Mediagazer: Blockbuster Hits Rewind on Plan to Return as Netflix Killer (Alex Sherman/Bloomberg)

9:00 PM ET, October 5, 2012

Top News:

Beth Hawkins / Minn Post:

Reporter who wrote about life as undocumented immigrant arrested in Minnesota — New York Times reporter Jose Vargas was arrested Friday morning by Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police and charged with driving without a valid driver's license, a misdemeanor.

Thanks:@romenesko

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Blockbuster Hits Rewind on Plan to Return as Netflix Killer — Billionaire Charlie Ergen is giving up on his plan to turn the once-mighty Blockbuster LLC video- store chain into a Netflix (NFLX) Inc. competitor and gadget retailer. — When Ergen's Dish Network Corp. (DISH) …

Discussion: CNET, PC Magazine, Los Angeles Times, The Verge, Radio & Television …, AdAge, fierceonlinevideo.com and Engadget

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

W's Nina Lawrence Leaves Condé Nast for WSJ — W's Nina Lawrence has split after 15 years at Condé Nast for The Wall Street Journal, where she's landed a big job: vp of global marketing, advertising sales. Lawrence will be in charge of overseeing the global ad sales team across print …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and WWD

Keith J. Kelly / New York Post:
Condé budget cuts of 5% on 2013 agenda

Discussion: FishbowlNY and mediabistro.com

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

How Will Reuters and Fortune Handle Jack Welch's Conspiracy Tweeting? — Former GE CEO Jack Welch gets paid for his opinions by a couple of news organizations. But none of those opinions has ever caused quite such a stir as the one he issued on Twitter Friday morning, accusing the Labor Department of falsifying unemployment numbers.

Discussion: Talking Points Memo, Wonkblog, The Huffington Post, Bloomberg, Mediaite and The Atlantic Wire

Wall Street Journal:

Time Warner's Jeff Bewkes Has An Unlikely Lunch Partner: Roger Ailes — Here's a piece of breaking news that will give some people at CNN nightmares: earlier this year their ultimate boss Time Warner Chairman Jeff Bewkes, had lunch with Fox News Chief Roger Ailes. Just imagine what those two discussed.

Discussion: TVNewser

Greg Sandoval / CNET:

Is Spotify's business model broken? — Financial numbers for privately held Spotify have allegedly surfaced and if accurate, the music service is in a world of hurt. — Spotify CEO Daniel Ek — PrivCo., a company that sells data on non-publicly traded companies says it has obtained …

Discussion: PrivCo, @benparr, Mashable!, Betabeat, PandoDaily, Business Insider, AdExchanger and hypebot

Sarah Ellison / Vanity Fair:

Blood, Sweat, and Piers — Piers Morgan, testifying before the Leveson Inquiry in London late last year, had just withstood two hours of uncomfortable questioning about phone hacking—a practice the 46-year-old tabloid editor-cum-TV star described in the first of his three memoirs as the …

Discussion: Capital New York and TVNewser

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Jim Lehrer On Debate Moderating: My Job Was To ‘Stay Out Of The Way’ — Jim Lehrer responded on Thursday to the furor surrounding his debate moderating performance. Though it was his 12th time in the role, Lehrer received some of his worst press, with critics saying that he had let both Barack Obama …

Discussion: Politico, Poynter, Chickaboomer, TMZ.com and New York Times

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Cable Channel to Televise Bin Laden Film Before Election — The National Geographic Channel plans to televise a feature film about the killing of Osama bin Laden on Nov. 4, two days before the presidential election. — The film, titled “Seal Team Six: The Raid on Osama Bin Laden,” …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Cable Television News, Media Law Prof Blog and Pressing Issues

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

Universal Said to Have Chosen U.S. Chief for EMI — The Universal Music Group has chosen its first major executive appointment since taking control of EMI, and it is a blow to Universal's biggest rival, Sony. — Steve Barnett, one of two chairmen of Columbia, which is owned by Sony …

Sruthi Ramakrishnan / Reuters:

Gannett to stop broadcasting on Dish if ad-skipping feature not removed — (Reuters) - Dish Network Corp said the broadcasting arm of newspaper publisher Gannett Co Inc has threatened to withdraw broadcasting on the satellite TV provider if it does not block the commercial-skipping feature …

Discussion: Tampa Bay Times, Wall St. Cheat Sheet and TVSpy

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

St. Louis Public Radio, St. Louis Beacon to explore ‘combining talents and resources’ — St. Louis Public Radio and nonprofit news site the St. Louis Beacon signed a letter of intent to explore “options for strengthening regional news reporting by using their individual assets in combination,” the organizations say in a press release.