Mediagazer: BSkyB posts profit of almost £1bn (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

7:15 AM ET, May 2, 2012

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Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Barry Diller Backs Rupert Murdoch as ‘Honorable,’ ‘Morally Fit’ — Barry Diller at Allen & Co.'s annual media get-together in Sun Valley, Idaho. Rupert Murdoch was there, too. (Image credit: Getty Images via @daylife) — To the six members of British Parliament's culture committee …

Discussion: Guardian, Media Decoder, Company Town, The Huffington Post and Company Town

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: CREW and Tech Daily Dose

Jim Romenesko:

Murdoch's letter to Dow Jones employees — In a memo to employees, Rupert Murdoch says of the UK Parliament panel's phone hacking report: “I recognize that for all of us - myself in particular - it is difficult to read many of the report's findings. But we have done the most difficult part …

Discussion: Guardian, CJR, FishbowlNY, Politico and National Updates

News Corp:
News Corporation Statement of UK's Parliamentary Select Committee of Culture, Media and Sport's News of the World Report

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Crikey, New York Times and Guardian

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:
NY Daily News editor Colin Myler misled MPs over hacking, report finds

Discussion: Media Decoder, Jack Shafer, Mixed Media, Capital New York, Guardian, Press Gazette, Tom Watson MP and Guardian

Kate Holton / Reuters:

BSkyB uses record results to defend role in Britain — (Reuters) - Satellite broadcaster BSkyB sought to distance itself from the controversy over phone hacking at its biggest shareholder on Wednesday after British lawmakers suggested the ties to Rupert Murdoch's News Corp might endanger its licence.

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: paidContent and Journalism.co.uk

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 …

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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: Deadspin, @ryanchittum, @weareyourfek and @nicknotned

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Web journey complete, FT switching off iOS app — The Financial Times is preparing to kill off its iPad and iPhone app for good, signalling its final conversion from executable-app to web-app publishing. — The news publisher launched a HTML5 web app and pulled its iOS app off iTunes Store …

Discussion: TUAW and MacRumors

Laura Hazard Owen / GigaOM:

Soon you'll be able to use your Nook to buy books in Barnes & Noble stores — On the heels of yesterday's news that Microsoft is investing $300 million in Barnes & Noble's Nook and college businesses, B&N CEO William Lynch says that the company plans to embed NFC (near field communication) chips into Nooks.

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Kevin C. Tofel / GigaOM:
A brief history of Microsoft's e-reader efforts

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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.

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

A Radio Merger in New York Reflects a Shifting Industry — On its surface, the merger last week of WRKS and WBLS, longtime rivals in the R&B radio format in New York, was business as usual for the broadcast industry. Two struggling competitors combined operations, and a deep-pocketed third party …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

ABC: Newspaper circulation rose in last six months, 5% on Sundays — Newspapers across the country gained readers in the last six months, compared to the same period a year ago. Nationally, daily circulation was up .68 percent for digital and print at the 618 papers reporting …

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, LA Observed, Media Decoder, WebProNews, Gannett Blog, BtoB Magazine, Capital New York, Forbes, FishbowlNY, DCist, The Huffington Post, NewsBulletin Connection, paidContent and The Newspaper Guild

Dylan Byers / Politico:
New York Times rising, WaPo struggling

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Associated Press:

CBS 1st-quarter profit beats Street estimates on digital licensing, overseas sales of TV shows — LOS ANGELES — CBS Corp. on Tuesday said its net income grew 80 percent in the first quarter, as revenue surged on digital licensing deals for its TV shows and overseas sales of reruns.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and Bloomberg