Mediagazer: Chicago Tribune cuts 15 journalists (Lynne Marek/Chicago Business)

2:45 PM ET, March 15, 2012

Top News:

Former Times lawyer Brett admits Nightjack mistakes — Former Times legal chief Alastair Brett today admitted he made a “mistake” by failing to divulge the fact one of the paper's reporters hacked into an email account to reveal the identity of anonymous police blogger NightJack.

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: Guardian, Neville Thurlbeck, Press Gazette and London Evening Standard

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette: Met ‘grades journalists by favourable coverage’

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

Discussion: London Evening Standard and Telegraph

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:

Discussion: 10,000 Words

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, newsworks, The Philly Post and mediabistro.com

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

Sam Stein / The Huffington Post:

Daily Caller Reporter Gets Into Email War With DNC — WASHINGTON — A private spat between the Democratic National Committee's communications shop and a reporter for the Daily Caller, a conservative-leaning web outlet, erupted publicly on Wednesday after a DNC official leaked a heated email exchange to the press.

BuzzFeed:

Democrats Accuse Conservative News Outlet Of “Blackmail” — The Caller was, perhaps, leaning into the story a bit. Boyle stands by his warning. — The Democratic National Committee is at odds with the conservative Daily Caller over a reporter's threat as to how he would interpret an unreturned email.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, FishbowlDC and The Daily Caller

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 and Press Gazette

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
Trinity Mirror invests £10m in daily deals website

Discussion: Press Gazette

Lynne Marek / Chicago Business:

Chicago Tribune cuts 15 journalists — (Crain's) — The Chicago Tribune cut about 15 editorial employees today as the news company continues to shrink its newsroom. — The employees dismissed included reporters, editors and managers, according to sources familiar with the layoffs.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and @brianboyer

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: blog.nielsen.com, ZDNet, Media Buyer Planner and Media, disrupted

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: Radio & Television …, Multichannel, AllThingsD, Forbes, PC Magazine, @pkafka, Bits, CNET, Cisco, ZDNet and TechCrunch

Jessica Gresko / Navy Times:

Army: Manning's leaks assisted al-Qaida — FORT MEADE, Md. — A soldier aided al-Qaida by leaking hundreds of thousands of military and other government documents to the anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks, the military said Thursday. — Army Pfc. Bradley Manning had previously been charged …

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Social TV's Zeebox Aims At U.S. Under Time Warner's Forbes — Second-screen social TV startup Zeebox has poached Time Warner Cable (NYSE: TWC) Media SVP Jason Forbes to head its upcoming competition with peers like GetGlue and Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) IntoNow in the U.S., having quickly impressed UK users in the nascent segment.

Discussion: Lost Remote

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.

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Exclusive: BermanBraun Buys Most of Shelby Bonnie's Whiskey Media — In a deal that was just signed, longtime Silicon Valley exec Shelby Bonnie has sold his social publishing start-up, Whiskey Media, to Santa Monica-based entertainment and interactive production company BermanBraun.

Discussion: Adweek