Mediagazer: Murdoch may be down but he's not out. His companies can't be allowed to dominate - and neither can the BBC (Norman Fowler/Guardian)

7:55 AM ET, February 23, 2012

Top News:

James Barron / New York Times:

Marie Colvin's Mother Recalls Her Determination to Get the Story — Marie Colvin got into Yale University the way she would later get into foreign countries, with grit and determination. — After spending a year in Brazil on a student exchange program, from January of her junior year …

Discussion: CNN and Freelance Unbound

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Syria Correspondent Wanted Her Reporting Read Outside Pay Walls — Before her death on Wednesday in the besieged Syrian city of Homs, the veteran war correspondent Marie Colvin voiced a common frustration for journalists who are reporting from distant areas about conflicts that can feel remote to readers back home.

Discussion: Press Gazette, New York Times, Media News, USA Today, BAGnewsNotes and Online NewsHour

Telegraph:

Marie Colvin killed: Syrian forces had pledged to kill ‘any journalist who set foot on Syrian soil’ — Syrian forces murdered journalist Marie Colvin after pledging to kill “any journalist who set foot on Syrian soil”, it has emerged. — The 55-year-old Sunday Times reporter …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Committee to Protect …, Newsday and @ramsaysky

Kerri Macdonald / Lens:
Parting Glance: Rémi Ochlik

Discussion: Press Gazette, New York Times, At War and The Huffington Post

Erika Solomon / Reuters:
Syria asks foreign journalists to report to government

Discussion: @producermatthew

Michael Rundle / The Huffington Post - UK: Syrian Minister ‘Unaware Foreign Journalists Were In Country’ After Deadly Shelling

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Gannett Building Paywalls Around All Its Papers Except USA Today — The vogue for digital paywalls sweeping the news business has made it all the way to the top: Gannett, the nation's largest newspaper publisher, is planning to switch over all of its 80 community newspapers to a paid model …

Discussion: 10,000 Words, Media Decoder, Jon Slattery and @jackshafer

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:
Gannett's Big Paywall Play: Will It Work?

Discussion: Gannett.com and AdPulp

Dan Lyons / The Daily Beast:

Ethical or Not, Silicon Valley Bloggers Hit Up VCs for Angel Funds — It's a win-win game: Bloggers write favorably about both sides' portfolios, and everyone exits with 100x returns. Even social media maven Robert Scoble is getting in on the game. But whatever happened to journalistic integrity?

Discussion: Real Dan Lyons, more at Techmeme »

Robert Scoble / Scobleizer:
Scoble: hit man of Silicon Valley?

more at Techmeme »

Michael Hiltzik / Los Angeles Times:
Are Silicon Valley tech bloggers truly objective?

Discussion: Uncrunched, Real Dan Lyons, parislemon and VentureBeat

BBC:

Charlotte Church settles over phone hacking — Phone-hacking victims have been pursuing damages from Rupert Murdoch's News Group — Charlotte Church has settled her claim against News Group Newspapers over phone hacking, the BBC has learned. — The details are expected to be revealed …

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Cherie Blair to sue News International — Tony Blair's wife to take action against Glenn Mulcaire and NI over the alleged hacking of her phone by News of the World — Cherie Blair, the wife of the former prime minister, is suing News International and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Guardian

Jim Romenesko:

CNC editor: No MacArthur Foundation interference — Chicago News Cooperative editor Jim O'Shea has responded to Geoff Dougherty's claim that the MacArthur Foundation-CNC relationship soured because the nonprofit news outlet “had enough reporters and know-how to cause problems with MacArthur buddies at City Hall.”

Discussion: Chicago Current

Jim Romenesko: Did CNC ‘cause problems’ for MacArthur's City Hall friends?

Ryan Chittum / CJR:
The IRS and the Chicago News Cooperative

Discussion: Reflections of a Newsosaur

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Are aggregation and curation journalism? Wrong question — The battle between traditional media and the blogosphere over aggregation (or “curation,” if you prefer) continues to rage. In the latest skirmish, Forbes blogger Kashmir Hill got thrown under the bus by many for a recent blog post …

Discussion: Betabeat and Journomel.com, more at Techmeme »

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Media General explores sale of its newspapers — Just after the market closed Wednesday, Media General announced it is “exploring the potential sale of newspaper operations.” The company, which owns 21 newspapers in five states, just two weeks ago got more time to ease a debt crunch it's been facing.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, St. Petersburg Times, Media General and Saint Petersblog

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Sam Zell Blames Tribune Failure on ‘Greedy’ Journalists. — Sam Zell. Credit: Scott Eells/Bloomberg via Getty Images — Sam Zell must miss being the most hated man in the newspaper industry. Why else would the ever-pungent real estate billionaire be speaking up about his disastrous time running Tribune Co., all this time later?

Discussion: Gawker, LA Biz Observed and New York Times

David Holmes / Fast Company:

Lindles: Jeremy Lin, Amazon Kindle, And The Rise Of Insta-Authors — Jeremy Lin has inspired a lot of rabid fans, magazine features, and six-figure book deal offers. But he's also fueled a new breed of lightening-fast ebook authors. Alan Goldsher, author of “Linsanity …

Discussion: Kindle Review, Speakeasy and Digital Book World

Evan McMorris-Santoro / Talking Points Memo:

Romney Campaign Scrubs Criticism from Editorial Before Sending It Out — Romney Campaign Scrubs Criticism From Editorial Before Sending It Out — There are a lot of kind words for Mitt Romney on the Detroit News editorial page Wednesday. But by trying to hide the few words that weren't very nice …

Discussion: Guardian, The Caucus and Online NewsHour

Jim Romenesko: Detroit News unhappy with Romney camp's editing of endorsement

Erik Wemple:

WAMU news director claims ‘firewall’ transgression — Yesterday, WAMU announced the departure of news director Jim Asendio. This morning, WAMU held an event to bring together donors and WAMU staffers. — Those two events are connected, says Asendio. — The 60-year-old newsman …

Discussion: The Maynard Institute, Radio-Info.com and DC Porcupine

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon Yanks 5,000 Kindle Titles In Fight Over Terms — Updated: IPG's full memo to publishers on page 2. — Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) has turned off the buy button on nearly 5,000 Kindle titles from distributor Independent Publishers Group after IPG refused to capitulate to Amazon's demand for better terms.