Mediagazer: Exclusive: Sun probe looking into “sustained criminality” (Reuters)

12:55 PM ET, February 15, 2012

Top News:

Exclusive: Sun probe looking into “sustained criminality” — (Reuters) - The investigation into payments by Rupert Murdoch's Sun journalists to police and other officials is looking into “suspected criminality over a sustained period of time” involving tens of thousands of pounds …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Robert Hutton / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Hacking Report Delayed by Debate — U.K. lawmakers probing whether News Corp. covered up phone hacking at the News of the World tabloid are at least two months behind schedule with their report, as they debate how critical they can be of Deputy Chief Operating Officer James Murdoch.

Discussion: Guardian

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Sun staff line up human rights challenge to News Corp inquiry team — Journalists approach NUJ with view to hiring leading lawyer to question legality of internal investigation — Senior journalists at the Sun are preparing to launch a legal challenge to the News Corporation unit …

Discussion: Free Press and Financial Times

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Sun journalists must fight for their rights - Geoffrey Robertson

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and The Huffington Post

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
U.S. litigation against Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. may not be imminent; but it's still all bad news for him

Discussion: CJR and The Lede

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph: James Murdoch name tied to News Corp scandal

BBC: Glenn Mulcaire granted evidence appeal

Victor Fiorillo / The Philly Post:

Mass Layoffs Imminent at Inquirer, Daily News? — This afternoon at 4 p.m., members of the Newspaper Guild labor union will meet with Philadelphia Media Network, the company that owns the Inquirer, Daily News, and philly.com, at least until Ed Rendell takes over.

Erik Wemple:

Inquirer's top editor speaks — Those who value a strong and independent media in and around Philadelphia have been walking around in a funk in recent weeks. That's because the journalism of the Philadelphia Inquirer and the Philadelphia Daily News appears to be under siege. — The culprit?

Discussion: Poynter and News Works

Erik Wemple:

Fox News and the art of media-timing — Given their profession, the people at Fox News Channel have developed an appreciation for the ferocity of the modern news cycle. The trick, they've learned, is to get out in front of it. — Case In Point No. 1: In the summer of 2004, a filmmaker releases …

Discussion: Mediaite, Poynter, Gawker, The Daily Caller and Big Journalism

Will Rahn / The Daily Caller:

Media Matters tax-exempt status may face new scrutiny from Congress — Congressional Republicans are now interested in examining the Media Matters For America's tax-exempt status, The Daily Caller has learned. Doing so would cause the GOP to wade into the complex world of tax laws that govern …

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA:
James Rainey, Brian Stetler Get the Bill O'Reilly Treatment

Discussion: TVNewser and FishbowlDC

David Sarno / Los Angeles Times:

Twitter stores full iPhone contact list for 18 months, after scan — Twitter Inc. has acknowledged that after mobile users tap the “Find friends” feature on its smartphone app, the company downloads users' entire address book, including names, email addresses and phone numbers, and keeps the data on its servers for 18 months.

Discussion: The Next Web, The Verge, AllThingsD, The Awl, VentureBeat, mocoNews, Gizmodo, AllTwitter, WebProNews, Bits, Marketing Pilgrim, CNET, ReadWriteWeb and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Is Politico Looking to Revive Politico TV? — Way back in 2008, the political newspaper and website Politico announced that it was getting into the TV news business with Politico TV. — As our sister blog FishbowlDC noted at the time, the idea was to re-brand an existing program on WJLA …

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Comcast's Net Income Increases, Lifted by Internet Subscriptions — A slowing decline in the number of customers cancelling their cable service coupled with a boost in high-speed Internet subscriptions contributed to a 26.4 percent increase in net income at Comcast, the nation's largest cable provider.

Discussion: AllThingsD, ZDNet and Multichannel

Meg James / Company Town:
Comcast fourth-quarter profit jumps 26%; NBC and film lag

Discussion: Home Media Magazine and rbr.com

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Puzzazz brings ebook handwriting recognition to the Kindle Touch — Redmond-based startup Puzzazz is bringing handwriting recognition to Amazon's Kindle Touch device. The company's TouchWrite technology recognizes handwriting and converts it into numbers and letters on the Kindle.

more at Techmeme »

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Times and Sunday Times digital sales power ahead — The Times now has 119,255 digital subscribers, with the Sunday Times claiming 113,818 - according to figures issued by News International last night. — The figures show that there has been continual digital subscriber growth at The Times …

Discussion: Guardian

Dylan Byers / Politico:

PolitiFact responds to Rachel Maddow — Rachel Maddow made yet another stinging attack on PolitiFact last night, calling the Tampa Bay Times' fact-checking project “a disaster” (see video). — Via email, PolitiFact editor and Tampa Bay Times Washington bureau chief Bill Adair responds to the criticism:

Discussion: Mediaite, @jayrosen_nyu and @politifact

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Did the AP just declare war on news aggregators? — Like virtually every other traditional news entity, the Associated Press newswire has been under pressure for some time from digital media — but this disruption has been even worse for AP and its ilk because they are primarily distributors …

Discussion: CNN, 10,000 Words and Associated Press

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Fair Use Or Free Riding? The AP's New Attack On News Scraping

Discussion: Press Gazette, The FJP, Media News, MediaPost, FishbowlNY and paidContent

Cliff Edwards / Bloomberg:

Netflix Said to Produce Second Original Series in Growing Challenge to HBO — Netflix Inc. (NFLX), ratcheting up competition with HBO, will produce 13 episodes of a new comedy series, “Orange Is the New Black,” according to a person with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: InvestorPlace, CNET, TechCrunch and Online Video News

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

News International staff demand openness over internal investigation unit — Following Sun arrests, NI staff body writes to chief executive regarding remit and scope of committee, and status of sources — The body representing News International staff is seeking an urgent meeting …

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian