Mediagazer: Should the NYT charge for early access to the news? (Mathew Ingram/GigaOM)

1:20 PM ET, April 25, 2012

Top News:

Jeremy Hunt visited News Corp in US as Murdochs considered BSkyB bid — James Murdoch told David Cameron News Corp would support Tories soon after Hunt's US trip in 2009, documents reveal — Jeremy Hunt spent five days in the US holding meetings with News Corp at the same point Rupert …

Discussion: Guardian, BBC, blogs.telegraph.co.uk and Deadline.com

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Rupert Murdoch: Former PM Gordon Brown ‘Declared War’ on News Corp. — Rupert Murdoch, testifying at the Leveson Inquiry — News Corp. chairman Rupert Murdoch's ostensible reason for appearing before a British government hearing Wednesday morning was to answer questions about whether …

Discussion: Guardian, @lisaocarroll, Media Week, @skynewsbreak, NetNewsCheck Latest, Journalism.co.uk and paidContent

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Jeremy Hunt: ‘The idea I was backing BSkyB bid is laughable’ — Culture secretary Jeremy Hunt has said accusations that he backed News Corporation's bid for BSkyB are “laughable” and “categorically” denied allegations of a “back channel” giving News Corporation the ability to influence decisions.

Iain Martin / The Telegraph:

The night I saw Jeremy Hunt hide behind a tree before dinner with James Murdoch — There are moments writing about politics when one thinks: could this actually get any sillier? Modern government is particularly prone to looking daft because it is built on two incompatible ideas, one old and the other relatively new.

Paul McNally / Journalism.co.uk:

Rupert Murdoch: Thatcher meeting over Times was ‘quite appropriate’ — News Corporation chairman tells the Leveson inquiry: 'I didn't expect help from her, nor did I ask for any' — A secret meeting between Rupert Murdoch and Margaret Thatcher about his bid for the Times was “quite appropriate” …

Discussion: Guardian and Journalism.co.uk

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Fox News mole Joe Muto served with search warrant, Gawker doesn't expect to be served — In a series of tweets, the Gawker blogger who worked at Fox News until he was outed as a mole announces this morning that News Corp.'s legal threats were not just talk.

Discussion: Guardian, The Not-So Private Parts, The Awl, FishbowlNY, Erik Wemple, The Huffington Post, Gawker, @juliemmoos, @jeffjarvis and Inside Cable News

Trevor Butterworth / The Awl:

The Latest Sad Fate of an Aggregation Serf — What's new, you might ask, in another tale of careless youth broken on the galley of journalism? Well, someone in power finally stood up—sort of—for the little guy. In a column on the resignation of 20-something Elizabeth Flock after charges of …

Discussion: Poynter and MediaShift

Raf Sanchez / Telegraph:

Bradley Manning trial: US government ordered to release WikiLeaks damage assessments — The US government has been ordered to release its assessments on how much damage WikiLeaks' publication of secret files caused to US interests, after lawyers for Pfc Bradley Manning argued they were essential to his defence.

Lily Kuo / Reuters: WikiLeaks suspect Manning seeks dismissal of charges

Sam Thielman / Adweek:

ABC News, Yahoo Partner on New Online News Show With Katie Couric — Katie Couric has an official ABC News show, but it's not on television. Instead, the former Today and CBS Evening News anchor will host a digital program, Katie's Take, on Yahoo, which partnered with ABC News last year.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, MediaPost, Mediaite, TVNewser and Inside TV

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Should the NYT charge for early access to the news? — The New York Times recently ran an exclusive exposé about Walmart and bribery allegations in Mexico, a story that helped to shave about $16 billion from the retailing giant's market value over the past few days.

Discussion: Capital New York, The Awl, Poynter, Newsweek and Forbes

Felix Salmon:
Could the NYT make money from its scoops?

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, msnbc.com, Nypress.com, Forbes, eMedia Vitals, Capital New York, The Huffington Post, The Consumerist, business.time.com and The New York Observer

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

Automattic Grows Up: The Company Behind WordPress.com Shares Revenue Numbers and Hires Execs — Automattic, the company behind WordPress.com, is a quiet Web powerhouse. — WordPress now powers 70 million sites, up from 35 million sites a year ago. Almost half of the biggest blogs …

Discussion: TechCrunch

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Study: J-school grads' unemployment rate better than average — Recent college graduates with an undergraduate degree in journalism have a 7.7 percent unemployment rate, a new Georgetown University study says. Experienced grads have a 6 percent rate, and people with graduate degrees …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

The Daily News has lost its executive editor for digital, Scott Cohen, who's headed to a news startup called Vocativ in another few weeks, Capital has learned. — Cohen is a well-liked though somewhat divisive figure at the paper, which he joined in 2008 following a stint at ABC News.