Mediagazer: Cyber-attack on BBC leads to suspicion of Iran's involvement (BBC)

12:10 AM ET, March 15, 2012

Top News:

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

James Murdoch writes to MPs expressing regret over phone hacking — Former News International chairman restates his innocence and expresses ‘deep regret’ over the phone hacking scandal — James Murdoch has written to the parliamentary select committee investigating phone hacking to express his …

Discussion: @hughes_mark, @skymartinbrunt, Financial Times, @edmundlee, Guardian, @lisaocarroll, The Huffington Post, Media Decoder, Erik Wemple, Capital New York and Poynter

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Neville Thurlbeck, former News of the World chief reporter, arrested

Discussion: @fleetstreetfox, Neville Thurlbeck and Journalism.co.uk

London Evening Standard: Murdoch and son get ready to face Leveson

Press Gazette: Guardian crime reporter warns of police ‘over-reaction’

Reuters:
Murdoch UK paper editor “told me to bribe police”

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and Press Gazette

Christopher Hope / Telegraph: Horsegate: Questions about whether Rebekah Brooks, not Charlie, is David Cameron's real friend

Britannica Blog:

Change: It's Okay. Really. — That big print set will pass into history, but the future it gives way to will be bright. — For 244 years, the thick volumes of the Encyclopaedia Britannica have stood on the shelves of homes, libraries, and businesses everywhere, a source of enlightenment …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Encyclopedias are like journalism: It's better when they are open — Anyone who grew up with the Encyclopedia Britannica could be forgiven for getting a little misty-eyed about the legendary publication doing away with its printed version after more than two centuries, even if the move seems unsurprising (and more than a little late).

Discussion: CNN, Guardian, Britannica Blog and Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog

Jim Romenesko:
A former Britannica editor on the print edition's demise

Discussion: Chicago Tribune, New York Times, WebProNews, Washington Post, Culture, ReadWriteWeb, Poynter and The Daily Caller

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Charlie Rose and the Truth About Unpaid Media Interns — A lawsuit filed today against PBS host Charlie Rose and his production company hinges on a few simple questions: Are college-age interns in publishing and broadcasting unpaid employees or students? Are they rendering valuable services …

Steven Greenhouse / Media Decoder:
Former Intern at ‘Charlie Rose’ Sues, Alleging Wage Law Violations

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Deadline.com

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Web TV service Aereo lives—no injunctions in sight — The streaming service that delivers over-the-air TV broadcasts went live today, though ABC, CBS, NBC, and other networks sued to try to stop the launch. — One of Aereo's tiny antennas. — New Yorkers can watch live broadcast TV via the Web, starting today.

Discussion: Media Money …, Wired and Shelly Palmer Digital Living

Ben Popper / VentureBeat:

As legal battle with TV networks escalates, Aereo launches in New York. We tested the service. It rocks — I'm sitting in my office (by which I mean my kitchen) watching Rachel Ray on my iPad and Kathy Lee on my laptop. These aren't clips or day or old episodes.

Discussion: paidContent, Multichannel and Broadcasting & Cable

Jim Hopkins / Gannett Blog:

Memo: Gannett establishing national news desk — USA Today Executive Editor Susan Weiss forwarded the following memo to staff yesterday. It came a day before many U.S. journalists were to participate in a Web conference on the future of wire news. My question: Does this spell the beginning …

Discussion: @mattderienzo and @romenesko

BBC:

Cyber-attack on BBC leads to suspicion of Iran's involvement — The BBC is not providing detail of the timing or nature of the cyber-attack — A “sophisticated cyber-attack” on the BBC has been linked to Iran's efforts to disrupt the BBC Persian Service.

Discussion: CNET, ReadWriteWeb, WebProNews, BBC College of Journalism Blog, Reuters, Naked Security, Voice of America and Media News

Dylan Byers / Politico:

NBC pulls Ron Paul's last embed — A couple weeks back I noted that Ron Paul, the lonely delegate hunter, had only one full-time, embedded reporter on his trail: Anthony Terrell of NBC News. Other reporters have provided some coverage of the candidate, but for the last few weeks Terrell was the only proverbial boy on the bus.

Discussion: Hit & Run, Runnin' Scared and Mediaite

Jeffrey Goldfarb / Reuters:

New York Times pay structure isn't fit to print — The New York Times Co's pay structure isn't fit to print. The venerable U.S. newspaper group revealed a bonus structure that rewards bosses with 175 percent of their target payouts for achieving a mere 2.5 percent return on invested capital.

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: ‘New York Times’ names SmartMoney.com founder Marc Frons its chief information officer

John Plunkett / Guardian:

BBC boss confirms TV download pay service — Mark Thompson says Project Barcelona will allow viewers to purchase programmes permanently just after they are broadcast — BBC director general Mark Thompson has confirmed plans for an iTunes-style download service that will allow viewers …

Discussion: BBC, The Next Web, Engadget and The Wall Blog

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Assad Emails Reveal ABC News Correspondence, CNN Deception — In an impressive scoop, The Guardian has acquired a cache of emails from embattled Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad. While many emails shed a light on Assad's personal life or the crackdown of his people, they also shine a light on his dealings with Western media outlets.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Guardian and Guardian

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

The Daily Has an Angry Birds App — And the Start of a Custom Publishing Business — Hey! You like Angry Birds, right? Of course you do. So you'll enjoy reading about Angry Birds, via a new, free iOS app about the newest iteration of the game, produced by The Daily. (An Android version is in the works.)

Discussion: ZDNet

John Cook / GeekWire:

Anatomy of a news story: How Bing and Google performed when Steve Jobs resigned — A new study out today from Seattle-based Optify attempts to get behind the scenes on how Bing and Google operate when big news breaks. Obviously, that's an interesting topic for news hounds like us.

Discussion: Optify and Forbes

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

NewsRight lands its first licensing deal — Two months after opening for business, NewsRight, the news licensing agency created by the Associated Press and 28 other news organizations, has its first client. — It's not Huffington Post or Google News or Flipboard.

Discussion: paidContent and The Wrap

Chris Velazco / TechCrunch:

Sports Illustrated App Hits iPhone, Celebrates With Augmented Reality Magazine Cover — I'm no athlete, but I've found that a passing knowledge of sports comes in handy when conversations take a turn for the awkward. The question then is where do sports fans (and wannabes like me) go to get the skinny?

Discussion: mediabistro.com