Mediagazer: Alt weeklies eye an AP of their own with a content exchange (Justin Ellis/Nieman Journalism Lab)

6:00 PM ET, March 6, 2012

Top News:

Two Murdoch reporters feared to be in suicide bids — Two senior journalists at News International have apparently attempted to commit suicide as pressure mounts inside the Murdoch media empire. The reporters appeared to try to take their own lives after the company turned over 300 million emails …

Discussion: The Age, Reuters, Business Insider and Guardian

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:
News Corp dropped top US anti-bribery lawyer from its legal team

Discussion: New York Magazine, Law Blog and Media Decoder

Ben Dowell / Guardian: Murdoch owns too many papers, says Harman

Sandra Laville / Guardian: ‘Hacking has made police scared of press’

Neville Thurlbeck / @nthurlbeck: I'm afraid there was a very serious suicide attempt by an NoTW staffer before Christmas taking the number to 3, thanks to the MSC.

Los Angeles Times:

Google launches digital media destination Google Play — Google is ready to play. It's creating a single destination for digital media called Google Play, putting books, music, movies and games all in one spot. It's a bid to build a powerful entertainment hub on par with Apple, Amazon.com and Microsoft.

Discussion: The Official Google Blog, Company Town, VentureBeat and TechCrunch

Judd Legum / ThinkProgress:

Five More Advertisers Drop Rush Limbaugh, Bringing Total To 20 — Five more companies have announced they will pull their advertisements from Rush Limbaugh's radio show, bringing the total number to 20. Although Rush Limbaugh apologized to Sandra Fluke on Saturday, he also continued his sexist attacks on the Georgetown Law student.

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Here's The Woman Rush Limbaugh Is Attacking Today; ‘Totally Bizarre,’ She Says

Discussion: St. Petersburg Times and Rush Limbaugh

Wall Street Journal:
Limbaugh Syndicator Defends Host

Discussion: Washington Wire, Raleigh News & Observer, Hollywood Reporter, Speakeasy, Bloomberg, Poynter, New England Public Radio News and The Huffington Post

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:
Rush Limbaugh's Consolation Prize: Twitter Followers

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, CNN, Mediaite, Erik Wemple and This Just In

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Nick Thompson named NewYorker.com editor — Nicholas Thompson, a senior editor at The New Yorker, has been named editor of the magazine's website, NewYorker.com, a spokesperson confirmed this morning. — Thompson, who joined the magazine from Wired in 2010, is also a contributing editor …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Newspapers: It's not a revenue problem, it's a culture problem — The Project for Excellence in Journalism at the Pew Research Center has come out with a substantial new report on the efforts of newspapers both large and small to grow their digital businesses, and — not surprisingly, perhaps — the results are all over the map.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Knight Digital Media Center …, FishbowlLA, ReadWriteWeb, freefromeditors, BtoB Magazine, CmdrTaco.net, Tech President, Fortune, Guardian, Gawker and Poynter

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Young Sulzberger Is Coming Home to the Big City — A.G. “Baller of a New Generation” Sulzberger—son of NYT publisher Pinch Sulzberger, heir to the throne of the Times empire, and natural wisenheimer—has completed his exile in Middle America, where he helmed the Kansas City desk and was forced …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, WWD and @koblin

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

Papers Put Faith in Paywalls — Digital Subscription Sales Are Slow, but Publishers Are Encouraged by Trends — As more newspapers close the door on free access to their websites, some publishers are still waiting for paying customers to pour in. — The numbers of readers signing …

Discussion: Noted and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Gloria Goodale / Christian Science Monitor: Los Angeles Times joins the crowd, erects pay wall for the news online

McKay Coppins / BuzzFeed:

Breitbart 2.0 — Days after Breitbart's sudden death, his right-wing new media empire has been revamped, redesigned, and relaunched with the goal of competing as a serious news outlet—and moving away from the aggregation and activist blogging that have been his sites' bread and butter until now.

Wendy Davis / MediaPost:

Massachusetts Considers Shield Law For Journalist Bloggers — Lawmakers in Massachusetts are considering enacting a shield law that would allow at least some bloggers to protect the identity of their sources. The Free Flow of Information Act would prohibit judges from ordering members of the news media to divulge their sources.

Dave Davies / newsworks:

When a newspaper keeps reporters out, you've got trouble — Is this woman dangerous? Could be, if you have something to hide. Pictured here is WHYY reporter Elizabeth Fiedler, in the very photo I'm told was posted yesterday in the security stations at the entrance of the Inquirer and Daily News building …

Laura Snider / Daily Camera:

11-year-old publishes 200th issue of Boulder community newspaper — There's another Camera newspaper in town. Residents of one south Boulder neighborhood can get the Boardman Camera personally delivered once a week by the publisher (who is also the editor, reporter, illustrator, ads salesman …

Discussion: Poynter and Capital New York

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Reporter who created ‘We Are Journalists’ Tumblr takes PR job — Emily Nipps, the Tampa Bay Times reporter who created the “We Are Journalists” Tumblr, is leaving the paper to be a spokesperson for Bayfront Medical Center in St. Petersburg, Fla. — It's a surprising turn of events …

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Marie Colvin funeral to be held in New York this weekend — Body of veteran Sunday Times reporter killed covering the Syria uprising en route back to the USA — Marie Colvin: ‘died doing something she was completely passionate about’ — The funeral of Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin …

Discussion: Associated Press

Press TV: ‘Rebels killed Western journalists in Syria, not Assad army’

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Alt weeklies eye an AP of their own with a content exchange — The Association of Alternative Newsmedia is building out a kind of wire service to allow alternative news sites to share content with each other — and maybe make some money. — The recently launched AltWeeklies Content Exchange lets papers …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Street Fight, Erik Wemple and eMedia Vitals

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

The BBC launches Facebook News Control Panel to personalize your social news feed — As part of its campaign to increase its social presence and to change the way people access news online, the BBC has rolled out its new BBC News Control Panel for its official Facebook page to give people …

Discussion: BBC