Mediagazer: Did The Publisher's Own Insistence On DRM Inevitably Lead To The Antitrust Lawsuit Against Them? (Mike Masnick/Techdirt)

6:55 PM ET, April 18, 2012

Top News:

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Current TV to Hire Gavin Newsom, California's Lieutenant Governor — Updated Gavin Newsom, the lieutenant governor of California, is getting a second job: as a talk show host on Current TV, the progressive cable television upstart. — “The Gavin Newsom Show” will be shown weekly starting in May, the channel announced on Wednesday.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, New York Magazine, TVNewser, Mediaite and FishbowlLA

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Gavin Newsom Gets Current TV Show — What About the Equal Time Rule? — Current TV has added a full-time elected official to a team heavy on former politicians: California's sitting lieutenant governor will host the weekly “Gavin Newsom Show” beginning next month.

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Ofcom: press self-regulation could work — TV and radio regulator tells Leveson inquiry that successor to PCC may need more robust powers and recognition in statute — Newspaper proprietors and editors hoping to stop David Cameron introducing statutory regulation of the press won support today from the broadcasting regulator Ofcom.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Ian Burrell / The Independent: The fight gets dirty: Sun accuses rival of using ex-MI6 men to tail civil servant

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: AG warns MPs to be ‘cautious’ in report

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Out’ lays off its entire editorial staff, but editor Aaron Hicklin wants to hire ‘most’ back into his new startup — The editorial staff of the influential gay lifestyle magazine Out is being laid off with one month's severance as of Friday, Capital has learned.

Discussion: AdAge, New York Magazine and The Awl

Laura Stampler / Business Insider:

FINALLY! Tumblr Will Start Selling Ad Units On May 2 — In a 2010 interview with the Los Angeles Times, Tumblr CEO and founder David Karp said, “We're pretty opposed to advertising. It really turns our stomachs.” — How times have changed. Karp announced at Ad Age's Digital Conference that on May 2 …

Discussion: Betabeat, New York Magazine and @choire

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Satirical iPad App Punch Hires Vanity Fair Veteran Jim Windolf as Editor — The Punch “shelf.” — The makers of Punch started with the idea that creating media for a brand-new medium, tablet computers, requires a whole new approach. They've certainly turned convention on its head in their hiring …

Discussion: Betabeat, Forbes and Fast Company

Daniel Frankel / paidContent:

NBC's London Olympics strategy: If it moves, stream it — Yes, you will be able to see men's doubles table tennis live this summer on nbcolympics.com, right after you finish watching those premiere swimming and track & field events. — Speaking to the New York Times Tuesday, Rick Cordella …

Discussion: MediaPost, Multichannel, The Verge, Media Decoder, Poynter, Bleacher Report and TVNewser

Grant McCool / Reuters:

Apple wants trial on e-book price-fixing: lawyer — (Reuters) - Apple Inc wants to go to trial to defend itself against U.S. government allegations that it conspired with publishers to raise prices of electronic books, a lawyer for the Silicon Valley giant said in court on Wednesday.

Discussion: paidContent, 9to5Mac and CNET

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

Bill O'Reilly & Sean Hannity Closing New Deals With Fox News Channel — EXCLUSIVE: I've learned that Fox News Channel is finalizing new deals with its two biggest stars, Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity. The new multi-year, multi-million dollar agreements, which are expected to be completed …

Discussion: TVNewser and Mediaite

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Did The Publisher's Own Insistence On DRM Inevitably Lead To The Antitrust Lawsuit Against Them? — We've discussed in the past how it was the book publishers' own stupidity that put them in a position of demanding DRM from Amazon when Amazon wanted to launch the Kindle.

Discussion: GigaOM and ReadWriteWeb

Julie Moos / Poynter:

LA Times publishes graphic front page photo of US soldiers with Afghan corpses — The Los Angeles Times published graphic photos in print and online this morning of U.S. soldiers posing with Afghan corpses. — Eighteen such photos were provided by an anonymous soldier in the 82nd Airborne Division …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, New York Times, Erik Wemple, The New Yorker Blog, LA Observed, The Week, Readers' Representative … and Poynter

Brittany Darwell / Inside Facebook:

Facebook tests ‘trending articles’ feature to encourage users to try social reader apps — Facebook appears to be testing new feature to highlight social reader articles within users' News Feeds. — Some users now see a “trending articles” section of their feeds that includes headlines …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Mashable!, The Verge and Poynter

Bruce Weber / New York Times:

Dick Clark, TV Host and Icon of New Year's Eve, Is Dead at 82 — Dick Clark, the perpetually youthful-looking television host whose long-running daytime song-and-dance fest, “American Bandstand,” did as much as anyone or anything to advance the influence of teenagers and rock ‘n’ roll on American culture …

Discussion: Gawker, Media Decoder and The New York Observer

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

How The Tuscaloosa News' post-tornado tweeting helped bring home a Pulitzer Prize — When the Pulitzer Prize Board announced last year it would emphasize real-time reporting for the Breaking News category starting in 2012, some speculated whether we would someday see a Pulitzer Prize for tweeting.

Discussion: The FJP