Mediagazer: #Berlusconi's four-year prison term reduced by court to one year under Italian law aimed at cutting jail overcrowding http://bbc.in/SFc18O (@bbcbreaking)

12:20 PM ET, October 26, 2012

Top News:

Al 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: mediabistro.com, TVNewser, New York Magazine, The Huffington Post, The Raw Story, The Daily Caller, NewsBusters.org blogs, Deal Journal and SeekingAlpha.com

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 …

Max Fisher / Washington Post:
China's censors move with unusual speed on Wen Jiabao revelation

Discussion: Fast Company, Guardian, Globe and Mail and WorldViews

Jack Shafer:

The New York Times, the BBC and the Savile sex scandal — Before he has even had time to measure his office windows for draperies, incoming New York Times Co. CEO Mark Thompson is in the media crosshairs. No less a figure than Times's public editor, Margaret Sullivan …

Discussion: Guardian, HBR.org, Guardian and Deadline.com

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:
Three questions for the New York Times Co

Discussion: GigaOM and Bloomberg

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

Discussion: Guardian, The Daily Beast, The Buttry Diary, The Public Editor's Journal, FishbowlNY, Mashable! and paidContent

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

Discussion: Business Week and New York Magazine

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

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 …

Discussion: Reuters, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, BBC and Telegraph

@bbcbreaking:

#Berlusconi's four-year prison term reduced by court to one year under Italian law aimed at cutting jail overcrowding http://bbc.in/SFc18O

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: Forbes, Betabeat, Search Engine Land and The Verge

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: Media Decoder, Bloomberg and Broadcasting & Cable

Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas:

Boycott on Google News leads to 5% loss in web traffic: Brazilian newspapers — According to the National Association of Newspapers in Brazil (or ANJ in Portuguese), members that followed the association's recommendation to abandon Google News have seen a decrease in web traffic of only 5 percent.

Discussion: TechCrunch

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 …

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: TechCrunch, Bing, Fast Company, Search Engine Land and Mashable!

Bruce Einhorn / Business Week:

E-Books Finally Get Traction in Japan — The Japanese are avid readers; the country's publishing industry generated $22.5 billion in revenue last year, according to the Japan Book Publishers Association. A decade ago, long before the Kindle revolutionized the publishing world in the U.S. …

Gregory Ferenstein / TechCrunch:

Introducing CrunchGov, TechCrunch's Policy Platform — Nearly a year after citizens blindsided the government with an unprecedented protest against the Stop Online Piracy Act, Congress is at a loss for how to proceed. Luddite officials see complex tech issues as a mysterious minefield …

Discussion: Boing Boing and The Verge

Erik Maza / WWD:

Charles Townsend Offers Outlook for Condé Nast — TOWNSEND TALKS: On Thursday, Cindi Leive quizzed Condé Nast chief executive officer Charles Townsend at the Paley Center for Media in New York City. Townsend, a famously blunt executive, doesn't sit for interviews often …