Mediagazer: Piracy Wars: Grooveshark's Looming Shutdown and Why Pirate Bay May Be Next (John Paul Titlow/ReadWriteWeb)

8:25 PM ET, February 21, 2012

Top News:

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

Comcast gives subscribers one more reason to quit Netflix — Updated. Comcast is rolling out a new streaming on-demand offering called Xfinity Streampix, which will bring more library content to subscribers that pay for its high-end double- and triple-play packages.

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Comcast, Variety, Forbes, Media Decoder, Adweek, NetNewsCheck Latest, CNET, PC Magazine, Multichannel and Epicenter, more at Techmeme »

Ben Fenton / Financial Times:

Church ready to settle phone-hacking case — Charlotte Church, the singer, is on the verge of settling her phone-hacking case against the News of the World, raising the prospect that Rupert Murdoch's newspaper group will face no High Court trial over the scandal, it emerged on Tuesday.

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Billionaire Romney donor uses threats to silence critics — Frank VanderSloot, Romney finance co-chair, suppresses scrutiny by threatening reporters and bloggers — Frank VanderSloot is an Idaho billionaire and the CEO of Melaleuca, Inc., a controversial billion-dollar-a-year company …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and Techdirt

Gordon MacMillan / Brand Republic:

Sun insider claims Sun On Sunday is “desperately seeking advertisers” for first issue — A Twitter account belonging to someone who purporting to be an ex-News of the World journalist claims there is little enthusiasm for The Sun on Sunday internally and that dummies of the paper have not been well received.

Discussion: @sundayinsider

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Sun on Sunday ad campaign to launch at Brit Awards

Discussion: Gawker and The Wrap

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Barnes & Noble Delivers New 8GB Tablet, Disappointing Earnings — Barnes & Noble released a new model of its Nook Tablet on Tuesday at the same cost and with nearly identical specs as Amazon's Kindle Fire: 8GB of storage for $199. — The current 16GB tablet stays at $249 …

Discussion: Business Wire, Media & Entertainment, Forbes, Barnes & Noble, Inc., New York Post, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Lunch, VatorNews, TechCrunch, GeekWire and AllThingsD

Matt Brian / The Next Web:
Barnes & Noble launches 8GB Nook Tablet for $199, goes toe-to-toe with Amazon

Discussion: Engadget, TechCrunch, Folio and paidContent

Sarah Fitzmaurice / Daily Mail:

The Colbert Report returns as Stephen honours sick mother, 91, on screen — With a nod of tribute to his ailing mother, Stephen Colbert returned to present The Colbert Report last night. — The political satirist was back at the helm of his show after he cancelled taping last week …

Discussion: Huffington Post

Jason Boog / GalleyCat:
Stephen Colbert Lands Deal for Children's Book

Discussion: MediaJobsDaily and eBookNewser

Jim Romenesko:

NYT reporter defends Forbes writer accused of ‘stealing’ his work — O'Neill said that Forbes writer Kashmir Hill took the New York Times Magazine excerpt of Charles Duhigg's new book, “cut out the crap and got to the real shocker of the story,” which resulted in “a mind boggling 680,000 page views …

Discussion: @markarms, Neuromarketing, WebProNews, Nick O'Neill, (Re)Structuring Journalism and msnbc.com, Thanks:@forrestkoba

Maureen O'Connor / Gawker: NYT Writer to Blogger: ‘What Do You Want to Do With Your Life?’

Paul McNally / journalism.co.uk:

A Guardian hotel? Publisher says it is ‘exploring options’ — Guardian News and Media says it is “currently researching and exploring a range of options”, amid claims that it is thinking of developing a new hotel concept. — A post on the Washington-based Harry's Place blog quoted …

Discussion: Harry's Place and Big News Network.com

David Gambacorta / Philly.com:

Rendell's silence lasts all of 2 days — ED RENDELL'S vow of silence was officially laid to rest yesterday. — It lasted about as long as most people expected. — The former governor, who told the Daily News on Saturday that he would no longer talk publicly about his pursuit …

Discussion: The700Level.com

John Paczkowski / AllThingsD:

Coming Soon From Amazon: Kindle Towering Inferno — Here's another report to add to the chorus of predictions that Amazon is gearing up to launch a larger version of its Kindle Fire tablet. The occasionally reliable Digitimes claims that Foxconn has won the contract for a new 10-inch Fire …

Discussion: ITProPortal, eBookNewser and BGR

Jason Fry / Poynter:

How ESPN published “Chink in the Armor” Jeremy Lin headline & what's happened since — The rise of Jeremy Lin, the New York Knicks' Asian-American star, has been one of 2012's feel-good sports stories. But it's come with an unwelcome undercurrent: racial references by fans …

Discussion: Guardian and The Huffington Post

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

A change at the top of The Huffington Post's business desk: More of Peter Goodman on the ‘middle class’ — When Arianna Huffington hired Peter Goodman away from The New York Times to serve as editor of her website's business and technology verticals back in September of 2010, the move was surprising for several reasons.

Discussion: Capital New York and FishbowlNY

Ben Fritz / Company Town:

Netflix discussing deal with ex-HBO Films chief Colin Callender — Netflix is discussing a partnership with former HBO Films president Colin Callender to produce original content, including mini-series and movies, for the online video service, according to three people with knowledge …