Mediagazer: CNN's Roland Martin suspended for homophobic tweets (Erik Wemple/Washington Post)

5:10 PM ET, February 8, 2012

Top News:

Sunday Mirror chief authorised hacking, says blogger Guido Fawkes — Sunday Mirror editor Tina Weaver personally authorised hacking and blagging, political blogger Paul Staines told the inquiry into press standards today. Mr Staines, who blogs as Guido Fawkes, told the Leveson Inquiry he had heard the claims from two journalists.

Discussion: Guardian

Martin Beckford / Telegraph:

News International scandal: police paid £100,000 under false names — Police officers were paid more than £100,000 by News International journalists who hid their true identities in company records, it is claimed. — Contacts are alleged to have been paid under £1,000 …

Discussion: The Independent

Henry Clarke Price / @henrycp:

Trinity Mirror not commenting on @GuidoFawkes #leveson claims about Sunday Mirror ed Tina Weaver allegedly authorising hacking and blagging

Mark Hosenball / Reuters: News Corp team accused of risking journalist sources

Guardian: NI faces more than 50 new damages claims

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Nice Guy, Finishing Last: How Don Graham Fumbled the Washington Post Co. — In the next few months Facebook will go public at a rumored valuation of up to $100 billion, one of the most keenly anticipated business events ever. The instant that trading opens, Mark Zuckerberg and a handful …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Gannett Blog, Politico, mediabistro.com, FishbowlNY, Poynter and NetNewsCheck Latest

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

Washington Post Will Further Reduce Staff — 9:44 a.m. | Updated The Washington Post announced a new round of buyouts on Wednesday, the latest in a series of staff reductions that have decreased the size of its newsroom by more than 200 people over the last three years.

Discussion: American Journalism Review, Slate, The FJP and Forbes

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:
Brauchli to Washington Post staff: More with less!

Discussion: Future of Journalism and The Newspaper Guild, Thanks:@erikwemple

Jim Romenesko: Notes from the Washington Post newsroom meeting

Om Malik / GigaOM:

Why we are buying paidContent — First the news: Yes, the rumors are true. We are indeed buying the assets of ContentNext Media from Guardian News & Media Limited. And no, we are not disclosing the terms of the deal, except that we are buying the entire group of properties — paidContent.org …

Discussion: Folio, VentureBeat, AllThingsD, MediaPost, Guardian, paidContent, FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, Mashable, @mediatwit, @penenberg and Between the Lines Blog, more at Techmeme »

Alexia Tsotsis / Techcrunch:
GigaOm Acquires PaidContent

Discussion: The Wrap, AdAge and @tcarmody

Peter Lauria / Reuters:

AOL hires chief content officer for troubled Patch — (Reuters) - AOL Inc, which has been investing heavily in content to make up for declining revenue from dial-up Internet access, has hired an executive for the newly created position of chief content officer at its struggling Patch hyperlocal news network.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Business Insider and Future of Journalism

Jim Romenesko:

Patch to reduce staff, change editorial focus — A Patch insider tells Romenesko readers that the AOL-owned hyperlocal news sites plan to cut staff and freelance budgets and start producing “easy, quick-hitting, cookie-cutter copy.” Examples: Best Ofs, and features like “What's happening to this vacant storefront?”

Discussion: LA Observed, The FJP and Business Insider

Jim Romenesko: ‘There are no layoffs planned,’ says Patch

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

News Corp.'s PhoneGate Tab Keeps Rising — News Corp. says investigations into the PhoneGate scandal cost it $87 million in the last quarter. That's on top of a $91 million charge the company took when it shuttered the News of the World in the previous quarter.

Discussion: Multichannel, rbr.com, Agence France Presse, MarketWatch, Associated Press, The Age, MarketWatch, @davidfolkenflik, @edgecliffe, @edmundlee, @amychozick and @davidfolkenflik

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
News Corp. Q2 Profit Rises on Higher TV Fees

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Reuters

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:
News Corp. Reports 71 Percent Quarterly Profit Gain

Discussion: The Wrap and @benfenton

Anna Heim / The Next Web:

Amazon Prime subscribers will get access to Viacom TV shows — Amazon has closed a deal with the media conglomerate Viacom that will let its Prime subscribers stream new TV shows, the company announced today. — This announcement doesn't come as a surprise, and confirms recent rumors …

Discussion: Reuters, TechCrunch, Epicenter, GeekWire, The Verge, 9to5Google, Home Media Magazine, CNET and paidContent

Ryan Lawler / Gigaom:
With Viacom deal, Amazon looks like a real competitor to Netflix

Discussion: Amazon, VentureBeat, Multichannel, Media Decoder, Adweek, AdAge, Forbes, Home Media Magazine, ReadWriteWeb, Media & Entertainment and Pocket-lint, more at Techmeme »

Lynne Marek / Chicago Business:

Chicago Tribune eyes price tag for online news — (Crain's) — The Chicago Tribune will begin charging online readers for access to content and is considering a “creative way” to do that, said Gerould Kern, the paper's editor. — “I think we will begin to charge in a selective way,” …

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

CNN's Roland Martin suspended for homophobic tweets — On Super Bowl Sunday, Roland Martin of CNN issued some homophobic tweets that got him in trouble with gay organizations and this blog. CNN stayed silent on the matter, until just moments ago, when it issued this statement:

Discussion: Politico, New York Magazine, Media Decoder, TVNewser, Mediaite, FishbowlDC, Politico, The Huffington Post, Reuters, Gothamist, Yahoo! News, Poynter, Inside Cable News, Big Journalism, Erik Wemple, Guardian and The Raw Story

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

End of Lance Armstrong probe raises questions about media's reporting — With little fanfare, federal prosecutors on Friday dropped their investigation of Lance Armstrong, nearly two years after it began. After convening a grand jury, summoning dozens of witnesses and involving several federal agencies …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Nevermind The Numbers: Mail Online And New York Times Are Chalk And Cheese — Mail Online may have overtaken The New York Times' website for global audience, according to comScore (NSDQ: SCOR) - but, in reality, the two are still an ocean apart. — The macho, competitive ethos …

Discussion: New York Times

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Mail Online Income Quickening After U.S. Expansion

Discussion: production.investis.com, Press Gazette and Guardian

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Felix Dennis in treatment for throat cancer — The private office of Felix Dennis, the eccentric 65-year-old British publishing magnate who imported Maxim and The Week to the U.S., announced today that Dennis has cancer. — “Felix has been diagnosed with cancer of the pharynx (throat),” reads a statement posted on his website.

Discussion: Private Frazer's Doomed …