Mediagazer: NoW closure cost Murdoch nearly £250m (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

3:30 PM ET, April 5, 2012

Top News:

Sky News admits hacking emails of ‘canoe man’ — Sky News has admitted that one of its senior executives authorised a journalist to conduct email hacking on two separate occasions that it said were “in the public interest” - even though intercepting emails is a prima facie breach of the Computer Misuse Act …

Discussion: Poynter, BBC, Press Gazette, NPR, The Verge, Guardian, Media & Entertainment, Naked Security, Journalism.co.uk, mnilive.com, Press Association, ZDNet, @dansabbagh, @jackofkent, Hacked off, ThinkProgress and Globe and Mail

John Ryley / Sky News:

A CASE OF DOUBLE STANDARDS? — The Guardian today published an appraisal of a story story broadcast by Sky News almost four years ago. In the 2008 case of Anne Darwin, whose “canoe man” husband John Darwin faked his own death as part of an insurance fraud, we provided the police with emails …

Josephine Moulds / Guardian: BSkyB shares plunge after Sky News admits email hacking

Reuters:
James Murdoch's BSkyB exit puts Rupert in firing line

Discussion: Financial Times and Guardian

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

Actually, Arianna Huffington Has Been Demoted — Despite a story in today's New York Times headlined: “Huffington Gains More Control in AOL Revamping,” Arianna Huffington has in recent weeks seen a “narrowing” of her job at AOL, a source close to AOL tells us.

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: Capital New York, Media Decoder, GigaOM, Digiday, FishbowlNY, TVNewser and @mathewi

Peter Lauria / Reuters:

Exclusive: Low ratings could end cable deal for Gore's Current TV — Al Gore's Current TV has bigger problems to deal with than a potential lawsuit from fired news anchor Keith Olbermann - namely not getting kicked off Time Warner Cable for low ratings. According to three sources with knowledge …

Discussion: Mediaite, The Huffington Post, The New York Observer, Business Insider, TVbytheNumbers, The Raw Story and Chickaboomer

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Assange: PCC stood by as I was libelled — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has launched an attack on the Press Complaints Commission, claiming he has been subjected to inaccurate and negative media coverage “possibly on a scale not seen since the abuse of the McCanns”.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Julian Assange's Talk Show Debuts Next Week; Watch the Promo — Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has been known to make big promises that don't always pan out, but his plan to host a current events talk show on “Russia Today” doesn't seem to be one of them.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Amazon Goes Bilingual In The U.S. Kindle Store With Launch Of Spanish ‘Tienda Kindle’ — Amazon has been making some big strides in extending its footprint outside of the U.S. with its Kindle e-readers and Kindle bookstore, but today it took a step to improve how it caters to Spanish speakers closer to home …

Discussion: Forbes, paidContent, Amazon.com, Pew Internet, PC Magazine, WebProNews, CNET, The Next Web and ZDNet

Ian Simpson / Reuters: One-fifth of U.S. adults read e-books as market booms - survey

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Court Says Viacom vs. YouTube Copyright Fight Will Go Another Round — The long-running Viacom versus YouTube copyright fight will keep going a while longer: A federal court has overturned an earlier victory for Google and its giant video site, and has ordered the two sides to retry the case.

Discussion: Media Decoder, TechCrunch, CNET, Home Media Magazine, paidContent, Media & Entertainment, PC Magazine, AdAge, Company Town, Hillicon Valley, Techdirt, The Next Web and Free Press

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Leveson inquiry: Brooks granted core participant status — Former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks has been granted core participant status for module three of the inquiry — Brooks's previous application for core participant status in module one was rejected

Discussion: Guardian

Mark Sweney / Guardian: NoW closure cost Murdoch nearly £250m

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Wait — so how many newspapers have paywalls? — It can be hard to measure something that keeps growing. — Just over two weeks ago, the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism reported that there are roughly 150 dailies in the United States that now have some form of digital subscription service.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Google: No more e-books for indie booksellers — Google is ending the program that allows independent booksellers to sell Google e-books through their websites. It is a big blow for small bookstores seeking to compete against Amazon and Barnes & Noble. — The full letter that the American …

Discussion: ZDNet, 9to5Google, Wired, WebProNews, Google Book Search Blog and Publishers Lunch

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Newsroom staffing hits 34-year low — The number of journalists working at U.S. newspapers today is at the lowest point since the American Society of News Editors began its annual newsroom census in 1978. — Newspapers now employ 40,600 editors and reporters vs. a peak of 56,900 …

Discussion: AAJA Online, Media News, rjionline.org, Jon Slattery, Gannett Blog and Poynter

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Bill Marimow will take new approach to old job as Philadelphia Inquirer editor — Bill Marimow says his demotion in 2010 from Philadelphia Inquirer editor to reporter was “revelatory” because it allowed him to return full-time to reporting, the job for which he won Pulitzer prizes in the '70s and '80s.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and Gawker

Media Decoder:
Marimow to Return as Editor of Philadelphia Inquirer

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

Associated Press:

USA Today Begins More Staff Furloughs To Cut Costs — McLEAN, Va. (AP) — USA Today is requiring most of its staff to take an unpaid week off to save money, as the nation's second-largest newspaper struggles to sell more advertising. The furloughs, which were announced Wednesday …

Jim Romenesko:
Gannett announces 2Q furloughs for USA Today employees

Discussion: Politico

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A new framework for innovation in journalism: How a computer scientist would do it — What if journalism were invented today? How would a computer scientist go about building it, improving it, iterating it? — He might start by mapping out some fundamental questions: What are the project's values and goals?

Discussion: Tow-Knight, BuzzMachine and Nick Diakopoulos

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Times and Sunday Times publisher cuts annual losses to £11.6m — Figures for the year to 3 July 2011 show pre-tax deficit falling by a quarter thanks to price hikes and economic recovery — The publisher of the Times and the Sunday Times has slashed its annual losses by tens of millions …

Committee to Protect Journalists:

In deadly Mogadishu blast, 10 journalists wounded — At least 10 journalists were reported injured, several of them seriously, when a bomb ripped through Somalia's newly reopened national theater in Mogadishu, local journalists told CPJ. The blast, for which the militant insurgent group …

Discussion: Guardian and New York Times