Mediagazer: Leveson Inquiry: Press watchdog ‘made a scapegoat’ (BBC)

10:25 AM 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

Henry Clarke Price / @henrycp:

“The PCC has not received any formal proposals from these publishers to withdraw from the system in recent years.” (3/3) #leveson

Gordon Rayner / Telegraph:

Daily Mail editor Paul Dacre to be recalled to Leveson Inquiry — Paul Dacre, the editor of the Daily Mail, will be recalled to the Leveson Inquiry later this week to be questioned further about his newspaper's spat with the actor Hugh Grant. — Daily Mail Editor Paul Dacre gives evidence

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

Ross Hawkins / @rosschawkins:
Buscombe at #leveson : FT, Guardian and Mirror threatened to leave PCC because of adverse adjudications

Discussion: @benfenton, @arusbridger and @arusbridger

BBC:
Phone hacking: Met police failed to warn victims

Discussion: @byameliahill and @byameliahill

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: TVNewser, Media Decoder, Deadline.com, Inside Cable News, Politico, New York Magazine and Chickaboomer

Dylan Byers / Politico:

The ABC News-Univision game change — The talks between Disney and Univision have set media tongues wagging in anticipation of a new 24-hour news network that would compete with CNN, MSNBC, and Fox News, and would likely have major ramifications for the cable news industry and for the national political discourse.

Discussion: TVNewser

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

No Ads, No Madonna But NBC Calls Live Stream A Success — It had never been tried before: a live, legal Internet stream of television's biggest event, the Super Bowl. — Despite some complaints from users, NBC declared it to be a success on Monday and said it would report the total number of streams on Tuesday.

Discussion: Digital Spy, Forbes, Media Week, Streaming Media, Washington Post, AllThingsD, mUmBRELLA and Media News

John Koblin / WWD:
Vogue Wins Big With Super Bowl Halftime Show

Discussion: Forbes, Fast Company, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel, MinOnline and rbr.com

Richard Deitsch / Sports Illustrated:
Super Bowl XLVI sets viewership records

Discussion: Yahoo! News, Hollywood Reporter, USA Today, Variety, SB Nation St. Louis, TVbytheNumbers and MediaPost

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: Crikey and Wall Street Journal

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: 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: Roland Martin Reports, The Huffington Post and FishbowlNY

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
At CNN, is homophobia a ‘viewpoint’?

Discussion: Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post, Show Tracker, Politico and GLAAD

Rebecca Shapiro / The Huffington Post:
CNN Pundit Under Fire From Gay Rights Groups

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Poynter, Politico and mediabistro.com

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Bay Citizen appoints interim CEO while awaiting word on merger — Chief Technology Officer Brian C. Kelley takes over as CEO of the San Francisco-based nonprofit news site after the former CEO, interim editor-in-chief and founding editor-in-chief all resigned in the last five months.

Discussion: The Bay Citizen

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

Dale Kasler / Sacramento Bee:

McClatchy reports higher quarterly profits as signs show revenue slump easing — The McClatchy Co. reported higher quarterly profits today amid signs that its lengthy revenue slump is easing. — Sacramento-based McClatchy, which owns The Bee, said income from continuing operations rose …

Antonia Senior / Guardian:

Ebook sales are being driven by downmarket genre fiction — Publishers face secrecy over sales and an absence of industry-wide data to help them plot strategy — Kindle-owning bibliophiles are furtive beasts. Their shelves still boast classics and Booker winners. But inside that plastic case, other things lurk.

Discussion: Melville House Books, Forbes and eBookNewser

Michael Kozlowski / Good E-Reader:

Amazon in the Process of Launching a Retail Store — Amazon sources close to the situation have told us that the company is planning on rolling out a retail store in Seattle within the next few months. This project is a test to gauge the market and see if a chain of stores would be profitable.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:
Another Chain Says It Won't Carry Amazon Books, But Does It Matter?

Discussion: .info., Bookseller news, GeekWire and eBookNewser

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

Paul Dacre: Bad journalists should be ‘struck off’ — Britain's longest-serving national newspaper editor has outlined radical plans to create a register of journalists under a new press regulator that would also have the power to strike them off. — In evidence to the Leveson Inquiry this afternoon …

Discussion: Shaping the Future …, Guardian, themediablog.typepad.com, FleetStreetBlues and Guardian