Mediagazer: BBC Asked For Assurances On Pay-To-Download Scheme (Robert Andrews/paidContent:UK)

12:30 PM ET, March 8, 2012

Top News:

U.S. Warns Apple, Publishers — Justice Department Threatens Lawsuits, Alleging Collusion Over E-Book Pricing — The Justice Department has warned Apple Inc. and five of the biggest U.S. publishers that it plans to sue them for allegedly colluding to raise the price of electronic books, according to people familiar with the matter.

Jeff Roberts / paidContent: The U.S. Threat To Sue Apple And Publishers: What It Means

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

PCC to close in wake of hacking scandal — Media watchdog will be replaced by transitional body until replacement is set up after Leveson inquiry — The Press Complaints Commission is to be shut down after 21 years, closing one of the most controversial chapters in the history of self regulation of the UK newspaper industry.

Discussion: @wikileaks and Poynter

Josh Halliday / Guardian: Sun and NoW publisher had ‘enthusiastic involvement’ with police

Paul Sawers / The Next Web: WikiLeaks claims it submitted a 100-page dossier to UK Leveson Inquiry on media corruption

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Leveson inquiry: ex-Times legal boss gives evidence on NightJack court bid

Don Kaplan / New York Post:

Simmons' $5M salary, ‘antics’ led to WNBC ditching her: sources — There were 5 million reasons to oust Sue Simmons — and they were all in her paycheck. — WNBC/Channel 4 refused to renew the nightly news anchor's contract because she makes a whopping $5 million annual salary …

Discussion: NY Daily News, Poynter, Chickaboomer, New York Times, Gothamist and New York Post

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:

Save Sue Simmons: The Internet Campaign Begins — News broke today that beloved WNBC-4 anchor Sue Simmons wouldn't have her contract renewed after 32 years of work with the station, thereby breaking up the longest-serving local news anchor team (of Simmons and co-anchor Chuck Scarborough) in New York City.

Discussion: PopWatch, The Awl and The Huffington Post

Richard Huff / NY Daily News:
New York TV news mainstay Sue Simmons to say farewell to WNBC audiences in June

Discussion: Capital New York

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Inquirer: Rendell relinquishes lead in Philly papers purchase, as his group gets exclusive consideration — The group of local leaders interested in buying the Philadelphia papers is now being led by H.F. “Gerry” Lenfest, who was asked to take over by former governor Ed Rendell, reports the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Discussion: Philly.com

Jim Romenesko:

Why Tony Auth is leaving the Philadelphia Inquirer — He adds: “I'm looking forward to the future” as digital artist in residence at NewsWorks. (About that job title: “I made that up.") “I have nothing but affection for the Inquirer and everybody there. ... People who aren't in newspapers would say, ‘Oh you can work at home!’

Discussion: Washington Post and NewsWorks

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

PRX hires Silicon Valley journopreneur Corey Ford to run the Public Media Accelerator — Corey Ford, a former Frontline documentarian who left public media to reinvent it in Silicon Valley, has been named director of the Public Media Accelerator, a $2.5 million incubator launched by PRX and funded by the Knight Foundation.

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

BBC Plans Fees To Download New And Old Shows — The BBC is developing a radical scheme under which UK viewers would pay to download new and old BBC TV shows from an own-brand iTunes competitor. — paidContent has learned the BBC executive wants to make all its shows available as download-to-own …

Robert Andrews / paidContent:UK: BBC Asked For Assurances On Pay-To-Download Scheme

Vivienne Walt / Time:

Out of Syria's Carnage: A Survivor's Testimony of Bab Amr's Last Stand — Late on Feb. 21 a message arrived at TIME's Photo department in New York. It was from French photographer William Daniels, saying he had smuggled himself into the epicenter of Syria's yearlong revolt — the besieged neighborhood of Bab Amr, in the city of Homs.

Discussion: Poynter

Jean Kaplansky / Digital Book World:

The Shiny New iPad: What it Means for Publishers — Apple's announcement of the new iPad received a lot of attention today, but what does it mean for your business? — Advancements — Changes to the new iPad are primarily hardware-based. The new key features are a quad-core A5X processor …

Discussion: BGR, ReadWriteWeb and New York Times

The Onion:
This Article Generating Thousands Of Dollars In Ad Revenue Simply By Mentioning New iPad

Discussion: TechCrunch, Marketing Pilgrim and TechCrunch

Doree Shafrir / BuzzFeed:
Why I Probably Still Won't Get An iPad

Discussion: Bloomberg and New York Times

@alexismadrigal: It's funny that people think iPad stories generate ad revenue for media companies. That's not how it works.

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

For Apple TV, subscription video service still missing — The rumors from last year about how Apple was preparing to launch a subscription video service were at best premature. One analyst says that without a new content offering, Apple TV isn't very special.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Here's What a Netflix-Cable Deal Could Look Like: The One That Netflix Just Announced With Apple

Discussion: Techland, C21Media and /Film

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
HBO Deals Keep Fox, Universal Out of New iCloud Movie Service

Discussion: PC Magazine, CNET, Company Town, Apple, Engadget, MacRumors, iLounge, Speakeasy, Pocket-lint, Forbes, Home Media Magazine, Online Video News, Softpedia News, ZDNet, 9to5Mac, Multichannel, Folio, GigaOM, New York Post and The Official Netflix Blog

Heather Murphy / Slate:

In Defense of Instagram: Why News Photography Goes Well With Vintage-Filtered Cat Pics — The left half of this photo has been placed through an Instagram filter. The right half has not. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images. — If its critics are to be believed, Instagram is one of the best deals in the world.

Discussion: Poynter and The FJP

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Fox News Draws the Most ‘Super Tuesday’ Viewers — Fox News Channel easily out-rated its cable news rivals on Tuesday, the Super Tuesday night of primaries and caucuses in 10 states. The channel even topped the only broadcast network, NBC, that produced a prime-time special about the primaries.

Discussion: Multichannel, MediaPost and Mediaite

Julie Moos / Poynter:

BreakingNews adds verticals on Twitter, website — BreakingNews is expanding this week with a new Twitter vertical on politics, while BreakingNews.com is also adding topical navigation. @Breakingpol joins @breakingstorm (started during Hurricane Irene) and a UK feed to become …

Discussion: Inside

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

Copy Cats: The Secret Art Cabal Inside The New York Times — There's an early scene in CQ/CX—a new off-Broadway play about The New York Times that does not pretend any character's resemblance to persons living or dead is purely coincidental—in which the guy based on Jayson Blair encounters …

Discussion: Poynter and The Newspaper Guild