Mediagazer: Should Journalists Be Protected? — Thursday was World Press Freedom Day. (Maurice Chammah/The Huffington Post)

6:20 AM ET, May 9, 2012

Top News:

Rupert Murdoch's big backer sounds News Corp warning — Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, the second-biggest shareholder in Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation, has revealed his frustration with the fallout from the News of the World phone-hacking scandal and admitted that it is harming the reputation …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Media Matters for America, Hillicon Valley and Guardian

Patrick Wintour / Guardian:
David Cameron texted Rebekah Brooks before she quit NI, claims biography

Discussion: The Times

Amy Chozick / New York Times:
Steering Murdoch in Scandal, Klein Put School Goals Aside

Discussion: Capital New York

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Phone-hacking scandal: Glenn Mulcaire denies protecting News International

Discussion: BBC and Guardian

Free Press: 70,000 Petition Congress to Hold Hearings on News Corp. Corruption

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Phone hacking: Andy Coulson wins leave to appeal over ruling on legal fees

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, Press Gazette and The Independent

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Sources Say AOL Seeking Buyers for Engadget and TechCrunch. Arrington “Not In The Least Bit Interested” — We weren't sure about this one at first, but now we have two independent sources confirming that AOL is exploring the sale of its cornerstone technology sites Engadget and TechCrunch.

Discussion: Betabeat

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:

An Editor's Dangerous Mea Culpa — In a most unusual editor's note on the Chronicle of Higher Education website last night, Editor Liz McMillen apologizes profusely for what turned out to be a controversial post written by now fired “Brainstorm” blogger, former WSJ editor and Harvard graduate Naomi Schaefer Riley.

Discussion: GalleyCat

Craig Silverman / Poynter:
Writer fired by Chronicle of Higher Ed: ‘The vitriolic reaction is kind of surprising’

Discussion: Hit & Run, Brainstorm, Wall Street Journal, Mother Jones and Le·gal In·sur·rec· tion

Jim Romenesko: Chronicle of Higher Education ousts blogger over black studies post

Christopher Shea / Wall St Journal:
Chronicle of an Academic-Media Firestorm

Discussion: msnbc.com, ArtsBeat and MetaFilter

Reuters:

Romeo Langlois: Colombia Won't Negotiate With FARC Rebels Over Kidnapped French Reporter — Colombia on Tuesday rejected a call by FARC rebels to debate freedom of information and news media bias as a condition for the release of a French reporter they hold hostage.

Discussion: BBC

Elyssa Pachico / Christian Science Monitor:
Is French journalist kidnapped in Colombia a prisoner of war?

Discussion: Colombia Reports

Dan Mitchell / SF Weekly:

Desperate Newspapers Pin Hopes on Annoyed Readers — News publishers have always treated readers like commodities — because that's what readers are. The real customers for publishers aren't readers, but advertisers. Readers are the product. It's not quite that simple, of course …

Discussion: Mashable!, Poynter and Zombie Journalism

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The Guardian: Yep, it was “major changes” by Facebook that caused drop in social reader traffic

Discussion: Digits, TheMediaBriefing, The FJP and Poynter

Keach Hagey / Digits:

LA Times Developer Begins Archiving Newspaper Websites — Newspaper front pages are considered such an important mirror of American culture that they get their own rotating daily museum exhibit at the Newseum in Washington, D.C. — But there has never been an equivalent archive for the more ephemeral …

Discussion: Poynter

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Ongo, an attempt at a pan-media paywalled aggregator, is closing — Less than a year and a half after launch, the subscription aggregation startup Ongo — a newspaper-industry effort to create a pan-media subscription system — is shutting down. It'll close its doors by month's end …

Discussion: AllThingsD, paidContent and @rafat

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:

Twitter Fights Prosecutors Seeking Occupy Protester's Data Without Warrant — Malcolm Harris, the Occupy Wall Street protestor whose private data Twitter is fighting to protect from prosecutors. — Twitter is stepping up its legal battle for users' privacy: First it fought …

Discussion: GigaOM, ACLU, Techdirt, Gawker, WebProNews, AllThingsD, @jcstearns, CNET and Betabeat

Farhad Manjoo / PandoDaily:

Nobody Seems to Understand What Jeff Bezos is Doing. Does He? — A couple months ago, realizing it would be futile to hold out any longer against the tsunami of pop cultural peer pressure, I decided to go ahead and read The Hunger Games. I jumped over to Amazon, searched for the Kindle edition …

Discussion: GeekWire and Business Insider

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:

ESPN and Theme Parks Drive Disney Profits — LOS ANGELES — Climbing ad sales and subscription fees at ESPN and cable channels like ABC Family helped the Walt Disney Company increase its quarterly profit by 21 percent from a year earlier, to $1.14 billion. — Disney's financial results …

Discussion: The Wrap, paidContent, Company Town, Multichannel, Home Media Magazine, Forbes and LA Biz Observed

Gail Shister / The Philly Post:

Wendy Ruderman Talks About Why She's Leaving the Daily News — How bad are things at the Daily News? New York Times-bound Wendy Ruderman, a 2010 Pulitzer Prize winner, is urging her colleagues to jump ship. “I hate to say it, but if people at the Daily News aren't looking, they should be …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Maurice Chammah / The Huffington Post:

Should Journalists Be Protected? — Thursday was World Press Freedom Day. On Friday, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CJP) published an article listing the arrests, injuries, and assaults of at least eighteen journalists covering recent clashes near the Egyptian Ministry of Defense.

Discussion: World Now

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

New York Times takes next step to increase digital subscribers by launching a new ad campaign — Since The New York Times launched its metered paywall last March, about 472,000 people have become digital subscribers. The Times saw a 73 percent gain in circulation over the past six months …

Discussion: Daggle