Mediagazer: Newspapers erect pay walls in hunt for new revenue (Ryan Nakashima/Associated Press)

12:00 AM ET, April 5, 2012

Top News:

James Murdoch's BSkyB exit puts Rupert in firing line — (Reuters) - James Murdoch's exit from the chairmanship of BSkyB moves his father Rupert into the firing line in Britain, just as an inquiry into a phone-hacking scandal turns its focus on his peculiar influence in the country.

Discussion: Guardian

Michael Wolff / Guardian:
Rupert Murdoch's American media immunity

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and FishbowlNY

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
News International misses deadline to file its accounts

Discussion: Crikey, NPR, ITV and paidContent

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:
QC defends scope of original phone-hacking prosecution

Discussion: Press Gazette

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
DPP says there was ‘pushback’ from Met over hacking investigation

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

New high score: How the NYT created its “stupid game” — When Jon Huang was younger he was the type of kid who spent his time making mods for Duke Nukem 3D. So it makes a kind of sense he's now turned The New York Times into its own kind of shoot 'em up. — Huang was the multimedia producer behind …

Discussion: Co.Create, Gothamist, FishbowlNY and The Huffington Post

Steve Myers / Poynter:
Stupid game lets you destroy parts of NYT story about stupid games

Discussion: The 6th Floor, New York Times, The Verge, Engadget, Mediaite, Betabeat and AllThingsD

Media Decoder:

Marimow to Return as Editor of Philadelphia Inquirer — William K. Marimow, who served as the top editor at The Philadelphia Inquirer from 2006-10, will rejoin the paper in the same role, the company said on Wednesday. — His appointment, effective May 1, comes two days …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Philly.com, Poynter, Politico and Off Mic

Paul Nussbaum / Philly.com:
PMN's new owners meet the employees, discuss the future

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

John Hudson / The Atlantic Wire:

Ben Smith: What I Read — How do people deal with the torrent of information pouring down on us all? What sources can't they live without? We regularly reach out to prominent figures in media, entertainment, politics, the arts and the literary world, to hear their answers.

Jim Romenesko:

Gannett announces 2Q furloughs for USA Today employees — Gannett community publishing division president Bob Dickey tells his employees that “I am happy to announce USCP [U.S. community publishing] will not institute furloughs in the second quarter.”

Discussion: Politico

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Reed Hastings Will Get His HBO Go as Comcast Nears Deal on Xbox — Updated Comcast and HBO are close to finalizing a deal to make the HBO Go app available on Xbox, according to several people familiar with the negotiations. — The app, which offers all of the pay cable channel's shows …

Discussion: VentureBeat, The Verge and Multichannel

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Pottermore sold over $1.5m worth of Harry Potter e-books in 3 days — Pottermore sales were “considerably higher than I expected,” said Pottermore CEO Charlie Redmayne on a Radio Litopia show, “The Naked Book,” this afternoon. — Redmayne said Pottermore sold over £1 million worth of e-books …

Discussion: TeleRead and AllThingsD

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Huffington Gains More Control in AOL Revamping — One year after its acquisition by AOL, The Huffington Post has become a source of growth for the beleaguered company, which is still trying to shed its dial-up Internet image. Now, in what Arianna Huffington characterizes as a move to keep …

Discussion: @mathewi

Joe Flint / Company Town:

Tribune and DirecTV make a deal — Tribune Co. television stations, including KTLA-TV Los Angeles, are coming back to satellite broadcaster DirecTV. — After a very public feud, DirecTV reached a five-year agreement late Wednesday to pay Tribune to carry its 23 local television stations around …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, Chicago Tribune, Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Why digital-native media will (almost) always win — Much of the traditional media business has been in the doldrums for some time now, a victim of declining circulation and the free-fall of print advertising that has sucked the oxygen out of many traditional business models.

Discussion: paidContent, Financial Times, Poynter, The FJP, One Man & His Blog and eMedia Vitals

Dan Zak / Washington Post:

Woodward and Bernstein: Could the Web generation uncover a Watergate-type scandal? — The gabby, gray-haired grand poobahs of journalism sprang from the back flaps of their book jackets onto a real-life panel Tuesday afternoon in the air-conditioned guts of the Marriott Wardman Park …

Discussion: ShortFormBlog

Jim Romenesko:

WSJ employees told to fill out code of conduct questionnaire — Employees of the Wall Street Journal and other Dow Jones publications were reminded today to take the Dow Jones Code of Conduct Questionnaire. Rupert Murdoch's company says it's “designed to remind all of us at Dow Jones …

Molly Ball / The Atlantic Online:

Why Don't Romney or Obama Have Anything to Say to the News Industry? — The president and his challenger both addressed a roomful of media executives with jokes and criticism rather than serious consideration. — Mitt Romney addressed the Newspaper Association of America on Wednesday …

Discussion: The Week

Ryan Nakashima / Associated Press:

Newspapers erect pay walls in hunt for new revenue … LOS ANGELES (AP) — Newspapers are returning to a business strategy that served them well in the heyday of street-corner newsboys shouting the front-page news. They're enticing people with a little free online content before asking them to pay up.

Discussion: LA Biz Observed

David Barboza / New York Times:

Flattering News Coverage Has a Price in China — SHANGHAI — China is notorious for censoring politically delicate news coverage. But it is more than willing to let flattering news about Western and Asian businesses appear in print and broadcast media — if the price is right.

Discussion: Media Decoder and Reason

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Can ‘Vice’ keep it real, after lauds from the media establishment's most establishmenty award-dealers? — Remember ten years ago, when Vice was mostly just this slick hipster rag that you'd pick up for free on the floor of some grimey record shop in the East Village, and maybe you'd skim through …

Discussion: Adweek

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

New ASNE figures show percentage of minorities in newspaper newsrooms continues to decline — The number of minorities in the U.S. is growing, but in newspaper newsrooms it continues to creep downward. — New ASNE figures show that the percentage of minorities in newsrooms is now 12.32 percent.

Discussion: rjionline.org, Gannett Blog, Jon Slattery and Reflections of a Newsosaur