Mediagazer: News International chief tries to boost Sun morale after 21st journalist arrest (Lisa O'Carroll/Guardian)

2:00 PM 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, 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

Discussion: AdAge

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
BSkyB: Ofcom's ruling in depth

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable

Alan Cowell / New York Times:
British Regulator Declares BSkyB ‘Fit and Proper’

Discussion: Associated Press and Telegraph

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

Jessica Wohl / Reuters:

Exclusive: Wal-Mart stops selling Amazon Kindles — (Reuters) - Wal-Mart Stores Inc will no longer sell Amazon.com Inc's Kindle products, making it the second major chain to stop selling Amazon's devices, as the world's largest retailer makes a bet that consumers are more interested in other gadgets.

Discussion: TechCrunch, AllThingsD, Forbes, CNET, PC Magazine, 24/7 Wall St., Engadget, Mashable!, The Verge, AppNewser and GigaOM

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: TechCrunch, MediaPost, mediabistro.com and paidContent

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Journal Register likely to reduce print frequency at some papers — The new slimmed-down Journal Register company, being pieced together in a bankruptcy proceeding, is likely to eliminate at least some daily print editions at several of its 20 dailies. — “I would consider and am considering …

Dylan Byers / Politico:

NBC News and Obama's ‘redistribution’ video — Following a few hours of internal confusion yesterday, NBC News obtained exclusive access to the full-length video of Barack Obama's remarks at Loyola University in 1998 — all but defusing the Mitt Romney campaign's efforts to use a brief clip …

Discussion: The Raw Story, The Huffington Post and TVNewser

Erik Wemple:
NBC responds to criticism on Obama-redistribution ‘authentication’ issue

Discussion: First Read, Mediaite, ABCNEWS, Politico and Mediaite

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

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

BuzzFeed (yes, BuzzFeed) begins search for ‘longform editor’ — BuzzFeed, the viral meme generator founded by Jonah Peretti and brought to prominence in the “real news” cycle by editor-in-chief Ben Smith, is now advertising the position of “longform editor”—someone “who can assign …

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 …

Discussion: iDownloadBlog.com

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.

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: Journalism.co.uk, Nieman Journalism Lab, MediaShift Idea Lab, Forbes, CJR, ONA12 and AllThingsD

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

HBO CEO Bill Nelson retiring, Richard Plepler to succeed him — Richard Plepler is HBO's new CEO. — HBO Chairman and Chief Executive Bill Nelson is retiring after almost 30 years with the pay cable behemoth. — Richard Plepler, currently a co-president of HBO, has been tapped to succeed Nelson as chief executive.

Discussion: The Wrap and Media Decoder

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

News International chief tries to boost Sun morale after 21st journalist arrest — Tom Mockridge addresses newsroom, reassuring staff about role of News Corp's management and standards committee — The News International chief executive has sought to boost morale in the Sun newsroom …

Zach Carter / The Huffington Post:

Universal-EMI Merger Could Yield New Mega-Label To Threaten The Future Of Music — WASHINGTON — Today, music lovers have more ways than ever before to access their favorite songs and discover artists they've never heard of. Can't live another minute without “Call Me Maybe”?

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.

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