Mediagazer: Digital Downloads Jumped 26% In 2011, Led By E-Books (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

1:50 AM ET, February 10, 2012

Top News:

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

The logic of a Thomson Reuters takeover of the Financial Times — It makes sense: the two titans of business information, Thomson Reuters and Bloomberg, competing for a great news brand — Let me follow a rumor in real time ... My lunch companion, a senior executive at Thomson Reuters …

Discussion: @edmundlee, @benfenton, @edmundlee, Talking Biz News, New York Magazine, The Atlantic Wire, FishbowlNY, Future of Journalism, Capital New York and ShortFormBlog

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Caution on Thomson Reuters' FT acquisition

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Kevin Lincoln / Business Insider: Reuters And Bloomberg Are Jockeying To Acquire The Financial Times — Michael Wolff

New York Post:

Bradley Manning arraignment scheduled for Feb. 23 — WASHINGTON — Bradley Manning, the US soldier accused of leaking confidential US diplomatic and military cables to WikiLeaks, will be arraigned Feb. 23, the military announced Thursday. — Manning has been charged with aiding the enemy …

Discussion: @edpilkington

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

BusinessWeek Goes Inside a Critical Hacking Scandal Meeting — Murdoch, at a fork in the road, chose the coverup — Bloomberg BusinessWeek has a fantastic story reporting on a critical meeting Rupert Murdoch held last May to plot how to contain the hacking scandal. — The detail and reporting here are remarkable.

Greg Farrell / Business Week:
Dinner at Rupert's — What happened on the fateful night …

Discussion: The New York Observer and The Corsair

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Piers Morgan and Trinity Mirror journalist implicated by Mills at Leveson

Discussion: Guardian and Journalism.co.uk

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:
Leveson: NoW spied on lawyers to gain ‘leverage’

Discussion: Press Gazette

NY Daily News:

‘Good Day’ co-anchor Greg Kelly to return to Channel 5 Friday morning — Had been off the air since Jan. 26 following rape allegations — Above, Greg Kelly seen Wednesday afternoon for the first time since a 28-year-old paralegal accused him of rape. Kelly will return to ‘Good Day New York’ on Friday.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:
Why Has The New York Post Been So Extremely Nice to Greg Kelly?

Discussion: New York Post

Richard Huff / NY Daily News: Ch. 5 anchor Greg Kelly to make on-air statement about the scandal that kept him off TV

Laura Italiano / New York Post:
Kelly accuser's memory of ‘rape’ but not of sex killed her case: sources

Discussion: Capital New York and Chickaboomer

Amir Efrati / Wall Street Journal:

Google Developing Home Entertainment System — Google Inc. is developing a home-entertainment system that streams music wirelessly throughout the home and would be marketed under the company's own brand, according to people briefed on the company's plans. — The effort marks the Internet company's …

Discussion: GigaOM, Los Angeles Times, VentureBeat, Electronista, Business Insider, CNET, SiliconFilter, MacRumors, PC Magazine, TechCrunch, 9to5Google, Engadget and Daring Fireball, more at Techmeme »

Sam Laird / Mashable!:

ESPN's ‘Complain About Women’ Option Exposed by Twitter User — Until Tuesday, ESPN had a special section on its website for viewers to complain specifically about announcers who happen to be female. — “Commentator — dislike female commentators,” read one option in a drop-down menu …

Discussion: Deadspin, Poynter and The Big Lead

Erik Wemple:

ESPN's female commentator complaint form survives a decade — Behold one of the great artifacts at the juncture of sports journalism and gender politics. Right there, on the left, is a screenshot of the ESPN.com Web site. Or at least a dark recess of it.

Erik Wemple / Washington Post:

What's ‘homophobic’ in Roland Martin case? Don't ask the press. — These are glorious times for euphemisms. — Yesterday, CNN analyst Roland Martin was suspended for some tweets that he'd sent out on Super Bowl Sunday. Here's how the New York Times described those tweets:

Discussion: Big Journalism, ThinkProgress, The Week and The Huffington Post

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Indie Booksellers All Yanking Amazon Titles? Not Exactly — It would be dramatic to say that independent booksellers nationwide are boycotting Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) Publishing titles en masse—and hey, it could still happen. But a new decision from the American Booksellers Association's IndieCommerce …

Discussion: news.bookweb.org and GalleyCat

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:
The anti-Amazon revolt continues as the ABA boycotts its books

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, Guardian and The Bookseller

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Kudos to BBC News for thinking about how Twitter fits into breaking news coverage — Every so often a major news outlet like the AP or BBC News issues new guidelines about how to break news on Twitter, and media blogs erupt with a simultaneous “Of course you should!” — Let's move past the should/shouldn't debate.

Discussion: Muck Rack and Future of Journalism

Alfred Hermida / reportr.net:
Why Journalists Should Break News on Twitter

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Editors Weblog, Guardian and Muck Rack

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Amazon: No plans to launch a standalone video service soon — Amazon has aggressively grown its Prime Instant Videos service over the past year, more than tripling the amount of content available to subscribers since launch. And as Amazon continues to add more content to Prime Instant Video …

Discussion: VentureBeat and The Week

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Google Books Lawsuit Lurches Forward — The fate of Google's massive book scanning project has been up in the air since a legal settlement collapsed last year. New court filings this week suggest a possible end game. — The filings come after the Authors Guild decided in December …

Discussion: Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:

WaPo Evasive on Important Buyout Question — What if WaPo doesn't reach the necessary maximum number of voluntary buyouts? — Some who attended the Town Hall style meetings yesterday at the newspaper found Exec. Editor Marcus Brauchli's comments too vague for comfort on this point.

Jim Romenesko:

Gannett offers early retirement package to 665 employees — FR: U.S. Community Publishing President Bob Dickey — RE: Voluntary Early Retirement Opportunity Program — Dear colleagues: — Today we are offering a voluntary Early Retirement Opportunity Program to 665 eligible U.S …

Discussion: Poynter and Gannett Blog

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Wall Street Journal covers Fashion Week fashionably, finding uses for Pinterest and Instagram — The incredible growth of Pinterest — the (invitation-only) social bulletin board dominated by young and female users — hasn't gone unnoticed by news organizations.

Discussion: Forbes, Techland, FishbowlNY and ZDNet

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Time Adds Editor-at-Large — Time has named Harry McCracken an Editor-at-Large. McCracken, the founder of the tech site Technologizer, has written for Time and Time.com in the past, and as part of his new role, will contribute more frequently to both. — In a memo, Rick Stengel …

Discussion: Technologizer, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Where Does Arianna Fit Into AOL's New Patch Plans? — AOL (NYSE: AOL) has hired a new Chief Content Officer in its latest attempt to reboot Patch, the network of hundreds of sites that offer “hyper local” coverage. — The appointment of Parenting.com's Rachel Fishman Feddersen comes …

Discussion: Business Wire, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Street Fight and Reuters

Owen Bowcott / Guardian:

NightJack blogger to sue the Times — Richard Horton to pursue claim after editor admitted evidence of paper's involvement in email hacking was withheld from court — The Lancashire detective exposed by the Times for writing an anonymous blog about crime issues is to sue the newspaper …

Discussion: Jon Slattery, The Independent and Guardian