Mediagazer: Leveson: inquiry remains ‘committed to free press’ (Paul McNally/Journalism.co.uk)

4:10 PM ET, February 27, 2012

Top News:

Vikram Dodd / Guardian:

Brooks and Coulson ‘warned in 2006’ — • Police source ‘told then Sun editor of around 100 victims’ — • Records ‘suggested NI had paid Glenn Mulcaire over £1m’ — • Email submitted to Leveson inquiry reveals Coulson briefing — Both Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson …

Discussion: Deadline.com, Guardian and Media Law Prof Blog

David Leigh / Guardian:

Sun had ‘culture of illegal payments to sources’ — Sue Akers tells media ethics inquiry of newspaper's payment systems that hid identities of ‘network of corrupted officials’ — Read Sue Akers's full statement here (pdf) — Hours after Rupert Murdoch's defiant gamble of launching …

Discussion: Guardian, Press Association, The Huffington Post, Press Gazette, Journalism.co.uk, Sky News, Reuters, @arusbridger, The Wrap and The Independent

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:
Leveson: inquiry remains ‘committed to free press’

Discussion: Guardian

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Charlotte Church settles NoW phone-hacking claim for £600,000

Discussion: Reuters, Guardian, Journalism.co.uk, Associated Press, Telegraph, Press Gazette and TVWeek.com

Quinn Norton / Wired:

Wikileaks Pairs with Anonymous to Publish Intelligence Firm's Dirty Laundry — In an unprecedented collaboration between Anonymous and WikiLeaks, the secret spilling site began leaking Sunday night portions of a massive trove of e-mails from the private intelligence firm Stratfor …

Discussion: Gawker, New York Magazine, TPM Idea Lab, Guardian, PC Magazine, WebProNews, Mashable!, The Corsair, GigaOM, ITProPortal, New York Times, Softpedia News and Boing Boing

Steve Huff / Betabeat:
[UPDATED] Anonymous Teams With Wikileaks To Publish Confidential Stratfor Emails in ‘The Global Intelligence Files’

Discussion: VentureBeat, WikiLeaks, Forbes, Guardian, The Yes Men Blog, The Firewall, Fortune, The FJP, ZDNet, The New York Observer, Techland, Journalism.co.uk, ReadWriteWeb, CNET, The Huffington Post and Gizmodo

Anna Heim / The Next Web:
WikiLeaks starts publishing ‘The Global Intelligence Files’, with 25 media partners on board

Discussion: PR Newswire, Politico, Huffington Post Canada, thenation.com/blogs/180, Reuters, Reuters, WebProNews, WebProNews, @jeffjarvis, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day, Business Insider, The Raw Story and Forbes

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

FT Digital Subscriptions Surpass Print In U.S. As Sign-Ups Slow — The Financial Times is still signing up new digital subscribers, but at the slowest rate since iPad lit up its business model in mid-2010. — {data_set="29"} — It attracted 17,000 new digital subscribers in the final three months …

Discussion: Folio, NetNewsCheck Latest, Talking Biz News and Press Gazette

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Murdoch claims three million sale for Sun on Sunday launch — Sunday title launches with ‘decency’ vow to readers - as media commentators describe first edition as ‘bland’ — News Corporation chairman Rupert Murdoch has claimed a launch day circulation of more than three million for the first edition of the Sun on Sunday.

Discussion: Media Week, @rupertmurdoch, @rupertmurdoch, Press Gazette, Poynter, The Independent, Sands Media Services, Guardian, Editor's Blog, Bloomberg, The Sun, Business Insider, FishbowlNY, Guardian and Wall Street Journal

Felix Salmon:

Why journalists need to link — Jonathan Stray has a great essay up at Nieman Lab entitled “Why link out? Four journalistic purposes of the noble hyperlink”. I basically agree with all of it; links are wonderful things, and the more of them that we see in news stories …

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, Mother Jones, Guardian, One Man & His Blog and GigaOM

David Carr / New York Times:

White House Uses Espionage Act to Pursue Leak Cases — Last Wednesday in the White House briefing room, the administration's press secretary, Jay Carney, opened on a somber note, citing the deaths of Marie Colvin and Anthony Shadid, two reporters who had died “in order to bring truth” while reporting in Syria.

Discussion: Media Nation and Prof Chris Daly's Blog

Sonya Hubbard / footnoted.com:

Details about the Gray Lady's $25,000-per-hour consultant... When the New York Times' (NYT) and its president and former chief executive, Janet L. Robinson, announced a few months ago that Robinson would step down at the end of the year - even though no successor had been identified - the news caught many off guard.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and Business Insider

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

With Book, Buchanan Set His Fate — As the conservative polemicist Pat Buchanan prepared last fall for the release of his book “Suicide of a Superpower: Will America Survive to 2025?,” some friends who worked with him at MSNBC were worried. The book, they told him, would provoke controversy and threaten his professional well-being.

Discussion: TVNewser, Politico and Inside Cable News

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Pearson Sees Digital Income Beating Print Publishing In 2012 — Pearson's digital revenue grew 18 percent to £2 ($3.17) billion (a third of the total) through 2011, as its book publisher Penguin's e-book sales rose 106 percent and the group reached 43 million students through digital learning services.

Discussion: Media Week and Pearson

BuzzFeed:

Michael Hastings Joins BuzzFeed To Cover Obama Campaign — Social news leader BuzzFeed has hired Michael Hastings to cover President Barack Obama's re-election campaign. Hastings, a bestselling author and writer whose coverage of the war in Afghanistan has shaken the political and military establishment …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Politico, FishbowlNY, Capital New York and @antderosa

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Washington Post steps into paid content with iPad app for politics news — The new WP Politics iPad app, which launches Monday, marks The Washington Post's most significant attempt yet to charge readers for digital content. — The Post's website and most everything else it does digitally is free (ad-supported).

Discussion: FishbowlDC, MediaPost, Washington Post and Mashable!