Mediagazer: Authors Guild: DOJ Investigation Is ‘Grim,’ ‘Tragic’ News For Book Lovers (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

5:20 PM ET, March 9, 2012

Top News:

New Republic Gets an Owner Steeped in New Media — The newest owner of The New Republic magazine is Chris Hughes, a new-media guru who co-founded Facebook and helped to run the online organizing machine for Barack Obama's presidential campaign. — Mr. Hughes's purchase of a majority stake …

Discussion: Forbes, MinOnline, Capital New York, Adweek, Betabeat, Folio, paidContent, BtoB Magazine, The New Yorker Blog, The New York Observer, The Huffington Post, mediabistro.com, eMedia Vitals and Business Insider

The New Republic:

Home News: A Letter to TNR Readers from Chris Hughes — To the Readers of The New Republic: — Nearly 100 years ago, the founding editors of The New Republic wrote these words to introduce their inaugural issue: … A century later, people are once again skeptical that quality journalism can flourish.

Discussion: Deadline.com, National Review, The New Yorker Blog, NPR, New York Magazine, CNNMoney.com, Globe and Mail, The Awl, Poynter, The Next Web, Vanity Fair and Business Insider

Dylan Byers / Politico: Alan Grayson pitches TNR subscribers

Tim Carmody / Wired:
I Think It Would Be Fun to Run the New Republic: Chris Hughes as Charles Foster Kane

Discussion: Media Decoder

Ryan Tate / Gawker:

Twitter's Secret History As the World's Worst Tech or Media Business — Twitter Inc.'s been spinning quite a turnaround story in the press lately. The microblogging service “has finally turned a corner,” declares the cover of Bloomberg Businessweek. “It's a juggernaut,” a company executive tells the magazine.

Discussion: CNET, Business Insider, The Next Web, @benpopper and @pkafka

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:
Twitter's Ad Sales Are Booming, Says Gawker

Discussion: Business Insider

Matt Thompson / The Mozilla Blog:

The New York Times joins Mozilla and Knight Foundation to drive open innovation in news — The New York Times and three other leading global news organizations are joining “Knight-Mozilla OpenNews,” a partnership aimed at driving open source innovation in news.

Discussion: Dan Sinker and The Next Web

Bonnie Kavoussi / The Huffington Post:

Felix Salmon At Columbia Journalism School: Don't Blame Journalists For Failing To Prevent Financial Crisis — Some business reporters have a message for critics who say they did not try hard enough to expose banks' misdeeds before the financial crisis: Don't blame us.

Discussion: Talking Biz News

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

Yahoo Eyes More TV Partners as Layoffs Loom — A Content Deal With ABC News as a Model for Others — Amid a swirl of speculation about layoffs that could run as high as 1,000, Yahoo is pushing further into original video programming and discussing possible partnerships with TV networks beyond its current deal with ABC News.

Thanks:@delrey

Mike Shields / Adweek:
Yahoo Sets Out to ‘Remake’ Yahoo News

Discussion: Beet.TV, mnilive.com and FishbowlLA

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Leveson inquiry: nearly £2m spent on press investigation since last summer — Almost £100,000 a month of taxpayers' money is being used to fund a handful of barristers, including Robert Jay — The Leveson inquiry has spent almost £2m since it was set up last summer …

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:
Injunction threat over Will Lewis security blog post

Discussion: Neville Thurlbeck and Bloomberg

Guardian:
Ofcom steps up test of James Murdoch's fitness to keep BSkyB role

Discussion: Company Town, Reuters, Guardian, Telegraph, Guardian and Guardian

Press Gazette:

First official figures give The Sun Sunday 3.2m circ — ABC today released the first official figures for The Sun Sunday - showing a launch circulation of 3,213,613 for the new title. In its final month before it was closed the News of the World had an average monthly circulation of 2,667,428.

Discussion: Guardian

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian: Sun on Sunday: £45m a year down versus the News of the World?

Matt Rosoff / Business Insider:

Newspapers Are The Fastest Shrinking Industry In The U.S. — If you want to be a journalist, think online. — Newspapers have shed a greater percentage of jobs since 2007 than any other industry in the United States, according to data published today by LinkedIn.

Discussion: Poynter, Jon Slattery, Noted, The LinkedIn Blog and WebProNews

Michael S. Rosenwald / Washington Post:

For tablet computer visionary Roger Fidler, a lot of what-ifs — COLUMBIA, Mo. — Roger Fidler, in jeans and a black turtleneck, is watching Steve Jobs, in jeans and a black turtleneck, introduce the iPad. Fidler is sitting in his stark white office — the late Apple co-founder adored white's simplicity …

Discussion: TabTimes

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Germany Wants To Charge Search Engines To Use News Excerpts — Germany's government wants search engines and news aggregators to pay news publishers for using pieces of their material. — Its coalition committee has resolved that a collecting society should charge royalties to re-publishers of news material.

Discussion: The Register, PC Magazine, WebProNews and BtoB Magazine

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Former Times Executive Made $24 Million in 2011, According to Proxy Statement — The New York Times Company paid its former chief executive Janet L. Robinson $24 million in 2011, according to the company's proxy statement filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday.

Discussion: Reuters and Bloomberg

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Authors Guild: DOJ Investigation Is ‘Grim,’ ‘Tragic’ News For Book Lovers — The Authors Guild weighs in on the news that the Department of Justice is investigating Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) and five of the big-six publishers for allegedly colluding on e-book pricing: “Our government may be on the verge …

Discussion: The Authors Guild Blog, GalleyCat, @dangillmor, TeleRead and GigaOM

Jeff Roberts / paidContent: Penguin Says Kindle, Nook Users Must Accept AT&T-style Arbitration

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Billboard Publisher, Editor Out, Other Top Staffers Follow — Billboard Magazine is bleeding top talent, with publisher Lisa Ryan Howard and editor-in-chief Danyel Smith handing in their walking papers, TheWrap has learned. — In addition, deputy editor Lou Hau and other high-level staffers …