Mediagazer: ESPN Deems Mobile ‘First Screen’ (Mark Walsh/MediaPost)

11:30 AM ET, January 30, 2012

Top News:

Nick Davies / Guardian:

Mysteries of Data Pool 3 give Rupert Murdoch a whole new headache — The arrest of four Sun journalists threatens to open a fresh phase of the scandal surrounding News International — On Saturday morning, the police arrested four journalists who have worked for Rupert Murdoch.

Discussion: Times of India

Roy Greenslade / Guardian: Sun arrests show that News Corp is now at war with itself

David Carr / New York Times:

Twitter Gives Glimpse Into Rupert Murdoch's Mind — As American business has become more and more media savvy, its leaders have appeared in media less and less. Business reporters have to work their way past background conversations with underlings, written statements that state nothing …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Gawker, @carr2n and @romenesko

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Barnes & Noble, Taking On Amazon in the Fight of Its Life — IN March 2009, an eternity ago in Silicon Valley, a small team of engineers here was in a big hurry to rethink the future of books. Not the paper-and-ink books that have been around since the days of Gutenberg …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Techland, Digits, Joe Wikert's Publishing …, Business Insider, Electronista, CNET, GeekWire, Engadget, Future of Journalism, Peter O'Kelly's Reality Check, bookforum.com, The Verge and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Reports: Barnes & Noble Partnership With Waterstones; New Nook — Two separate reports published this weekend suggest that Barnes & Noble (NYSE: BKS) is close to a partnership with UK bookstore chain Waterstones and, perhaps separately, will release a new Nook this spring. — The first article is from Bloomberg.

Discussion: GalleyCat, Bloomberg and Bookseller news

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

For ProPublica, More E-Books — ProPublica, the nonprofit news organization known for its investigative journalism, is about to expand its e-book efforts. — Following in the digital footsteps of The New Yorker, The New York Times, Politico, Vanity Fair and Cosmopolitan …

Discussion: paidContent, The New York Observer, eMedia Vitals and NetNewsCheck Latest

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Gannett Misses Earnings On Special Charges, Digital Revenue Up — Gannett (NYSE: GCI) Co. posted lower than expected earnings for the fourth quarter of 2011 after incurring special charges related to workforce restructuring and asset write-downs. A report also showed that its newspaper empire continues …

Discussion: Forbes, PR Newswire and Broadcasting & Cable

Michael Brendan Dougherty / Business Insider:

Drudge Fights Back Against The Charge He Is In Romney's Pocket — On the top right corner of the Drudge Report, the master of the news-cycle links to a story from Politico in which former Senator Fred Thompson alleges Drudge is in Romney's pocket. — And just below that link …

David Weigel / Slate: Drudge Winks — Before it's taken down, check out the joke Matt Drudge …

Tanzina Vega / New York Times:

Online Ambitions, and a Dash of Real Estate, Drive Newspaper Deals — IF the future of media is digital, who would want to buy a newspaper? Many people, it turns out. — Investors acquired the newspapers in several major American cities in the second half of 2011, including The San Diego Union-Tribune …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter and The Newspaper Guild

Mark Walsh / MediaPost:

ESPN Deems Mobile ‘First Screen’ — As a pioneer in the mobile media space, ESPN has long seen the value of reaching fans on-the-go with sports scores, video highlights and specialized apps to feed their passion. But rather than view mobile as the oft-described “third screen,” …

Discussion: Forbes, GigaOM and eMedia Vitals

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Where's the Fire? Kindle Sales Pushing Six Million for the Quarter. — Has anyone seen one of Amazon's new Kindle Fires in the wild? I haven't. But evidently they're everywhere. You just need to know where to look to find them — like Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan.

Discussion: CNET and Mashable!

Sarah Shearman / Brand Republic:

News International turns to Facebook for Fabulous ‘social media magazine’ — News International (NI) is trialling a new publishing model with the launch of its first “social media magazine” on Facebook for its Fabulous magazine. — Tomorrow (1 February) NI launches its Fabulous for Facebook app …

Discussion: Noted

Steven Waldman / CJR:

Local TV Stations Rally to Oppose Media Transparency — What exactly are their “public interest obligations”? — Local television stations have now rallied against the key elements of the Federal Communications Commission's media transparency proposal, which would require broadcasters to move their …