Mediagazer: Automattic Grows Up: The Company Behind WordPress.com Shares Revenue Numbers and Hires Execs (Liz Gannes/AllThingsD)

12:00 PM ET, April 25, 2012

Top News:

Rupert Murdoch at the Leveson inquiry - live — • Murdoch: ‘I try very hard to set example of ethical behaviour’ — • ‘I take pride in we have never promoted our commercial interests in our papers’, claims Rupert Murdoch — • I never asked a prime minister for anything, says Murdoch

Discussion: The Awl, BBC, The New York Observer, Press Gazette, Media Decoder, Journalism.co.uk, @dansabbagh, Telegraph, Guardian, @jeffjarvis, blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Journalism.co.uk, @arusbridger, @sanchia7, @davidfolkenflik and Reuters

Guardian:

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: blogs.telegraph.co.uk, Deadline.com and Telegraph

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.

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: Media Week, Guardian, @skynewsbreak and NetNewsCheck Latest

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

Lisa O'Carroll / @lisaocarroll: Murdoch's written statement: management and standards committee is handing over info to US department of justice #leveson

Guardian:
Jeremy Hunt and NewsCorp: all the emails

Discussion: Guardian, Tom Watson MP, Guardian and Guardian

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Fox News mole Joe Muto served with search warrant — 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: Forbes, Guardian, FishbowlNY, The Awl, Erik Wemple, Gawker, The Huffington Post, @juliemmoos, Inside Cable News and @jeffjarvis

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: MediaShift and Poynter

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

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 …

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, Mediaite and TVNewser

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

McClatchy reports $2.1 million dollar net loss in first quarter — In a new earnings report released this morning, McClatchy announced that revenue was down 5.1 percent over the first quarter of 2011. Some of the costs contributing to the loss were unlikely to be repeated — $2.9 million …

Discussion: The McClatchy Company

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: Poynter and Forbes

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

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

Nicholas Thompson / The New Yorker Blog:

Is Netflix Doomed? — For a while, Netflix seemed like the smartest tech company around. Searching for movies online was easy; mailing them back off-line was cathartic. The company constantly tweaked its red envelopes, trying to create one that you could open while tipsy and seal one-handed while late for work.

Discussion: Media Decoder