so slowly, the editors at Condé Nast are getting to know their company's chief executive officer more and more. Early next month, for the first time, Condé Nast ceo Charles Townsend will host a meeting …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:

Online Ad Spend Projected To Soar To Nearly $40B — In a watershed moment for the Web, researchers expect domestic online advertising to finally surpass print adverting in 2012. According to eMarketer, U.S. online ad spending will grow an additional 23.3% to $39.5 billion this year.