Mediagazer: Digital Notes: Pandora Revenues Grow, and Streaming Music's Global Drive (Ben Sisario/Media Decoder)

1:20 AM ET, May 25, 2012

Top News:

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: Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel, Adweek, CNET, Mashable!, Home Media Magazine, AdAge and MediaFile

Matthew Belloni / Hollywood Reporter:

Fox Sues Dish Network Over Auto Hop Ad-Skipper — Fox has sued Dish Network over its new Auto Hop service, which allows consumers to skip television ads. Fox issued the following statement on Thursday: … The suit, filed in U.S. District Court on Thursday on behalf of Fox Broadcasting …

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

New York Times:

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: Washington Post, New Orleans Times-Picayune, American Journalism Review, Newspaper Death Watch and TheLensNola.org

Jed Horne / The Lens:

Opinion: Changes at TP were necessary, but are they the right ones? — The decision by The Times-Picayune to cut publication to three days a week and go all-in on the web is a response - probably belated - to some pretty grave realities. — Whether it's a solution is another question.

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

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

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: AdExchanger.com, Inside Cable News, New York Magazine, GeekWire and The Tech Trade

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

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Why rich people are investing in newspapers, again — In March, Chris Hughes paid around $5 million for a majority share of The New Republic. On Sunday The New York Times reported he'd be doubling the magazine's staff and hiring former editor Franklin Foer to edit the magazine once again.

Discussion: Forbes and Capital New York

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

The Case Against AOL, In Numbers — Starboard Value, the activist hedge fund that seeks to replace three of AOL's directors with its own nominees next month, has laid out its disagreements with the internet giant's current management in a 96-page presentation to investors.

Discussion: VentureBeat and CNET

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

Sean Hannity Signs New Deal At Fox News — Sean Hannity isn't going anywhere. — The Fox News host just signed a new multi-year contract with the network, it was announced Thursday. He will continue his current role for at least four more years. — Hannity, who joined the network in 1996 …

Discussion: Multichannel and Mediaite

Associated Press:

Gunmen kill Somali journalist, bringing toll to 6 this year; ties Syria for deadliest in world — MOGADISHU, Somalia — A radio station producer says that gunmen in Somalia have killed a Somali journalist, the sixth to be slain in the country this year. — The death highlights …

Discussion: Committee to Protect … and Reuters

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

Digital Notes: Pandora Revenues Grow, and Streaming Music's Global Drive — Pandora, which has been under scrutiny from investors since it went public almost a year ago, delivered some good financial news on Wednesday, and its stock price rose more than 13 percent by Thursday afternoon.

Discussion: VentureBeat and The Next Web

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Press scrambles to cover new Etan Patz developments — The news that a New Jersey man has claimed to have murdered Etan Patz on May 25, 1979, a date that became known as National Missing Children's Day in his memory, came too late for today's newspapers. The question is whether the story will remain big enough for tomorrow's.

Discussion: Forbes and The Daily Beast

Gordon Rayner / Telegraph:

Leveson Inquiry: Jeremy Hunt memo shows he backed News Corp bid for BSkyB before taking charge of decision — The Culture Secretary told the Prime Minister it would be “totally wrong” for the Government to “cave in” to News Corp's opponents and instead allow it to help the UK “lead the way” in the media industry.

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

Reuters:
UK minister leaked information in Sky deal - News Corp

Discussion: Telegraph

Bobbie Johnson / paidContent:

New ‘radically simplified’ WordPress is on the way — Matt Mullenweg, the founder of WordPress and Automattic (see disclosure) says that the service is preparing for a significant change of direction — by releasing a much simpler version designed to work on mobile.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Next Web