Mediagazer: The music business: Universal's gamble (Economist)

Billboard:

Updated: Universal Music Offers to Sell More Assets to Salvage EMI Deal — Universal Music has upped the ante in its efforts to gain approval for its proposed purchase of EMI's recorded-music division, offering to sell off even more parts of EMI, according to a report in Financial Times.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Billboard.Biz and Guardian

Economist:

The music business: Universal's gamble — UK Only Article: standard article Issue: Towards the endgame Fly Title: The music business Rubric: A musical merger could create a new model, or a dozy mammoth Main image: Hard times force singers to wear old sweet wrappers A WISE gamble involves knowing …

Tim Burrowes / mUmBRELLA:

Why paywall journalism is changing how journalists write — The introduction of online paywalls is changing the way journalists write and this means an audience adjustment says Tim Burrowes. — I was taught that the perfect length for an intro was 24 words - anything between 18 and 32 was acceptable, but 24 the ideal.

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

A New Boss For NBC News, MSNBC and CNBC — NBC News and the cable news channels MSNBC and CNBC are being brought under a new corporate umbrella, the NBCUniversal News Group, and a new boss, Patricia Fili-Krushel. — Ms. Fili-Krushel will become the chairman of the news group …

Discussion: paidContent, TVNewser, Broadcasting & Cable, The Daily Caller and NetNewsCheck Latest

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Mayer to Get Close to $60 Million (And Maybe More) in Overall Compensation for Yahoo's Top Job — Yahoo revealed in a regulatory filing that it could be paying its new CEO Marissa Mayer a total of close to $60 million to turn the company around. — The mega-sum includes salary, equity grants …

Discussion: MediaPost, AllThingsD, Business Insider, ZDNet, GeekWire, Forbes Real Time, Bits, paidContent and Reuters

Patrick Goldstein / Los Angeles Times:

The Big Picture: Variety's future looks bleak — Once a must-read for Hollywood insiders, the 107-year-old trade publication has been bypassed by Deadline, Hollywood Reporter and the Wrap. — Variety, whose days appear to be numbered, is paying the price for its refusal to change with the times.

Discussion: FishbowlLA and LA Observed

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

In Viacom vs. DirecTV, Viacom Is Losing The Public Relations War — Corporations aren't people, whatever Mitt Romney might say. They want your money, not your love. But sometimes the two go hand in hand, as in the current standoff between DirecTV and Viacom.

Discussion: Multichannel, Reuters, Home Media Magazine, Globe and Mail, MediaFile and paidContent

Richard Horgan / FishbowlLA:

NBCLA's Robert Kovacik on Covering the Summer Olympics — Each one of NBC's ten O&O ("owned and operated") stations across the country is sending a small team to the Summer Olympics. In the case of NBC Southern California, the lucky employees are anchor-reporter Robert Kovacik together with cameramen Sean Browning and Thomas Bravo.

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Are You Enjoying Gawker's Latest Declaration of War Against Murdoch? — Gotta Hand It to Rupert And His Circle: They Can Still Drive Page Views For Nick Denton — Back in the day, Gawker used to be much more interested in old-school media figures — the Barry Dillers and Tina Browns of the world.

Discussion: Gawker

Mona Zhang / 10,000 Words:

Digital First Announces Curation Team — Digital First Media announced today that it is creating a national curation team as part of its centralized news operation. That operation, called Thunderdome, will be produced by Digital First's MediaNews Group and Journal Register Company.

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, Digital First Media and Zombie Journalism

John Harwood / New York Times:

More News Reports Show Up in Campaign Ads, to Journalists' Chagrin — WASHINGTON — While hiking the Appalachian Trail the other day, I became part of a Republican campaign attack on President Obama. — Save the Mark Sanford jokes; I was (really) chaperoning a church youth group.

Discussion: Mediaite, TVNewser and Prof Chris Daly's Blog

Katherine Fung / The Huffington Post:

New York Times Staffers Hit Out At Paper Over Contract Talks — Angry New York Times staffers responded to the latest roadblock in the long and contentious contract talks in a video released on Thursday. — The negotiations took a dramatic twist on Tuesday when the paper's management proposed …

Adam Gabbatt / Guardian:

Quote approval furore forces US news media to rethink ‘unacceptable’ practice — News organisations in the US are reviewing their policies on quote approval after the New York Times blew the whistle on the draconian methods deployed by campaign officials to control their media messages.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

Discussion: Capital New York and Poynter

Glenn Greenwald / Salon:

Home news — I'll be writing in a new venue beginning next month — After five-and-a-half highly fulfilling years at Salon, I will be leaving to join The Guardian beginning on August 20. My last day writing on a daily basis for Salon will be August 15. Politico's Dylan Byers has an article about the move here.

Discussion: FishbowlDC, FishbowlNY, Media Decoder and New York Magazine