Mediagazer: ‘Beast-week’ reporter Jacob Bernstein to be a regular moonlighter for ‘Times’ Styles section (Joe Pompeo/Capital New York)

11:50 AM ET, March 15, 2012

Top News:

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Newspaper advertising was down 7.3 percent, almost $2 billion, in 2011 — The Newspaper Association of America has posted its final tally of newspaper advertising statistics for 2011, and as expected, it is not a pretty picture. — Total advertising revenue was down 7.3 percent, a percentage point worse than in 2010.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Newspaper sales slid to 1984 level in 2011 — In the poorest showing since 1984, advertising revenues at newspapers last year fell 7.3% to $23.9 billion, according to figures quietly published Wednesday by the Newspaper Association of America. — Here are a few factoids to help put the industry's long-running slump in perspective:

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Guild plans to fight layoffs of 19 Philadelphia journalists, after 21 take buyouts — Journalists at the Philadelphia Inquirer, Daily News and Philly.com are learning this week whether or not they'll be laid off. The deadline for the latest buyout offer was yesterday …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, mediabistro.com and The Philly Post

Jim Romenesko:

‘I would have loved to piss on your shoes’ — Greg Smith's resignation letter in Wednesday's New York Times had me thinking about journalists' final shots at their bosses. (Jack Shafer wrote about some of them last June.) — In April of 2001, I posted what I believe to be the best resignation letter ever written by a journalist.

Discussion: DealBook

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

Met ‘grades journalists by favourable coverage’ — The Sun's crime correspondent Mike Sullivan claims the Metropolitan Police grades journalists on how favourable their coverage is. — Sullivan told the Leveson Inquiry the force has analysts who scan newspapers looking for potential leaks …

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Blog post prompted Thurlbeck ‘witness intimidation’ arrest — Former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck was arrested yesterday and questioned for six hours after a posting on his blog which revealed News Corp general manager Will Lewis's home address.

Discussion: Neville Thurlbeck and Press Gazette

Scotsman:
Evidence from former top auditor at Scotland Yard is delayed after force complaint

Discussion: London Evening Standard and Telegraph

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Trinity Mirror suffers 40% fall in profits — Newspaper publisher to cut pension fund payments as profits fall to £74m — Trinity Mirror has reported a 40% fall in pre-tax profits to £74m for 2011, and agreed to cut pension fund payments by almost £70m as the publisher's pension deficit ballooned by almost half.

Discussion: paidContent:UK and Press Gazette

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Trinity Mirror invests £10m in daily deals website — Trinity Mirror, which reported a 40% profits fall today, is moving into the online daily deals sector. — It is launching an online daily deals business called “happli”, which enables people who register with its website to buy discounted goods.

Discussion: Press Gazette

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Cisco Wants To Buy News Corp's TV Software Maker NDS For $5 Billion — Cisco (NSDQ: CSCO) says it wants to buy News Corp.'s TV set-top box software maker NDS Group for $5 billion to improve its own offering and grow its profile in China and India. — Both companies' boards have approved the deal.

Discussion: Cisco, CNET, ZDNet and TechCrunch

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Nielsen: U.S. Consumers The Most Likely To Pay For Content On A Tablet... Except When It's News — As developers hunker down and get into the business of trying to work out how to get consumers to buy more of their product on mobile devices, some revealing numbers out from Nielsen on what people …

Discussion: Nielsen Wire

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: eMedia Vitals, NetNewsCheck Latest, Pocket-lint, ZDNet and Softpedia News

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

GBTV To Bring in $40 Million in Revenue This Year, Will (Eventually) Go 24/7 — The Wall Street Journal profiles Glenn Beck's web-TV service GBTV, as well as his larger media company Mercury Radio Arts. There are a number of takeaways, including that the channel will eventually go 24/7 …

Discussion: GalleyCat and Wall Street Journal

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

UK mag the Spectator announces a 190-year online archive, and refreshes its iOS app — UK magazine The Spectator has made a number of new announcements relating to its digital offering, including a new iOS app and a pretty extensive online archive which is due to launch in the spring.

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 …

Discussion: The Huffington Post

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

Discussion: TVWeek.com, Deadline.com and The Huffington Post

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).