Mediagazer: ABC News, Univision Soft-Launch Website For New Cable Channel (Alex Weprin/TVNewser)

11:40 AM ET, September 20, 2012

Top News:

Kate Holton / Reuters:

UK regulator clears BSkyB of links to hacking scandal — (Reuters) - Britain's media regulator gave pay-TV firm BSkyB a clean bill of health on Thursday, saying there was no evidence it was linked to a phone hacking scandal which has engulfed Rupert Murdoch's News Corp, its largest shareholder.

Discussion: Bloomberg, AllThingsD, New York Times, BBC, The Independent, Wall Street Journal and Guardian

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Sky might be ‘fit and proper’, but Ofcom has harsh words for James Murdoch — The media regulator may given BSkyB the all-clear, but it criticised Murdoch over his handling of the hacking scandal — Harsh words for James Murdoch from Ofcom, as the regulator concluded that BSkyB was a …

Discussion: AdAge and The Huffington Post

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter: BSkyB CEO Touts Original Content Push, Says Won't Need to Acquire Production Firm

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
News Corp shareholders in US want to sue over phone hacking scandal

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, NetNewsCheck Latest, Fast Company, Reuters, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

Mediafed Snaps Up News Aggregation App Taptu — It's tough being a news reader app. You've got competition on every side while you fight for distribution, not to mention staving off media company lawsuits, all the while trying to figure out how to monetize.

Discussion: MediaPost, paidContent and mediabistro.com

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

Google News introduces hidden keyword metatag — Publishers will be able to add up to 10 keywords or short phrases to tell the Google crawler what a news article is about — Google has announced a new metatag called “news_keywords” to allow digital journalists to add up to 10 keywords or phrases …

Discussion: Big News Network.com

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Apple and publishers subpoena Amazon in ebook pricing case — Apple wants the Department of Justice to turn over the interviews it conducted with Amazon employees as part of the ebook pricing lawsuit. In an August filing, Apple wrote, “Amazon was the driving force behind the Government's investigation …

Victoria Thieberger / Reuters:

Australia's old media outstripped as online boosts ad share — (Reuters) - A pack of new media specialists in Australia has surpassed many of the country's newspapers and television networks in size after diverting away the precious advertising dollars that have sustained the old guard for decades.

Jim Romenesko:

Circulation up at the ‘new’ Orange County Register — Some highlights from a memo that Orange County Register publisher Aaron Kushner sent to his staff on Wednesday: — * In the first full month of new ownership, the Register had a 3.4% increase in daily home delivery and 3.9% Sunday increase over the previous year.

PressGazette:

Mail Online surges past 100m browsers in August — Mail Online reported more than 100m unique monthly browsers for the first time in August, according to the latest online traffic figures from ABC. — During the month that saw both the Olympic and Paralympic Games held in London …

Discussion: Guardian and Journalism.co.uk

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Mitt Says Dave Hates Him. Not So, Says Dave, Who Invites Him to Appear. — Does David Letterman hate Mitt Romney? — Mr. Romney said so on the surreptitiously recorded tape of his comments at a fund-raiser in May, which have stirred a firestorm of reaction in the news media this week.

Discussion: Mediaite, Speakeasy, TheBlaze.com, Pressing Issues, ABCNEWS and The Caucus

Jim Romenesko:

National Review: By the way, our Obama cover was altered

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Knight News Challenge winner will make historical election data easily accessible — The winners of the latest Knight News Challenge announced today include a collaboration between developers at The New York Times and The Washington Post to create a free, comprehensive database of past U.S. election results.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, Forbes, CJR and IRE.org

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

ABC News, Univision Soft-Launch Website For New Cable Channel — ABC News and Univision have quietly launched a website for the upcoming cable news channel the two companies are developing. The new site exists as a micro-site on ABCNews.com, and is part of the Yahoo!/ABC News Digital Network.

Discussion: GalleyCat, Broadcasting & Cable, FishbowlNY and SocialTimes

Richard Sandomir / New York Times:

Fox Closes In on New Baseball Deal — Fox Sports is close to a deal with Major League Baseball that will let it add more playoff and regular-season games, justifying its plan to create a new cable sports network, said three people with knowledge of the negotiations. By contrast, TBS will get fewer games in its pending deal.

Discussion: B&C and New York Post

Eddie Scarry / FishbowlDC:

Attribution Problem: AP Swipes Story From The Hill — It takes a certain amount of clumsiness to break something that's already broken. — The Hill's Alexandra Jaffe broke the news yesterday that Sen. Scott Brown (R-Mass.) was distancing himself from remarks made by Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney.

Discussion: Associated Press, The Daily Caller and Boston Herald

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Scott Brown forces The Hill to change story

Discussion: The Hill and Capital New York

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

How Mother Jones got the Romney ‘47 percent’ story — Big scoops come in small increments. It takes some luck and some connections, some phone calls and e-mails, and the time to build a relationship. Just ask David Corn. Corn, the Washington bureau chief for Mother Jones magazine …