Mediagazer: Walmart Announces Disc To Digital Program To Convert Your Old DVDs (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)

10:05 PM ET, March 13, 2012

Top News:

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

After 244 Years, Encyclopaedia Britannica Stops the Presses — After 244 years, the Encyclopaedia Britannica is going out of print. — Those coolly authoritative, gold-lettered sets of reference books that were once sold door to door by a fleet of traveling salesmen and displayed …

Discussion: Britannica Blog, VentureBeat, ABCNEWS, Gotta Be Mobile, ReadWriteWeb, The Next Web, The Daily What and Mother Jones

Guardian:

Rebekah Brooks and husband arrested in new twist in phone-hacking inquiry — Pair released after facing day of questioning by detectives on suspicion of conspiracy to pervert the course of justice — Rebekah Brooks, Rupert Murdoch's long-time confidante and a personal friend of David Cameron …

Discussion: Reuters, New York Times, @skymartinbrunt, @skymartinbrunt, Gawker, Vanity Fair, Associated Press, Guardian, Capital New York and @jeffjarvis

Paul McNally / journalism.co.uk:
Met police ‘did not believe’ vetting Neil Wallis was necessary

Discussion: Guardian

Martinbrunt / @skymartinbrunt:
#phonehacking Charlie and Rebekah Brooks freed on bail till April

Discussion: @skymartinbrunt and @skymartinbrunt

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian: Phone hacking: Rupert Murdoch says Sun investigation is almost over

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Private investigators posed as journalists for NoW, says lawyer

Discussion: The Independent

Matthew Holehouse / Telegraph: Leveson Inquiry: Dick Fedorcio let NOTW reporter write story on Met computer

Rachel McAthy / journalism.co.uk:

Al Jazeera to broadcast Syria documentary filmed entirely on iPhone — In an interesting development for mobile journalism, Al Jazeera is due to broadcast a documentary tomorrow night (Wednesday, 14 March) on Syria which has been filmed by a journalist using just an iPhone due to safety concerns.

Discussion: AJE, The FJP and The Huffington Post

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Syrian citizen journalists win Netizen prize — The media centre of the Local Coordinating Committees of Syria was recognised for working to ‘keep the world abreast of the violence wracking the country’ — Anti-government protests in the besieged city of Homs — Copyright: by FreedomHouse on Flickr.

Marco Arment / Marco.org:

I'm not a “curator” — Curator's Code is an attempt to codify and standardize “via” links and attribution from link blogs and aggregators with two new symbols: — á"¥ means “via” — means “hat tip” — It's completely misguided. — First of all, readers aren't going to learn what those symbols mean.

Discussion: SocialTimes, Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com, The Verge, The New York Observer, ReadWriteWeb and Mashable!

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Huffington Post refutes ‘thesis of aggregators as pickpockets’

Discussion: paidContent:UK, GigaOM and Erik Wemple

Alexis Madrigal / The Atlantic Online:

Paper Con Man Ravages the Internet — A response to Harper's publisher John MacArthur's lengthy screed against the enterprise of online journalism — This is the Internet, basically, according to Harper's publisher. flickr/wheatfields. — Long before I wrote stories for magazines, I read a magazine called Harper's.

Discussion: This New England Blog, Gawker, The Awl and Poynter

James R. Hagerty / Wall Street Journal:

When Mom Goes Viral — After Review of Grand Forks Olive Garden, Marilyn Hagerty, 85, Is Talk of Social Media — Some people pursue celebrity. Others stumble into it as they are rushing off to bridge club. — My 85-year-old mom, Marilyn Hagerty, a newspaper columnist, is in the latter category.

Discussion: Poynter, City Room, Fork in the Road, Eater National, JIMROMENESKO.COM and The Huffington Post

Billboard.Biz:

Exclusive: Turntable.FM Signs Licensing Deals With All Four Major Labels — It's Official — Turntable.fm is going legit, with licensing agreements with all four of the major labels now in place. The announcement was made today at South By Southwest by Turntable.fm founder Billy Chasen …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Mashable!, VentureBeat, The Next Web, CNET and WebProNews

Jeremy Scahill / The Nation:

Why Is President Obama Keeping a Journalist in Prison in Yemen? — On February 2, 2011, President Obama called Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh. The two discussed counterterrorism cooperation and the battle against Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. At the end of the call …

Discussion: @brianstelter

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Walmart Announces Disc To Digital Program To Convert Your Old DVDs — Walmart is about to make a big push for digital movie ownership. — At a press conference today in Los Angeles, the company announced that, as rumored, it's launching a new program called the Disc to Digital service.

Discussion: Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable, Media Money …, Home Media Magazine, PC Magazine, CNET, Company Town and Gizmodo

Ethan Smith / Wall Street Journal:

Billboard Gets Digital Update — Trade Magazine's Hot 100 List Will Now Include Data From Music Services Like Spotify, Rdio — Billboard magazine's Hot 100 songs chart is getting a digital makeover, though readers might not notice much of a difference when the weekly list is released on Wednesday.

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

At Shareholder Meeting, Disney Commits to Hire 1,000 Veterans — LOS ANGELES — The Walt Disney Company's senior executives decamped to Kansas City, Mo., on Tuesday to conduct their annual meeting for shareholders and made sure as always to bring a piece of positive news: Heroes Work Here.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, Company Town and The Good Men Project

Jim Romenesko:

Medved: Why mainstream media hate Romney — Michael Medved claims Mitt Romney “gets especially harsh treatment [in the press] because political insiders and veteran journalists agree with the proposition that he's the only surviving candidate in the GOP who could conceivably unseat the incumbent.”

Discussion: The Daily Beast, @jayrosen_nyu, The Wrap and Journalism.org