Mediagazer: Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4.05B including ILM, LucasArts and other tech, Star Wars VII coming in 2015 (Matthew Panzarino/The Next Web)

11:15 PM ET, October 30, 2012

Top News:

Matthew Panzarino / The Next Web:

Disney buys Lucasfilm for $4.05B including ILM, LucasArts and other tech, Star Wars VII coming in 2015 — Media giant Disney has purchased movie and TV production house Lucasfilm for $4.05B in cash and stock. Star Wars Episode 7 is targeted for release in 2015, with more feature films expected to continue the Star Wars saga.

Michael J. De La Merced / DealBook:

With Lucasfilm Deal, Disney Spends Big to Land a Lucrative Franchise — With its $4.05 billion acquisition of Lucasfilm, the Walt Disney Company is proving yet again that it is willing to pay up to land a big franchise. — Disney's takeover of Lucasfilm, keeper of the the Star Wars franchise …

Discussion: Forbes, Corporate Intelligence, /Film, Forbes and Media Decoder

David Holmes / PandoDaily:

Meet the man behind “Is Twitter Wrong?” who helped debunk fake pictures during Hurricane Sandy — Yesterday was a big day for citizen journalism. At one point during the storm users were posting 10 pictures to Instagram every second, and check out this dizzying website that displays in real …

Discussion: Nieman Storyboard, Storyful Blog, mediabistro.com, Chicago Tribune, iMediaConnection Blog, The Raw Story, Guardian and Lifehacker.com Updates

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Tweeting fake news in a crisis — illegal or just immoral? — When Hurricane Sandy battered their city on Monday night, New Yorkers looked after each with courage and generosity. Unfortunately, a few people behaved badly and one person was downright despicable.

Discussion: Forbes, Business Week, The Verge, The Huffington Post, BuzzFeed FWD, BuzzFeed Andrew Kaczynski … and Poynter

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Could Sandy be Instagram's big citizen journalism moment? — Facebook's $750 million purchase of Instagram was clearly good for its founder. But it's hard to argue that being owned by Facebook hasn't been good for Instagram the company as well. — After the announcement of the deal …

Jack Stuef / BuzzFeed:
Shashank Tripathi, Last Night's Twitter Villain @ComfortablySmug

Discussion: New York Times, The Atlantic Online, CNET, Bloomberg, Capital New York, Felix, The Verge, BuzzFeed Politics, PandoDaily, BuzzFeed, Poynter, @carr2n, The New Republic, Gawker.com and The Raw Story

Julie Moos / Poynter:

New York Times circulation up 40% as newspaper numbers generally flat — The latest report from the Audit Bureau of Circulations finds that daily circulation for the nation's newspapers was down 0.2 percent compared to the same period last year. Sunday circulation was up 0.6 percent.

Discussion: The Boston Globe, Bloomberg, Audit Bureau of Circulations, Agence France Presse, Gannett Blog, Media Decoder, FishbowlNY, The Wrap and NetNewsCheck Latest

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Washington Post Sunday circulation drop bad, but not quite as bad as it looks — The Washington Post's average Sunday circulation dropped 20.2 percent over 2011, according to the most recent Audit Bureau of Circulations report. But just like in the May report, the September report didn't count …

Nat Ives / AdAge: Newspaper Circulation Holds Steady Again

Joe Nocera / New York Times:

The Right Man for the Job? — The position of chief executive of The New York Times Company is not the easiest to fill. — There are, to start with, the obvious business challenges: like all newspaper companies, the Times Company has struggled financially as the Internet has eroded its traditional revenue sources.

Discussion: The Wrap, Guardian, @dansabbagh and The Raw Story

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

The Jimmy Savile scandal, Mark Thompson and the New York Times — Savile is unknown in the US. The real issue is Arthur Sulzberger Jr's judgment in embracing the BBC's former director general — Among the major institutions in the world most inclined to self-scrutiny and self-criticism are the BBC and the New York Times.

Discussion: London Review of Books, @emilybell, Poynter and New York Times

Jim Romenesko: NYT publisher to NYT columnist: No comment on Mark Thompson

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

Vimeo launches tips jar for content creators. More of this, please, media industry — Vimeo has just launched a tip jar to help content creators earn money from their videos. A “pay to view” option is coming soon. These are the first steps in what could become a widespread micropayments ecosystem on the video-sharing site.

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Barnes & Noble inks video deals in time for Nook HD, HD+ release — 20th Century Fox and NBCUniversal programs will be available as the new tablets launch this week. — Barnes & Noble is expanding its Nook video content to include NBCUniversal and 20th Century Fox programs as it also begins shipping its HD and HD+ tablets this week.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, Home Media Magazine and Softpedia News

NBC Chicago: First Lawsuit Filed in Barnes & Noble Hacked PIN Pad Case

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

In Search of One Last Hurrah for Rupert Murdoch, Fading Press Baron — Does the News Corp. Chief Really Want to Buy The L.A. Times And Chicago Tribune? Does It Matter? — When I saw the recent headlines about Rupert Murdoch wanting to buy the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune …