Mediagazer: Maureen Dowd, Cub Reporter (Elon Green/The Awl)

2:55 PM ET, July 26, 2012

Top News:

Joanne Ostrow / Denver Post:

Theater shooting: Media outlets covering Aurora paying for information — Television producers quickly locked up eyewitnesses, legal experts and others in the wake of the Aurora shootings, competing with other media outlets and, in some cases, paying a fee for exclusive access.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, KDVR.com and Poynter

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

TCA: ABC News chief apologizes for Aurora mistake by Brian Ross — Ben Sherwood was critical of reporter Brian Ross. — ABC News President Ben Sherwood said reporter Brian Ross' speculation that James Holmes, the suspect in the mass shooting in Aurora, Colo., could be linked to the tea party …

Steve Myers / Poynter:
ABC affiliate contradicts ABC News reporting on James Holmes' behavior in jail

Discussion: TheDenverChannel.com and TVNewser

Arik Hesseldahl / AllThingsD:

Google Gets Into the Cable TV Business, for Real — Google just announced as part of its Google Fiber broadband internet service that it will be getting into the real TV business. — The disclosure came at a presentation in Kansas City, where it is unveiling a high-speed Internet offering.

Discussion: VentureBeat, Betabeat, TechCrunch and Business Insider

Adi Robertson / The Verge:

HBO, AMC, ESPN missing from Google Fiber TV channel list (Update: no Time Warner or Disney channels listed) — Google has just tentatively published the channels set to come to its Fiber TV service, and while it's a substantial list, there are a few prominent ones missing.

Discussion: The Verge

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:
Google TV will get its own version of AirPlay

Discussion: Forbes, Business Insider and NetNewsCheck Latest

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

No News for the New York Times: Circulation Up, Ad Sales Down — New quarter, same news for the New York Times. — That is, the publisher says that over the last three months it saw circulation revenue increase, and both print and digital ads decrease. — Growth in circulation …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, MediaPost, Forbes, FishbowlNY, Reuters, Guardian, The New York Times Company, New York Times, paidContent, Poynter, @pkafka and @edmundlee

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: The Times Company's search for a new C.E.O. hits the final stretch

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Norah O'Donnell Replacing Erica Hill on ‘CBS This Morning’ — Breaking: Six months into its run, “CBS This Morning” is making an anchor change. CBS News Chief White House Correspondent Norah O'Donnell has been named co-host of “CBS This Morning” replacing Erica Hill who first came to CBS News in 2008 …

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Media Decoder, Capital New York, Mediaite, Broadcasting & Cable, The Wrap, The Huffington Post and Chickaboomer

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Roku gets $45M in funding from News Corp., BSkyB — Roku announced late Wednesday that it has secured $45 million in additional funding from new investors News Corporation and BSkyB as well as existing investors Menlo Ventures and Globespan Capital Partners.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Home Media Magazine, Digital Media Wire, AdAge, Multichannel, VentureBeat, PC Magazine, Los Angeles Times, Forbes and Business Insider

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BSkyB reports 17% rise in profits — The satellite broadcaster's pre-tax profit rises to almost £1.2bn as its customer base grows to 10.6m households — BSkyB has reported record pre-tax profits up 17% to £1.19bn in the year to the end of June, and revealed that it intends …

Discussion: AllThingsD and Beet.TV

Jonathan Kealing / PRI:

Public Radio International acquired by Boston public broadcaster WGBH — Public Radio International, the Minneapolis-based producer and distributor of public radio content, has been acquired by WGBH in Boston. — The transaction, which closed Wednesday, makes PRI an affiliated company of WGBH …

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Newsweek/The Daily Beast Promotes Several Staffers — Newsweek/The Daily Beast has announced several promotions and changes. See below for a summary, then after the jump for the full memo from Tina Brown. — NewsBeasties, — We are very pleased to take this opportunity to announce that:

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

NBC Sports Chairman Lazarus: London Olympics are a ‘grand experiment’ — Mark Lazarus is no stranger to big sports events but the 2012 Olympics trumps them all. Lazarus, the chairman of NBC Sports Group, joined NBC Universal as part of the Comcast merger, becoming chairman of the NBC Sports Group …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, GigaOM, eMedia Vitals and MediaPost

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:
With Ebersol Gone, NBC Passes Broadcast Baton to ‘Today’ Producer

Discussion: Techland, Cable Tech Talk, ZDNet and PopWatch

Paul Lewis / Guardian:

Ecuador seeks to stop ‘evil’ of Julian Assange US extradition — Lawyers for WikiLeaks founder - who is living in the Ecuadorian embassy - believe there are secret plans to send him to the US — The Ecuadorian government is seeking to avert the “evil” extradition of Julian Assange to the US …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
The NYT's Bill Keller on why we should defend WikiLeaks

Discussion: Techdirt and GigaOM

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Saints owner offers to buy Times-Picayune — New Orleans Saints owner Tom Benson has offered to buy The Times-Picayune, WWLTV.com reports. He writes in a letter to Steven Newhouse, head of Advance.net: … A handwritten note at the bottom of the page reads, “In 1985, the Saints were leaving …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM and WWL-TV

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

New Result in ‘Today’ and ‘Good Morning America’ Rivalry: Too Close to Call — LOS ANGELES — The increasingly intense competition between NBC's “Today” show and ABC's “Good Morning America” took its latest twist last week when the shows produced — in the Nielsen rating sample anyway …

Discussion: TVNewser and Broadcasting & Cable

Elon Green / The Awl:

Maureen Dowd, Cub Reporter — It's easy to look at our media industrial complex and forget that its members were once young and hungry, that they had to hustle, grease sources and report stories within an inch of life. One can imagine these scrappers delirious just to see a byline buried on B4 or, God forbid, a sidebar.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, New York Magazine, The Corsair and JIMROMENESKO.COM