Mediagazer: Local TV Stations Rally to Oppose Media Transparency (Steven Waldman/CJR)

6:00 PM 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 and Business Insider

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Sun arrests show that News Corp is now at war with itself — Lest anyone fails to read it, I must commend Nick Davies's piece, Mysteries of Data Pool 3. He tells how News Corporation's Management and Standards Committee (MSC) has handed police a huge cache of material.

Discussion: Guardian

Business Wire:
Teri Everett to Exit as News Corporation's Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communications

Discussion: FishbowlNY, @brianstelter, Variety, The New York Observer, Reuters, Media Decoder, Hollywood Reporter and @michaelwolffnyc

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Former Cosmo editor gives $30 million to establish media innovation center at Stanford, Columbia — Stanford's engineering school and Columbia's journalism school will use the $30 million gift to establish the bi-coastal David and Helen Gurley Brown Institute for Media Innovation.

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 and eMedia Vitals

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 and The Newspaper Guild

Mike Armstrong / Philly.com:

Inquirer, Daily News could be headed for sale — A minority shareholder of the parent company of The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News is looking to sell its 30 percent stake, according to a story in the New York Post. — Alden Global Capital, a New York hedge fund that holds interests …

Discussion: New York Post and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Jim Romenesko:
Philly newspapers boss responds to NYP story

Discussion: Poynter

Kelly McBride / Poynter:

Yale Daily News, New York Times both make wrong call on Patrick Witt sexual assault complaint coverage — As the story of Yale University quarterback Patrick Witt (and his Rhodes scholarship that wasn't) got more convoluted last week, both The New York Times and the Yale Daily News came under …

Discussion: National Review, SBNation.com, Forbes, NESN.com and Yale Daily News

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Gannett Misses Earnings Targets 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 …

Discussion: rbr.com, PR Newswire, MediaPost, Forbes, MarketWatch, Agence France Presse, fnno.com, The CFO Report and Broadcasting & Cable

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: VentureBeat, Forbes, CNET, paidContent, Mashable!, VatorNews and PC Magazine, more at Techmeme »

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Newt's promise: No reporters as moderators — Newt Gingrich lashed out at the media today during a rally in Pensacola, Florida, suggesting that all reporters are in the tank for President Obama: “As your nominee, I will not accept debates in the fall in which the reporters are the moderators …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Poynter and msnbc.com

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 …

Discussion: WebProNews and FishbowlDC

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

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: Forbes, Media Decoder, The Verge, Gawker, @carr2n and @romenesko

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

As Anonymous protests, Internet drowns in inaccurate anti-ACTA arguments — After the Internet's decisive victory over the Stop Online Piracy Act earlier this month, online activists have been looking for their next target, and a growing number of them have chosen the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement …

Discussion: WatchingTV Online and ZDNet

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

SnagFilms Grabs $7 Million to Share Indie Movies Online — It's easy to find blockbusters like “Transformers” online. What about movies like “Casino Jack and the United States of Money”? — That's where SnagFilms comes in. The start-up has distribution rights to more than 3,000 indie movies …

Discussion: paidContent, VentureBeat and TVexchanger.com, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy Greenfield / Digital Book World:

Publishers Sour on Tablet as Reading Platform, Survey Says — By Jeremy Greenfield, Editorial Director, Digital Book World, @JDGsaid — As tablet sales surge and put downward pressure on dedicated e-reader ownership growth, publishers are pessimistic that tablets will provide readers with an enticing reading platform.