Mediagazer: Storm clouds form over strong quarter at New York Times Company (Rick Edmonds/Poynter)

5:40 PM ET, April 19, 2012

Top News:

New York Times Co. Reports Gain in Net Income — The New York Times Company reported on Thursday a large gain in first-quarter net income, driven largely by the sale of its regional newspapers, the sale of part of its stake in a New England sports group and an increase in circulation revenue at its flagship newspaper.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, mediabistro.com, paidContent, Agence France Presse, FishbowlNY, Poynter and New York Magazine

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

New York Times Sees Digital Ads Droop — The New York Times says its digital paywall strategy is a success with consumers. But its digital advertising business stumbled last quarter, and dropped by 2 percent. — Times CEO Arthur Sulzberger Jr. blamed an “uneven U.S. economic environment …

Discussion: Business Wire, Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaPost and mnilive.com

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Will Sulzberger be the next Times Company C.E.O.? He doesn't quite say ‘no’ — Arthur Sulzberger Jr. has been serving as interim C.E.O. of The New York Times Co. ever since the resignation of Janet Robinson late last year. As a member of the Times controlling family, the Sulzbergers …

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Storm clouds form over strong quarter at New York Times Company — The New York Times Co. deserves to pat itself on the back, as executives did today in announcing first quarter results, for the first anniversary of its well-planned and superbly executed digital pay plan.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and The Huffington Post

Ryan Chittum / CJR:
The New York Times Company in 2015

Discussion: Forbes

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Gannett's poor 1st quarter results bode ill for newspapers in 2012

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Gannett Blog and The Wrap

Jason Deans / Guardian:

Leveson inquiry: Rupert and James Murdoch to give evidence next week — Rupert Murdoch is to give evidence to the Leveson inquiry into phone hacking and media ethics next week, with a day and a half set aside for the News Corporation founder. Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of News Corp …

Discussion: Telegraph, The Wrap and Press Gazette

Reuters:

UK parliament aims to publish hacking report on May 1 — (Reuters) - British legislators said on Thursday they hoped to publish on May 1 a long-awaited report into a phone hacking scandal centered on News Corp's now-closed News of the World tabloid. — Parliament's culture committee …

Discussion: Sky News, New York Magazine and Company Town

Guardian:
Watson: News Corp was like ‘shadow state’

Discussion: @skynewsbreak, @kevin_maguire, Daily Mail, @dansabbagh, Guardian and Deadline.com

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:
Murdoch's News Corp facing growing legal threat in US

Discussion: Deadline.com, @edmundlee, @mlcalderone, The Huffington Post, Thomson Reuters News …, @edpilkington, @mlcalderone and @jeffbercovici

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Final Numbers Make It Official: ‘GMA’ Beat ‘Today’ Last Week — The final score is in for last week's ratings race between NBC's “Today” show and ABC's “Good Morning America,” and the winner is ABC. — ABC's morning program surpassed NBC's by 31,000 total viewers for the week, marking its first full-week victory over NBC since 1995.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, @howardkurtz and Forbes

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Starmer: Charging advice ‘likely’ for more journalist cases — Director of public prosecutions says he expects more cases relating to arrested journalists to be referred to the CPS, following first batch this week — Keir Starmer: ‘These are simply the first batch of cases’

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Telegraph: Sun royal editor Duncan Larcombe held in ‘illegal payment’ raids

The Independent:
Brooks and Thurlbeck at risk as prosecutors get first hacking files

Discussion: Press Gazette

Mona Zhang / 10,000 Words:

Newton to Journalists: Focusing on the Story Isn't Enough Anymore — In the digital age, journalists are required to don different hats; from multimedia to social media, there is an increasing amount of tools available for telling the story and sharing it. Still, it may not be enough.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and The Muckraker

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Pentagon Asked Newspaper Not to Publish Photos — The grisly photographs of American soldiers posing with the body parts of Afghan insurgents during a 2010 deployment in Afghanistan were the source of a dispute between The Los Angeles Times and the Pentagon lasting weeks.

Discussion: CNN, LA Observed and Boing Boing

Steve Myers / Poynter:
LA Times delayed publication of Afghan corpse photos at Pentagon's request

Discussion: Jack Shafer, The Week, BAGnewsNotes and Poynter

Jim Romenesko:

‘God Hates Fags’ group to speak to journalism classes — Four members of the Westboro Baptist Church will speak Monday to three Central Michigan University journalism classes taught by Prof. Timothy Boudreau. — “I try to bring [controversial speakers] in because students routinely claim …

Daniel Denvir / Philadelphia City Paper:

Why Philly will suffer if new owners close the Daily News — The sign welcoming visitors to the Inquirer and Daily News' new building's marquee on Market East will not, KYW Newsradio reported last week, include the logo of the embattled Daily News. — Or, maybe it will, it turns out.

Guardian:

Julian Assange's lawyer ‘prevented from boarding flight at Heathrow’ — A lawyer for the WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has said she was stopped at Heathrow airport and told she was on a watch list requiring official approval before she could return to her native Australia.

Discussion: NEWS.com.au

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Huffington tells Colbert: ‘You just won a mere Peabody, we won a Pulitzer’ — Arianna Huffington appeared on “The Colbert Report” Wednesday night to talk about her website's first Pulitzer Prize win. Huffington Post started in 2005, the same year as Stephen Colbert's show.

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.