Mediagazer: James Murdoch to step down as BSkyB chairman

12:25 PM ET, April 3, 2012

Top News:

James Murdoch to step down as BSkyB chairman - live — 4.56pm: Our US media commentator and keen Murdoch-watcher Michael Wolff has been talking to Dominic Rushe. “James has no job now. He's just taking up desk space, he has no portfolio and no authority,” said Wolff.

Discussion: Sky News, Guardian, Radio & Television …, Broadcasting & Cable, Media & Entertainment, Press Gazette, @mediaguardian, Sky News, The Wrap, Free Press, Company Town, CNN, Media Matters for America, Poynter and Globe and Mail

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:

News Corp shareholders renew call for Rupert Murdoch to step down — Calls for Murdoch to be replaced are reignited following James Murdoch's resignation from British pay-TV giant BSkyB — Shareholder activists have renewed their call for Rupert Murdoch to quit as chairman of News Corporation …

Discussion: AllThingsD

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

News Corp. Still Backing James Murdoch — News Corp. is making a show of publicly backing James Murdoch, its deputy chief operating officer, after he stepped down as chairman of BSkyB. — Here's the full statement the company (which also owns this Web site) just released:

Discussion: Telegraph

Press Gazette:

Rupert and James Murdoch expected to face Leveson — Newspaper owners - expected to include Rupert and James Murdoch - will be called before the Leveson Inquiry in the coming weeks. — Lord Justice Leveson said media proprietors will give evidence in the weeks beginning April 23 and May 8.

Discussion: Press Gazette

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
James Murdoch quits another News Corp group to spare BSkyB from fall-out

Discussion: BBC

Eric Deggans / Tampa Bay Times:

Sarah Palin knocks lamestream media while getting two hours free publicity on NBC's Today — Now I know why Sarah Palin calls it the lamestream media. Halfway through the first two hours of Palin's “guest hosting” stint on NBC's Today show this morning, I was still waiting …

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Sarah Palin Co-Hosts ‘Today’

Discussion: New York Magazine, Mediaite, TVNewser and Chickaboomer

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

Leveson inquiry: Rebekah Brooks reapplies for core participant status — Lord Justice Leveson also sets out inquiry timetable for next few months — The move follows Brooks' failed application for core participant status in September 2011 — Rebekah Brooks has applied for core participant status …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Ex-Met police boss John Yates attended News of the World reporter's wedding

Discussion: Press Gazette and Journalism.co.uk

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Robert Redford to Produce a Documentary About Watergate — Rarely does reality intersect with role playing the way it did two Sundays ago in Bob Woodward's living room. — Meeting him there were Carl Bernstein, his writing partner at The Washington Post during the Watergate scandal in the 1970s …

Discussion: Media Decoder, JIMROMENESKO.COM and BBC

Paul Smalera / Reuters:

The recession killed journalism - and saved it — Over the last few years, thanks to the global economic crisis - encapsulating everything from the 2008 housing crash to today's ongoing euro zone sovereign-debt debacle - much ink has been spilled about the reshaping of the world's economy, especially about the domestic job market.

Discussion: Capital New York, newsplexer and WWD Media Headlines

Rupal Parekh / AdAge:

Many Magazines Racing to Capitalize on Pinterest — Publishers Exploring Platform, Watching Rivals' Moves — Last month, digital executives from Hearst's 20 or so titles were summoned for an important meeting at the company's Manhattan headquarters. — The pressing subject was Pinterest …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Thanks:@matt_creamer

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:
MPA Levels Playing Field for Publishers' Tablet Data

Discussion: Media Buyer Planner, MPA, Journalism.co.uk, MinOnline, New York Times, BtoB Magazine, Folio, paidContent and eMedia Vitals

Matt Chaban / The New York Observer:

T-Squared Off: With Paul Goldberger Leaving for Vanity Fair, Is This the End of Architecture Criticism at The New Yorker? — There are two great thrones in American architectural criticism, that of The New Yorker and The New York Times. It was at these two journalistic institutions …

Discussion: UnBeige, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Capital New York, The Huffington Post, FishbowlNY and LA Observed

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Tabloid Tangle: Jim Dolan Accuses Mort Zuckerman of Extortion — Publishing a tabloid newspaper in New York is not for the timid, but the accusation Cablevision CEO Jim Dolan just leveled against New York Daily News owner Mort Zuckerman is strong stuff even by those standards.

Discussion: New York Magazine, The New York Observer, Forbes, Newsday, New York Post, BuzzFeed, The Big Lead and Runnin' Scared

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

DocumentCloud removes email dump after legal threat — When the Australian Financial Review blew open a new front in News Corporation's ongoing scandals last week, it did so with the help of DocumentCloud. — That's because the Financial Review's investigation hinged on 14,400 emails connected …

Discussion: Poynter and afr.com

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

DirecTV Asks Who Makes Decisions at Tribune as Blackouts Extend — DirecTV (DTV), the largest U.S. satellite- TV company, still doesn't know whether it should negotiate with Tribune Co. management or its creditors to end a blackout of 23 local stations, DirecTV's head of programming said.

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:
DirecTV files complaint with FCC over loss of Tribune Co. programming

Discussion: Variety, Hollywood Reporter and Bloomberg

Associated Press:

AP revenue declines slow in 2011; seen up in 2012 — WASHINGTON — The Associated Press said Tuesday that its revenue declined in 2011 for the third straight year, but the drop was significantly smaller than the previous two years. Revenue dropped to $627.6 million last year from $630.5 million in 2010 …