Mediagazer: NBCU Exploring Buyback of MSNBC.com (Mike Shields/Adweek)

11:35 AM ET, May 25, 2012

Top News:

New Orleans Newspaper Scales Back in Sign of Print Upheaval — The Times-Picayune, a 175-year-old fixture in New Orleans and a symbol of the city's gritty resilience during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, has buckled under the pressures of the modern newspaper market.

Discussion: Capital New York, Gawker, Forbes, Media Decoder, Washington Post, New Orleans Times-Picayune, eMedia Vitals, Newspaper Death Watch, TheLensNola.org, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit and CJR

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Will New Orleanians follow The Times-Picayune online after it cuts back on print? — Starting this fall, New Orleans will become the largest U.S. city to go without a daily newspaper, but it won't be the first. — That distinction is held by Ann Arbor, Mich. In 2009 …

Discussion: Jason Fry's Dorkery, Newsonomics, TheLensNola.org and Forbes

Jed Horne / The Lens:
Opinion: Changes at TP were necessary, but are they the right ones?

Discussion: Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit and American Journalism Review

John McQuaid / Forbes:
The Digital Future of The Times-Picayune

Discussion: CJR, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Media News, @ryanchittum, The Huffington Post, Erik Wemple, The FJP, Blog of New Orleans, Gambit and Poynter

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Dish Seeks Ruling on Feature That Skips All Commercials — 6:50 p.m. | Updated | The Dish Network and three television networks filed opposing lawsuits on Thursday over Auto Hop, a feature that allows Dish subscribers to automatically skip all the advertising during most prime time shows.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Radio & Television …, Reuters, Techdirt, Adweek, MediaFile, Chickaboomer, Media Law Prof Blog, CNET, Mashable!, Broadcasting & Cable, Home Media Magazine and AdAge

Matthew Belloni / Hollywood Reporter:
Fox, CBS, NBC Sue Dish Network Over AutoHop Ad-Skipper

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, Digital Trends, Forbes, paidContent, @jbflint, The Verge, @laureni, The Next Web, Engadget, @theharryshearer, Multichannel and Lost Remote

Journalism.co.uk:

NUJ may cut one fifth of staff in face of ‘severe financial crisis’ — A leaked report to the union's National Executive Council states the union has ‘around £300,000 in cash’ said to be the equal of ‘three weeks running costs’ — The National Union of Journalists is …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Farhad Manjoo / Slate:

BOMBSHELL: Business Insider Kinda Brilliant — A defense of the rapacious news aggregator. — Imagine a used car salesman who learns that the shiny Mercedes in his lot has a busted engine. He tells his friends not to go near the lemon, but when he notices a long line of people coming in to see the car …

Discussion: Business Insider, Politico, @mattrosoff, @reformedbroker, MediaPost, Techdirt and ReadWriteWeb, Thanks:@rossneumann

Mike Shields / Adweek:

NBCU Exploring Buyback of MSNBC.com — Chris Matthews must be getting that tingling feeling down his leg again. He and his colleagues may soon have a giant news site to call their own. — That's because NBCUniversal is in serious negotiations with Microsoft to buy back MSNBC.com.

Discussion: The Wrap, Reuters, MediaPost, Hollywood Reporter, WebProNews, AdExchanger.com, Inside Cable News, New York Magazine, GeekWire and The Tech Trade

New York Times:

Albany Times Union Editor Says Police Targeted His Wife's Spa — ALBANY — In early spring, the police raided a spa near the Capitol, alleging that a masseuse was actually a prostitute. — It appeared to be a minor arrest, except that the spa's owner is the wife of the investigations editor at the local newspaper, The Times Union.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine, Poynter, Gothamist and Albany Times Union

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

A push to outlaw anonymous commenters in New York gets big eye-roll from digital media — One might have expected the news that several Republican state lawmakers in New York want to pass a law essentially banning anonymous comments on the web to be met with outrage.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, CNET, Erik Wemple, ThinkProgress and Techland

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

From cold calls to community building: ProPublica tries to make crowdsourcing more meaningful — When reporters use social media for crowdsourcing, they're often just cold calling in the form of a passing tweet — Did you lose your house to foreclosure?

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Why newspapers need to lose the ‘view from nowhere’ — Billionaire investor Warren Buffett may be buying newspapers — a move that is probably as much about cash flow and real estate as it is a long-term investment thesis — but he can't possibly buy them all, and that leaves the rest …

New York Times:

Cameron Defends Handling of Murdoch Bid — LONDON — Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday defended his handling of a contentious and ultimately doomed $12 billion bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to take control of Britain's most powerful and lucrative pay-television network.

Discussion: The Independent, Press Gazette, Guardian, Guardian, Press Gazette, The Huffington Post, Reuters, Guardian, @dansabbagh, Guardian, Telegraph, Media Week and Reuters

Gordon Rayner / Telegraph:
Leveson Inquiry: Jeremy Hunt memo shows he backed News Corp bid for BSkyB before taking charge of decision

Discussion: @skynewsbreak, @jamesro47, @arusbridger, @tomjharper, @rosschawkins and Guido Fawkes

Gregory Korte / USA Today:

Propaganda firm owner admits attacks on journalists — WASHINGTON - The co-owner of a major Pentagon propaganda contractor publicly admitted Thursday that he was behind a series of websites used to discredit two USA TODAY journalists who had reported on the contractor.

Discussion: Gawker, New York Magazine, ThinkProgress, The Raw Story and Poynter