Mediagazer: Sony-led group wins EU approval to buy EMI publishing (Robert-Jan Bartunek/Reuters)

11:35 AM ET, April 20, 2012

Top News:

Gregory Korte / USA Today:

Misinformation campaign targets USA TODAY reporter, editor — WASHINGTON - A USA TODAY reporter and editor investigating Pentagon propaganda contractors have themselves been subjected to a propaganda campaign of sorts, waged on the Internet through a series of bogus websites. — Sponsored Links

Discussion: Media Decoder, The New York Observer, @jayrosen_nyu, Gannett Blog, The Atlantic Wire and The Raw Story

Erik Wemple:

USA Today alleges harassment scheme — USA Today Washington Enterprise Editor Ray Locker says that the worst thing they said about him was that he “was in bed with the Taliban.” — Who would say that about Locker? He doesn't know. But what he does know is a timeline …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post and Business Insider

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

New York Times Staffers Protest Contract Negotiations, Pensions (VIDEO) — New York Times staffers have put out a new video speaking out against the ongoing contract negotiations with the paper's management — particularly proposed changes to their pension plans.

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
Business troubles show signs of deepening despite strong 1st quarter at New York Times Company

Discussion: paidContent, Associated Press, FishbowlNY, New York Times and New York Magazine

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

Discussion: WWD Media Headlines and AdAge

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:
Will Sulzberger be the next Times Company C.E.O.? He doesn't quite say ‘no’

Discussion: paidContent, BtoB Magazine, NetNewsCheck Latest, MediaPost and AllThingsD

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Phone hacking: News International faces nearly 50 new claims — Civil claimants now include Sir John Major's former daughter-in-law, Lord Blencathra and former union leader Andy Gilchrist — The number of new civil claims for damages over alleged News of the World phone hacking faced …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Guardian, Deadline.com, Company Town and Wall Street Journal

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

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

Business Week:

The DOJ's Publishing Lawsuit May Doom Digital Rights Management — In the days following the announcement of the U.S. Department of Justice lawsuit against publishers accused of colluding with Apple (AAPL) to raise e-book prices, much of the U.S. publishing industry decamped to the U.K. for the annual London Book Fair.

Rachel Swan / East Bay Express:

The San Francisco Examiner Closes in on Purchase of San Francisco Bay Guardian — The owners of the San Francisco Examiner are on the cusp of buying the San Francisco Bay Guardian. Bay Guardian Executive Editor Tim Redmond told the Express this afternoon that he's “optimistic” the deal will be signed soon.

Discussion: The Snitch, SFist and San Francisco Peninsula …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Hulu Announces Four More Original Series, Bringing Total Lineup To Seven — Hulu has been having a busy week. On Tuesday, the company announced a new deal for advertisers, which now charges them only for ad completions, and today at Hulu's upfronts, the company announced the arrival of even more original shows.

Discussion: AdAge, Guardian, Bloomberg, The Wrap, The Verge, Hillicon Valley, CNET, VentureBeat and Adweek

Howard Kurtz / The Daily Beast:

How Mitt Romney Beats the Press, Avoiding Most National Interviews — The candidate is carefully avoiding most national interviews outside of Fox. Howard Kurtz on why Mitt resents the media—and what his isolation is costing him. — It wouldn't be fair to say that Mitt Romney is hiding from the national media, exactly.

Discussion: Slate

Lauren Kirchner / CJR:

Online News Startups Struggle to Break Even in Western Europe — A viable business model remains as elusive overseas as it is in the U.S. — Last year, in a research project titled “The Business of Digital Journalism,” the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism set …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Big News Network.com and Reuters Institute …

Dawn:

Senior Dawn journalist Murtaza Razvi found dead — Dawn's Senior Assistant Editor and Magazines Editor Murtaza Razvi was murdered in Karachi. — KARACHI: Murtaza Razvi, a senior assistant editor and head of magazines at Dawn, was murdered in the early hours of Thursday, in Karachi.

Discussion: Times of India and Committee to Protect …

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Larry Kirshbaum shares many more details on how Amazon Publishing will work — Last week, Amazon New York publisher Larry Kirshbaum — the publishing industry veteran hired to oversee the launch of the NY imprint's first list this fall — sat down for an interview with writer …

Robert-Jan Bartunek / Reuters:

Sony-led group wins EU approval to buy EMI publishing — (Reuters) - A Sony-led consortium won EU approval on Thursday to buy EMI's music publishing business for $2.2 billion, on the condition that it sell the worldwide publishing rights of artists including Robbie Williams and Lenny Krativz.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Bloomberg, The Wrap and Billboard.Biz