Mediagazer: Video easy: HBO takes a $10m investment in Quickflix (Lucy Battersby/Sydney Morning Herald)

2:30 PM ET, February 7, 2012

Top News:

U.S. authorities looking into Murdoch foreign payments — (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are stepping up investigations, including an FBI criminal inquiry, into possible violations by employees of Rupert Murdoch's media empire of a U.S. law banning corrupt payments to foreign officials such as police …

Discussion: Guardian, @henrycp and New York Magazine

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Times admits and apologises for NightJack email hacking — Editor James Harding says he was not told about how 2009 story revealing identity of police officer had been obtained — James Harding: reporting was highly intrusive — The Times has apologised for hacking into a police officer's email account …

Discussion: Guardian, Press Gazette and Journalism.co.uk

Bloomberg: Times Editor Apologizes for Misleading U.K. Court

Stephen Hull / The Huffington Post - UK: Dominic Mohan, Sun Editor, Says Page 3 Girls Are ‘Healthy Role Models’

BBC: Leveson Inquiry: Press watchdog ‘made a scapegoat’

Gordon Rayner / Telegraph: Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre to be recalled to Leveson Inquiry

BBC:
Phone hacking: Met police failed to warn victims

Discussion: @rosschawkins, @byameliahill and @byameliahill

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

In latest report, circulation is up for ‘New York,’ ‘New Yorker’ — During a six month period in which the magazine industry continued to see decreases in subscriptions and newsstand sales, New York's hometown glossies still eked out small circulation gains.

Discussion: NewsBulletin Connection, Folio, Media Decoder, The Huffington Post and Los Angeles Times

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Magazine Newsstand Sales Still In Freefall — Did you forget to stop by the newsstand a few times last year? Don't worry; so did a lot of your fellow Americans. The ongoing decline in magazine single-copy sales accelerated in the second half of 2011, with the losses falling just short of double-digits …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

GOP Primary Show: Non-Stop News And Noise In The Age Of Twitter — Last week, Jon Ralston, a veteran Las Vegas Sun columnist, dared reporters to ignore Donald Trump's unveiling of his presidential endorsement — with low expectations about how that might play out.

Discussion: Poynter

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Pew: Cable tops local TV news as source of campaign, election information — New research from the Pew Center for the People & the Press shows fewer Americans are closely following the 2012 election than in 2008, with significant drops in the percent of people — especially older adults …

Discussion: Pew Research Center …, Multichannel, Future of Journalism and Hillicon Valley

Lucy Battersby / Sydney Morning Herald:

Video easy: HBO takes a $10m investment in Quickflix — THE US television company HBO is investing $10 million in the Australian entertainment market, taking out a 16 per cent stake in the video subscription service Quickflix. HBO will receive 83.3 million preference shares at 12¢ …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Crikey and Wall Street Journal

Wall Street Journal:

Disney's ABC, Univision Mull News-Channel Launch — Walt Disney Co. and Univision Communications Inc. are in talks to create a new 24-hour cable-news channel that will broadcast in English, in an effort to keep pace with changing demographics among U.S. Hispanics and reach a new audience of English speakers …

Discussion: rbr.com, AdAge, TVNewser, Gawker, Los Angeles Times, Company Town, Media Decoder, New York Magazine, Deadline.com, Inside Cable News, Politico and Chickaboomer

Dylan Byers / Politico:
The ABC News-Univision game change

Discussion: Media Decoder, TVWeek.com and TVNewser

Kevin Lincoln / Business Insider:

New York Observer Publisher Jared Kushner Might Buy The Dodgers — Jared Kushner — owner and publisher of the New York Observer, son-in-law of Donald Trump — is in the running to buy the Los Angeles Dodgers, the Los Angeles Times reports. — If his bid went through, he would become the youngest owner in the MLB.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Forbes, Los Angeles Times, New York Magazine and New York Post

Erik Wemple:

Four reasons why Ross Douthat's media-bias argument is bunk — In his piece in the New York Times's Sunday Review, op-ed columnist Ross Douthat is careful to establish his credibility in citing liberal media bias: … But not in this case! proclaims Douthat.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Mediaite, LifeNews.com, New York Times, The Huffington Post and Forbes

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:
Media Research Center blasts networks for not covering Obama's ‘attack on religious freedom’

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

McClatchy Beats Earnings Predictions, Touts Digital Investments — McClatchy (NYSE: MNI) Company's fourth quarter operating earnings beat analysts' predictions, while the newspaper chain also reported an overall boost from investments in online properties like Cars.com and Apartments.com.

Discussion: The McClatchy Company

Dale Kasler / Sacramento Bee: McClatchy reports higher quarterly profits as signs show revenue slump easing

Technology Review:

How to Predict The Spread of News on Twitter — Computer scientists have discovered the four factors that make news stories popular on Twitter — Twitter has revolutionised the way millions of people receive news and the type of news they get. So it's no surprise that there is huge interest …

Discussion: The FJP

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Debunking the “original sin” of online newspapers — Whenever newspaper executives get together to bemoan the fate of their industry, someone inevitably brings up the so-called “original sin” of the online news business — namely, a failure to charge for content when the web was new.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Thanks:@mathewi

Felix Salmon:

Elizabeth Spiers and the reinvented New York Observer — There are three main reasons that I like entering into bets with people. The first is, simply, that it's fun. The second is that I love to win bets. And the third is that I love to lose them. I don't ever trade the markets …

Discussion: spiers.tumblr.com, bookforum.com, @espiers, The Corsair and Fimoculous.com

Erin Griffith / PandoDaily:

IAC Trying to Sell Vimeo, Seeking $300M Valuation — Barry Diller's IAC is testing the waters on a partial exit of Vimeo, according to two sources familiar with the situation. The company is hoping to raise a $50 million round of funding in conjunction with a spin off of the hipster online video business.

Discussion: SocialTimes.com and Betabeat

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:

Morning Brouhaha: Roland Responds — Late last night, CNN Analyst and Washington Watch Host Roland Martin issued a “Final Thoughts” statement on the Super Bowl controversy that has thrown a wet blanket over him for the past 48 hours. In it, he explains that the LGBT community has accused him of supporting violence against gays.

Discussion: Capital New York, Roland Martin Reports and Erik Wemple