Mediagazer: Media General Announces Agreements with Berkshire Hathaway for Purchase of Newspapers and New Financing (MarketWatch)

8:20 AM ET, May 17, 2012

Top News:

Media General Announces Agreements with Berkshire Hathaway for Purchase of Newspapers and New Financing — Media General, Inc. MEG -1.57% today announced that it has signed agreements with Berkshire Hathaway, Inc., for the purchase of newspapers and new financing.

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Media General to sell most of its newspapers to Warren Buffett's group — When Warren Buffett said last week that his Berkshire Hathaway might be buying more newspapers, he meant: right now. Media General announced this morning that it would be selling all of its newspapers, except its Tampa properties, to Berkshire Hathaway.

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Netflix launches sexy new web-based video player — Netflix just rolled out a completely revamped video player for browser-based viewing, and I gotta say, it's pretty slick: Not only does it come with lightbox-like text overlays while a video is paused, users can also preview entire seasons …

Discussion: Pocket-lint, Digital Trends, CNET, BuzzFeed, The Verge, PC Magazine and VentureBeat

Jack Shafer:

Candidate-press relations are, well, about as ‘sour’ as usual — Having secured the nominations of their parties, Barack Obama and Mitt Romney have set their campaign throttles to late-spring idle with a speech here, a speech there, a commencement address over there, and fundraisers and soft TV appearances everywhere.

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:
Reporters Blocked At Romney Event

Discussion: TVNewser, The Huffington Post, Mediaite and Politico

Politico:
President Obama and Mitt Romney's common enemy

Discussion: CNN, Politico, The Caucus, Capital New York and Yahoo! News

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

NPR sees sharp downturn in advertising revenue, leading to talk of cuts — NPR's new chief executive is signaling that there may be some static ahead for the radio and digital news organization. Halfway through its fiscal year — and six months into Gary Knell's tenure as chief executive …

Discussion: Poynter and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Jann Wenner: Why We're Putting Us Weekly on the IPad — Magazine Enters Game Despite Wenner's Previously Pronounced Lack of Expectations for the Device — Almost exactly a year after Jann Wenner said magazines were rushing to the iPad out of “insanity and insecurity and fear,” …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

What's the right price for ebooks? — Author Chuck Windig, GigaOm's Mathew Ingram, and TechDirt's Mike Masnick all took on the question of ebook pricing recently, arguing that production costs (you know, minor details like advances, editors, etc.) don't or shouldn't factor into the end price.

Andy Greenberg / The Firewall:

WikiLeaks: No, Media “Morons,” We Didn't Help Iran Execute An Israeli Spy — Since WikiLeaks first released its flood of classified State Department memos in December of 2010, the secret-spilling site's critics have been searching for evidence that Julian Assange's disregard for official secrecy …

Discussion: ZDNet, Daily Mail and WebProNews

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Software developer revives debate about whether journalists should learn to code — This week's debate in the software development community about whether everyone should learn to code shows that journalists aren't the only ones who have religious wars. Developer Jeff Atwood started …

Discussion: The Journalism Foundation, Rands In Repose, O'Reilly Radar and Dave Winer's …

Guardian:

The Twitter news map of Britain — What are the most influential news sites across Britain? Inspired by Forbes's news map of America, we wanted to see how it works over here. Url-shortener Bitly - used by thousands on Twitter and Facebook - has shared data which shows above-average clicks …

Discussion: Betabeat, The Verge, VentureBeat and Guardian

Erik Wemple:

Washington Times columnist: Originality deficit? — Arnaud de Borchgrave has a career of distinction to go with journalism's coolest name. He is a former top editor of the Washington Times (1985-1991), and his work overseas dates to 1947, when he became United Press International's Brussels bureau chief at the age of 21.

Discussion: Washington Times, csis.org and DC Porcupine

Gustavo Palencia / Reuters:

Murder of Honduran reporter blamed on drug gangs — (Reuters) - A prominent Honduran radio journalist was killed by drug gangs in retaliation for a government crackdown on cartels, the country's security minister said on Wednesday. Alfredo Villatoro, a well-known media personality …

John O'Brien / Syracuse Post-Standard:

Laurie Fine to sue ESPN for libel, says the network “spitefully destroyed” her reputation — Geneva, N.Y. — Laurie Fine will announce this morning that she's filing a federal libel lawsuit against ESPN over its reporting of child-molesting accusations against her husband …