Mediagazer: Patch puts pressure on local editors (Jim Romenesko)

2:05 PM ET, June 26, 2012

Top News:

Michael J. De La Merced / DealBook:

News Corp. Considers Dividing Itself in Two — Updated News Corporation is considering dividing itself in two, cleaving its publishing arm from its far larger entertainment division, a person briefed on the matter told DealBook early on Tuesday. If News Corporation follows through …

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

News Corp statement confirms spin-off plan under consideration — Following numerous reports that News Corp is thinking of spinning off its publishing operations, the company issued a short statement that it is “considering a restructuring to separate its business into two distinct public companies.”

Discussion: MinOnline, Radio & Television …, VentureBeat, AdAge, Wall Street Journal and New York Magazine

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
Why a reluctant Murdoch is splitting up News Corp and what it means

Discussion: @lisaocarroll

Bill Dedman / MSNBC:

Bloomberg TV's ads make false claim to Pulitzer nomination for anchor Liu — NEW YORK — Bloomberg Television has a new ad campaign in the New York City area, touting the journalistic credentials of its morning anchor, Betty Liu. “PULITZER PRIZE-NOMINATED,” the ads shout at commuters on trains in New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

Discussion: TVNewser, Inside Cable News, Felix and The Huffington Post

Carl Nolte / San Francisco Chronicle:

George Hearst Jr. - Hearst Corp. chairman - dies — George R. Hearst Jr., chairman of the board of the Hearst Corp., died Monday at Stanford University Medical Center in Palo Alto of complications following a stroke. Mr. Hearst, who became ill June 16 at his ranch home in Paso Robles (San Luis Obispo County), was 84.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, LA Observed, MediaPost and mediabistro.com

Jim Romenesko:

Patch puts pressure on local editors — My reliable source on Patch matters reports that demands on local editors are growing. “Among other mandates, Local Editors now must have seven posts each day — that's including weekends — and blog posts no longer count toward that total,” he writes.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Wall Street Journal intern fired for making up sources — Liane Membis' internship with The Wall Street Journal is at an end, an editor's note on an article she wrote says: … Membis' article is still available on Talking Biz News. Some of the people Membis claimed to interview in the piece …

Discussion: Politico

BBC:

News Corp ‘warned Lib Dems over BSkyB bid’ — News Corporation implied the Sun newspaper's coverage of the Lib Dems “may turn nasty” if Vince Cable did not rule in its favour on the BSkyB bid, a minister has told the Leveson Inquiry. Norman Lamb, Lib Dem junior business minister …

Matt Pearce / Los Angeles Times:

Anthony Shadid's cousin takes a shot at NYT — and journalism in general — Those who were there said the crowd gasped. Ed Shadid, the cousin of late New York Times reporter Anthony Shadid, was speaking at a banquet for the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee on Saturday night in Washington …

Discussion: Erik Wemple and Poynter

David Martosko / The Daily Caller:

Suspended reporter tweeted: Racism ‘secret sauce in the Politico sh*tburger’ — Joe Williams, the White House correspondent whom Politico suspended last week after he made racially insensitive remarks about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, tweeted about his employer on the evening …

Discussion: Mediaite

Neil Gough / DealBook:

Australian Billionaire Threatens to Dump Fairfax Media Stake — HONG KONG — The Australian mining billionaire Georgina Rinehart has threatened to sell her recently acquired 19 percent stake in Fairfax Media, sending shares in the Australian publisher tumbling on Tuesday.

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Content going ‘everywhere’: WSJ extends premium subscriptions to Pulse newsreader — One day after The New York Times announced an “NYT Everywhere” strategy that will extend subscriber content to Flipboard, The Wall Street Journal stepped up its own “Journal Everywhere” …

Discussion: PRWeb and http://blog.pulse.me/