Mediagazer: Dick Fedorcio resigns after Met opens disciplinary action (Sandra Laville/Guardian)

9:20 AM ET, March 29, 2012

Top News:

Federal police join News probe — The Australian Federal Police has revealed it is working with UK police investigating the News Corporation phone hacking scandal in a statement hours after The Australian Financial Review exposed News's role in high-tech piracy that sabotaged its pay TV rivals …

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik and Digital Spy

Sandra Laville / Guardian:

Dick Fedorcio resigns after Met opens disciplinary action — Scotland Yard's head of communications, Dick Fedorcio, has resigned immediately after the force opened disciplinary proceedings against him. An inquiry by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) into Fedorcio's award …

Discussion: @dvnjr and @dvnjr

Dina Rickman / Huffington Post UK:

Leveson Inquiry: Kit Malthouse Reveals £40m Cost Of Phone Hacking Probe — The deputy mayor of London has defended his questioning of police spending on phone hacking, saying Scotland Yard already struggles to fund its fight against serious crime and spends less money per year tackling child abuse.

Ben Dowell / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch blasts ‘lies and libels’ — Rupert Murdoch has launched a fightback on Twitter against what he described as “lies and libels” against News Corporation, attacking “enemies” including “old toffs and rightwingers”. The media mogul tweeted three times in the early hours …

Discussion: Guardian

Guardian:
Daily Mail made 1,728 potentially illegal requests to private detective

Discussion: Press Gazette

Bloomberg:

News Corp. Said to Plan U.S. Sports Network to Rival ESPN — Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. (NWSA) is taking steps to start a national U.S. sports network on cable television aimed at challenging Walt Disney Co. (DIS)'s ESPN, according to people with knowledge of the situation.

Discussion: New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Forbes, The Wrap, Deadline.com, The Atlantic Wire, The Huffington Post, PBS, Business Insider, @pkafka, Politico, msnbc.com, AllThingsD and Guardian

Keach Hagey / Politico:

Ex-Rocky editor offered WashPost ME job — John Temple, editor of the Honolulu-based local news site Civil Beat and former editor of the now-defunct Rocky Mountain News, has been offered managing editor job at the Washington Post, POLITICO has learned. — The job has been open since Raju …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:

The News at NBC — Ratings pinch gives Lauer power. — On March 15, NBC News hosted its annual upfront presentation, at which its executives make their pitches to ad buyers for the coming year. NBC News has won its ratings races for more than a decade, so they didn't bother with a hard sell.

Discussion: Mediaite and Gawker

George Winslow / Broadcasting & Cable:

Arne Rees to Head ESPN Intl. Digital Efforts — Will work to expand digital media operations around the world — As part of an effort to expand the international reach of its digital media operations, ESPN has named Arne Rees as vice president, international digital media.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Barnes & Noble Incorporates In Germany, Closest Sign Yet Of European Nook Launch — Just as Amazon is launching a new Kindle (but not the Fire tablet, yet) in Europe, one of its big competitors is taking one more step in its bid to enter the European market: Barnes & Noble has incorporated a new company …

Discussion: Betabeat and Engadget

Lee Gardner / Baltimore City Paper:

What Is an Alt-Weekly? — We've been trying to figure that out for 35 years — Someone asked me that question recently, and I opened my mouth and started to talk. It's a question that comes up enough that I have a couple of standard answers I can riff on.

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Subscription Manager MediaPass Raises $1.75M — It's no secret that publishers are scrambling to find ways of making money online. On the subscription/paywall side, a startup called MediaPass wants to help, and it just raised $1.75 million in Series B funding.

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Group Plans Protest of The Village Voice — Village Voice Media, which operates Backpage.com, is coming under more fire for maintaining an adult section that allegedly has been used by people to buy and sell minors for sex. A group led by Groundswell, a social action service of the Auburn Seminary …

Discussion: NYConvergence.com and NetNewsCheck Latest