Mediagazer: Murdoch Offers Reassurances to Sun Newsroom (John F. Burns/New York Times)

5:50 PM ET, February 17, 2012

Top News:

Rick Gladstone / New York Times:

Anthony Shadid, A New York Times Reporter Dies in Syria — Anthony Shadid, a prize-winning newspaper correspondent whose graceful dispatches for both The New York Times and The Washington Post covered nearly two decades of Middle East conflict and turmoil, died, apparently of an asthma attack …

Margalit Fox / New York Times:

Anthony Shadid, Reporter in the Middle East, Dies at 43 — Anthony Shadid, the two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who died on Thursday at 43, had long been passionately interested in the Middle East, first because of his Lebanese-American heritage and later because of what he saw there firsthand.

Discussion: Washington Post, The Huffington Post, VOA, Poynter, NPR, CJR, Guardian, JSOnline, JIMROMENESKO.COM, LA Observed, @pjtobia, Politico, @nirrosen, @sultanalqassemi, @adamweinstein, @trdeghett, @andrewphelps, FishbowlLA, The Huffington Post and Poynter

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

Release Date Is Moved Up for Shadid Book — Anthony Shadid, the Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Times reporter who died on Thursday while reporting in Syria, was weeks away from embarking on a book tour. — He was scheduled to return to the United States for a 20-city tour to promote …

Discussion: Poynter, The New York Observer, Speakeasy, The New Yorker Blog, New York Times, Washington Post and Guardian

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Times staffers gather for bullpen memorial for Anthony Shadid; his final piece published today

Discussion: ABCNEWS and Capital New York

John F. Burns / New York Times:

Murdoch Offers Reassurances to Sun Newsroom — LONDON — In his 60 years in the newspaper business, few moments could have been as charged for Rupert Murdoch as the one on Friday when he visited the London headquarters of his British newspaper arm, News International, where reporters and editors …

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Murdoch: Sun on Sunday will be launched ‘very soon’ — News Corporation chairman sends internal email also announcing that staff suspensions will be lifted — News International will launch its new national Sunday tabloid, The Sun on Sunday, “very soon”, Rupert Murdoch told staff today.

Discussion: Guardian, Media & Entertainment, Media Week, The Wrap, Bloomberg, Mediaite, Business Insider, The Staggers, The Independent, AdAge, Journalism.co.uk, Globe and Mail and Press Gazette

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Ad sources expect Sun on Sunday ‘in weeks’ — Rupert Murdoch to accelerate timeline for launch, say reports, while media agencies warn of ‘stressed’ Sunday market — Media buying agencies believe that the Sun on Sunday is set to launch “within weeks”, but warn of a vicious price …

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Rupert Murdoch Announces Sun On Sunday, Says Suspended Employees Can Return To Work

Discussion: Reuters, Gordon's Republic, Guardian, Press Gazette, @dansabbagh, CNBC, Associated Press, @sophyridgesky, Telegraph, Mixed Media, Guardian, Jon Slattery, Media Decoder, Media Week and Reuters

Matthew Creamer / AdAge:

Reuters' U.S. News Push Signs on Yahoo, AOL, MSNBC.com — Reuters introduced its general U.S. news service, Reuters America, in late 2010 with one client, the Tribune Co. Now three major portals — Yahoo, AOL and MSNBC.com — have signed on to Reuters' U.S. news push.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Arianna Huffington's loyal flack departs to hang up his own shingle — Mario Ruiz, head of communications for The Huffington Post, is leaving the company to start his own agency after five years of doing P.R. for the website. — And, as is so often the case in these sorts …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Poynter and PRNewser

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Inquirer, Daily News to share content, raising questions about future of separate Philly papers — In a meeting with their newsrooms Thursday, editors of the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Daily News and Philly.com told journalists that their rivalry would soon turn to cooperation.

Discussion: American Journalism Review and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Mike Armstrong / Philly.com:
Papers, website to begin sharing some news coverage

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and The Newspaper Guild

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

BBC World Service to broadcast morning news conference — Global broadcaster to use Twitter, Facebook and Skype to encourage listener input in news meeting on 29 February — The World Service is celebrating its 80th anniversary — The BBC World Service is to open up its morning editorial meeting …

Discussion: Guardian

Callum Borchers / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Boston Courant: Proud not to have a website until the owner sees “a profitable end game” — Eight years ago, David Jacobs, publisher of the weekly Boston Courant, paid a web designer in Ukraine to create a website for his newspaper. On that initial investment, and on subsequent research …

Discussion: Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog and mediabistro.com

Cotton Delo / AdAge:

Twitter Opens Up Self-Serve Ad Platform to 10,000 Small Businesses — American Express Cardmembers and Merchants Are Eligible to Register for Platform Starting Tonight — Twitter is rolling out the self-serve ad platform it's been testing to 10,000 small and midsize businesses next month through …

Discussion: Media Week, CNET, Twitter Blog, Marketing Pilgrim, The Wall Blog, TechCrunch, WebProNews, Wall Street Journal, AllThingsD and MediaPost

New York Times:

Congress to Sell Public Airwaves to Pay Benefits — WASHINGTON — The need for revenue to partly cover the extension of the payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits has pushed Congress to embrace a generational shift in the country's media landscape: the auction of public airwaves …