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

12:40 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 — 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

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

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

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: Mediaite, First Read, The New Republic, Politico and Mediaite

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 …

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.

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 …

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

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

Jim Romenesko:

National Review: By the way, our Obama cover was altered — The image used on the cover and the contents page of the October 1, 2012, issue of National Review, in both the print and various digital editions, was altered by National Review. It is not the original photograph as provided by Reuters/Newscom …

Discussion: Politico and @thegarance

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