Mediagazer: The irrational imitation of the online news industry (Rasmus Kleis Nielsen/MediaFile)

11:15 AM ET, May 2, 2012

Top News:

Tom Watson Fires Back at Criticism of Murdoch Report — MP Tom Watson has taken flak for a ‘partisan’ report calling Murdoch unfit to run News Corp. Now, Murdoch's ‘tormentor-in-chief’ tells Mike Giglio that it's not about politics. — Tom Watson, the hard-charging Labour MP …

Discussion: Guardian

Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch's Fox broadcast licences targeted by US ethics group — FCC called on to revoke licences in wake of British parliamentary report as phone hacking scandal widens abroad — A Washington-based ethics watchdog is calling on federal regulators to revoke News Corporation's 27 Fox …

Discussion: Media Decoder, CREW, The Huffington Post and Tech Daily Dose

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Leveson: second inquiry may not happen — Further investigation into crimes at News International and other media groups would be delayed ‘for months, if not longer’ — The second part of the Leveson inquiry, which was due to investigate the extent of crimes committed at News International …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and London Evening Standard

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Barry Diller Backs Rupert Murdoch as ‘Honorable,’ ‘Morally Fit’

Discussion: Media Decoder, Media & Entertainment, Media Week, Hillicon Valley, Guardian, Company Town, The Huffington Post, Company Town, Mixed Media and Guardian

Jim Romenesko:
Murdoch's letter to Dow Jones employees

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters, Guardian, Capital New York, CJR, FishbowlNY, Politico and National Updates

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BSkyB posts profit of almost £1bn — Satellite broadcaster reports 25% surge in operating profit and grows total customer base to 10.5 million — BSkyB has delivered profits of almost £1bn in the nine months to the end of March, fuelled by £31m that Rupert Murdoch …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:
Sky News is available from today in the US & Canada for the first time, via Livestation

Discussion: Beet.TV

Kate Holton / Reuters:
BSkyB uses record results to defend role in Britain

Discussion: Sky News, New York Times and Media Decoder

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
BSkyB acquires Acetrax to be its connected TV Trojan Horse

Discussion: Guardian

John Koblin / Deadspin:

Is An ESPN Columnist Scamming People On The Internet? [UPDATE] — A few weeks ago, ESPN columnist Sarah Phillips concluded her weekly “Junk Mail” column with a question from an unnamed reader: … Phillips responded: … Is Sarah Phillips for real? Thirteen months ago …

Discussion: Journalism.org, Xavier, Deadspin, WebProNews, The New Yorker Blog, The Sports Brewery, Awful Announcing, Awful Announcing, @weareyourfek, @nicknotned, @ryanchittum and Daily Download

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Judge stays e-book class action case against two publishers — Publishers Hachette and HarperCollins slipped further away from the class action lawyer who wants them to pay over an alleged e-book price-fixing conspiracy. — In an order signed yesterday in New York federal court …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Time Inc. Shrinking Again — Not a good sign for the magazine business: A rough quarter for Time Inc., the world's biggest magazine publisher. — Revenues dropped 3 percent for the first three months of the year, while operating income shrank by 38 percent.

Rasmus Kleis Nielsen / MediaFile:

The irrational imitation of the online news industry — All across Europe, journalistic online startups are launching, aiming to produce and disseminate news in new ways. In our brave new world, the nimble startups of tomorrow were supposed to be overtaking the lumbering dinosaurs of yesterday online.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Washington Post's Sunday circulation drop not as steep as it appears — At first glance, The Washington Post's numbers reported Tuesday morning in the Audit Bureau of Circulations' March report look grisly: Of all the Top 25 papers in the report, The Post has the steepest drop in average Sunday circulation, down 15.66 percent.

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, mediabistro.com, DCist, Poynter and SocialTimes

Zeke Miller / Buzzfeed:

How The White House Smothered The News Of Obama's Trip To Afghanistan — Shortly before 9:19 a.m. this morning the Afghanistan-based 24-hour broadcast news station TOLONews tweeted that President Barack Obama had landed in Afghanistan. The surprise trip was a closely guarded secret …

Discussion: Associated Press, New York Times, Online NewsHour, Mashable!, The Week, Broadcasting & Cable, Gothamist, Infowars, Mediaite, TVNewser, msnbc.com, Politico and New York Magazine

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Next-Generation Publishing Platform Hyperink Wants To Transform Blogs Into Books — YC company Hyperink, a next-generation digital book publishing platform, is debuting a new service which helps bloggers create short books from their existing content. — As we've reported in the past …

Discussion: PandoDaily