Mediagazer: Microsoft launches Bing Elections to curate news, results, and social media insights (Ken Yeung/The Next Web)

10:25 AM ET, October 26, 2012

Top News:

Keith Bradsher / New York Times:

China Blocks Web Access to Times After Article — HONG KONG — The Chinese government swiftly blocked access early Friday morning to the Chinese-language Web site of The New York Times from computers in mainland China and gradually halted most access to the English-language site …

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Post, New York Times, CJR, Guardian, Vanity Fair, DealBook, WorldViews, Quartz, Telegraph, Business Insider, Forbes, New York Magazine, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day, The Next Web, @dangillmor, @davidfolkenflik and The Newspaper Guild

Max Fisher / Washington Post:

China's censors move with unusual speed on Wen Jiabao revelation — Wen Jiabao attends a meeting in Beijing. (Lintao Zhang/Getty Images) — It was about 5 in the morning in Beijing when the New York Times revealed, in a story posted to its website, that the family of Prime Minister Wen Jiabao …

Discussion: Fast Company, Guardian, Business Insider and WorldViews

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

Gore's struggling Current TV on the block — Current TV, the ratings-challenged cable network started by former Vice President Al Gore, has put itself up for sale, The Post has learned. — “Current has been approached many times by media companies interested in acquiring our company,” CEO Joel Hyatt told The Post.

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller, The Raw Story, SeekingAlpha.com and NewsBusters.org blogs

Bloomberg:

Apple's Online Radio Service to Challenge Pandora in 2013 — Apple's Online Radio Said to Challenge Pandora — Apple Inc. (AAPL) and major music labels have intensified negotiations to start an advertising-supported Internet radio service by early next year, according to people with knowledge of the talks.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD: Apple's iRadio: The Case Against Pandora Panic

Greg Sandoval / CNET:
Apple's proposed Web radio service is no certainty

Discussion: MacRumors, SeekingAlpha.com and Forbes

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Comcast: NBCUniversal Broke Even on London Olympics, Expects Profits From Future Games — The entertainment company recorded a $120 million profit from the Summer Games in the third quarter. — Cable giant Comcast Corp. on Friday reported a $120 million third-quarter profit on the London Olympics …

Discussion: Bloomberg

Christopher Mims / Quartz:

Eric Schmidt is headed to Paris to head off French proposal to charge Google for linking — France's new government has been making noise about forcing Google to pay for the privilege of linking to French news sites. Google responded by threatening to remove all French news sites from its index …

Discussion: Betabeat, Search Engine Land and The Verge

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Three questions for the New York Times Co — The New York Times Company's latest earnings, announced today, reiterated its story of long-term print decline, unstable advertising and a nucleus of hope based on digital subscriber growth. — On a call with investors, executives repeated …

Discussion: GigaOM, Bloomberg and AllThingsD

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
NY Times Co. Explains Its ‘Shockingly Weak’ Ad Results

Discussion: The Daily Beast, Jack Shafer, The Buttry Diary, Guardian, FishbowlNY, Mashable! and paidContent

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
New York Times Co. Falls After Reporting Surprise Loss

Discussion: Business Week and New York Magazine

Steve Ladurantaye / Globe and Mail:

Postmedia ramps up its paywall push — Canada's largest chain of metropolitan newspapers will close the gates in the new year and ask readers to pay to read their online content. — Postmedia Network Inc. said it would put up paywalls at all of its titles early in the new year …

Rob Williams / The Independent:

Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi sentenced to four years in jail for tax fraud — Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been sentenced to 4 years in jail following a tax fraud trial, a news agency is reporting this afternoon. An Italian court is set …

Ken Yeung / The Next Web:

Microsoft launches Bing Elections to curate news, results, and social media insights — There are numerous places on the web where you can find election results, but there's not just one place to get the complete and balanced picture. Today, Microsoft is announcing it has put together …

Discussion: Fast Company, Search Engine Land and Bing

David Kravets / Wired:

Buzzfeed's Sponsored Stories Stink in Infringement Smell Test — A $10,000 Hans Solo desk. Photo: Courtesy of Tom Spina Designs — Like many online media outlets, Buzzfeed is moving toward the so-called “sponsored stories” advertising model — a blending of advertising and editorial content placed smack dab in the content stream.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

Merissa Marr / Wall Street Journal:

Sumner Redstone Puts Daughter Shari Back in the Succession Mix — From his Beverly Hills compound, Sumner Redstone has been hard at work on a new memoir titled “How to Live Forever.” But lately, the 89-year-old media mogul has also been putting some thought to what happens once he's gone.