Mediagazer: Once Film-Focused, Netflix Transitions to TV Shows (Brian Stelter/New York Times)

11:35 AM ET, February 28, 2012

Top News:

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:

News Corp faces threat of US legal action — Fresh allegations increase likelihood of News Corp being prosecuted under Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, experts say — Fresh allegations of a “culture of illegal payments” at the Sun newspaper have significantly increased the likelihood …

Discussion: Street Fight, Crikey and Press Gazette

Tom Harper / This Is London:
Rebekah's gift horse from Met shows its close ties to Murdoch newspapers

Discussion: Press Association, The Huffington Post, The New Yorker Blog, Press Gazette, Journalism.co.uk, Guy Fawkes' blog, Guardian and Guardian

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Phone hacking: six News of the World staff instructed Mulcaire, papers allege

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

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TechCrunch:

Goodbye Erick, Hello Eric — TechCrunch has been through a lot lately, and we need to focus on what truly matters: covering startups and innovation. So, this post is going to be short. — But here is what's going on: Erick Schonfeld is leaving and Eric Eldon is replacing him as editor.

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Tom Cheredar / VentureBeat:

AOL sees three more major talent departures — For some reason, tech/media company AOL usually experiences talent departures in waves. Today for instance, people in three major positions announced that the were leaving the company for one reason or another.

Discussion: Betabeat, AllThingsD and TechCrunch

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Once Film-Focused, Netflix Transitions to TV Shows — Belying the “flix” in its name, Netflix is now primarily an Internet streaming service for television shows, not feature films. — TV series now account for more than half of all Netflix viewing. That helps to explain why this Wednesday …

Discussion: Engadget, The Consumerist, Shelly Palmer Digital Living, Gizmodo, /Film and SlashGear

Tim Carmody / Wired:

Oscar Night Turns Into a Winning Night for Netflix, Too — Promotional photo for Best Picture winner The Artist, courtesy Weinstein Company — Sunday night's telecast of the Oscars showed an industry unusually infatuated with itself and its own history, even by the standards of awards shows.

Discussion: Home Media Magazine and GigaOM

Guardian:

Syria: the Homs rescue - live updates — • Journalist Paul Conroy now safe in Lebanon • French president says Edith Bouvier has been rescued • Thousands of Syrian activists appear on regime ‘hit list’ • Elite fourth division armoured sent to Homs

Discussion: Poynter, Reuters, Reuters and CNN

Stephen Farrell / At War:

Conflict Reporting in the Post-Embed Era … BEIRUT, Lebanon — These are the words of William Howard Russell, writing in The Times of London newspaper in October 1854 about The Charge of the Light Brigade, the doomed assault by a few hundred British mounted cavalrymen against Russian artillery at Balaclava during the Crimean War.

Discussion: Telegraph, Committee to Protect …, Freedom of the Prez and The Editor's Desk

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Interview: FT CEO Denies Sale And Braves Strike Ahead Of Social Launch — Financial Times CEO John Ridding rejects dinner-party chatter that the publisher may be sold to Bloomberg or Thomson Reuters. — Instead, he is pushing the group toward a digital subscription future that, he reveals, will soon incorporate social networks.

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Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Pearson Sees Digital Income Beating Print Publishing In 2012

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Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

New Magazine Aims for ‘Luxury Customers’ — Do you have a net worth of $5 million? A house worth more than $1.5 million? An average income of more than $250,000? And an affinity for bargain hunting? — If you answered yes, then, aside from being extremely lucky, you're just the reader for Du Jour …

Discussion: Adweek and FishbowlNY

Mark J. Perry / CARPE DIEM:

Newspaper Ad Revenues Fall to 60-Yr. Low in 2011 — The chart above displays total annual print newspaper advertising revenue based on actual annual data from 1950 to 2010, and estimated annual revenue for 2011 using quarterly data through the third quarter, from the Newspaper Association of America.

Nicholas D. Kristof / New York Times:

Battling Sudan's Bombs With Videos — AS Sudan tries to bomb and starve the Nuba people into submission, it faces an unlikely antagonist: an American man from Florida who married a Nuban woman, gets by on local foods like locusts, and is fighting mortars with video cameras.

Discussion: Media Decoder

Steven Musil / CNET:

Yahoo picks patent fight with Facebook — The foundering Web pioneer reportedly wants the social-networking giant to license 10 to 20 patents related to advertising and Web page personalization. — Yahoo appears to be turning to patent licensing to boost its fortunes.