Mediagazer: Rupert Murdoch quits board of News International (Matt Williams/Guardian)

6:25 PM ET, July 21, 2012

Top News:

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

Rupert Murdoch steps down from NI boards — Rupert Murdoch's grip on UK newspapers is loosening “finger by finger”, as he resigns string of directorships. — Rupert Murdoch has repeatedly insisted that he remains committed to his UK newspapers, vowing that he will remain a “very active chairman” of the publishing busines.

Discussion: Deadline.com, Reuters, Mediaite, Business Insider, Gothamist, Washington Times, Runnin' Scared, The Atlantic Wire, @carr2n, @jeffjarvis and The Raw Story

Matt Williams / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch quits board of News International — Move fuels rumours of sell-off of UK newspapers despite media mogul's reassurance that he is ‘fully committed’ as chairman — Rupert Murdoch has stepped down as a director of New International, in a move that will fuel speculation …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Forbes Real Time, AllThingsD and The Daily Beast

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

The Colorado shooting and the crowdsourced future of news — Only a few days ago, we were writing about how users of Twitter and Reddit used those networks to tell a compelling story about a mass shooting in Toronto, and now the same phenomenon is playing out in real-time during another horrific incident …

Discussion: The Wrap, Beet.TV, Denver Post, Poynter, CNN, Jordan Ghawi and Poynter, Thanks:@megangarber

Alex Pappas / The Daily Caller:

Colorado tea partier describes ‘surreal’ day of wrongly being linked to theater massacre — Colorado Tea Party Patriots member Jim Holmes told The Daily Caller in a Friday interview that his day has been “surreal” after falsely being linked to the movie theater massacre in Colorado by an on-air ABC News reporter.

Discussion: Politico, NewsBusters.org blogs, ABCNEWS, Instapundit and Poynter

Jakob Schiller / Wired:

When Tragedy Hits, Photojournalists Balance Reporting and Emotion — “He was screaming at the top his lungs, ‘Have you seen my son?’” says Barry Gutierrez, a Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer who has been covering today's shooting in Colorado for the Associated Press.

Discussion: The Raw Story

Jack Shafer:

What the Colorado shooting says about us — The Colorado movie massacre imposes on us once again the temptation to extrapolate lessons from a demented act of violence. Depending on the lens through which the massacre is viewed, it has encouraged some to restate their case for gun control …

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, Crooks and Liars, The New Republic and Slate

John Herrman / BuzzFeed:

How 18-Year-Old Morgan Jones Told The World About Aurora — His Reddit posts from his Denver bedroom offered the best live coverage through the night and morning. “It feels like I'm helping out people who need to know this stuff.” — In the early morning, as professional media scrambled …

Discussion: NPR, Poynter, FishbowlLA, Mediaite, Gawker, Erik Wemple, FishbowlNY, HyperVocal, Poynter, Politico and Washington Post

Jim Romenesko:

Chicago Tribune decides to stick with Journatic — The Chicago Tribune is hiring 44-year newsroom veteran Randy Weissman as a consultant to help develop and implement appropriate changes at embattled Journatic and the Chicago Tribune, which has invested in the hyper-local content provider.

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Alexander Cockburn, Left-Wing Journalist, Dies At 71 — Alexander Cockburn, a prominent radical columnist and journalist, has died at 71 after a lengthy battle with cancer. — Cockburn's death was announced by his friend and journalism partner Jeffrey St. Clair on Counterpunch, the website they ran together.

Discussion: Los Angeles Times, CounterPunch, Runnin' Scared, Hit & Run, The Nation, NewsBusters.org blogs and BuzzFeed

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Wielki sukces! Piano Media expands its national paywall model to Poland — Piano Media, the Slovakian company with plans to erect a pan-European paywall, expanded today into its third and largest market, Poland. Seven major media companies have agreed to put some of their content behind a single national paywall.

Abigail Pesta / The Daily Beast:

The War on ‘Teen Vogue’: Young Readers Escalate Campaign for More ‘Real Girls’ — Teenage girls are stepping up a fight for the magazine to show a wider range of body types, claiming the current images can spark eating disorders and other problems. Abigail Pesta reports. — Does Teen Vogue digitally zap zits?

Ellen McCarthy / Washington Post:

Michael Caruso, Smithsonian's new editor, sees a livelier future for magazine — Michael Caruso announced his arrival at Smithsonian Magazine with a cover image of a 50-foot snake poised to bite off the heads of unsuspecting readers. — Subtlety is not Caruso's strong suit, nor his ambition.