Mediagazer: Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. (StreetInsider.com)

3:21 AM ET, October 31, 2012

Top News:

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: Chicago Tribune, Lifehacker.com Updates, The Raw Story, Forbes, WorldViews, The Week, iMediaConnection Blog and Marketing Land

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: Business Week, Guardian, BuzzFeed FWD, BuzzFeed Andrew Kaczynski … and The Huffington Post

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:

Councilman Pushes For Charges Against Twitter User Who Spread Falsehoods — “I hope the fact that I'm asking for criminal charges to be seriously considered will make him much less comfortable and much less smug,” says Vallone — New York City Councilman Peter Vallone told BuzzFeed Tuesday …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Nieman Storyboard, Forbes, BuzzFeed Politics, BuzzFeed and FishbowlDC

Jack Stuef / BuzzFeed:

Shashank Tripathi, Last Night's Twitter Villain @ComfortablySmug — During the storm last night, user @comfortablysmug was the source of a load of frightening but false information about conditions in New York City that spread wildly on Twitter and onto news broadcasts before ConEd, the MTA …

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire, Felix, New York Times, The Atlantic Online, Bloomberg, PandoDaily, Gawker.com, CNET, The Verge, Mashable!, The New Republic, @carr2n, Capital New York, The Raw Story, Real-Time News from Mobile and Poynter

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:
Could Sandy be Instagram's big citizen journalism moment?

Jon Caramanica / New York Times:
NY1 Becomes an Anchor in Hurricane Sandy's Tumult

Discussion: Capital New York

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: Business Wire, Slate, Media Decoder, /Film, Forbes and Forbes

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.

StreetInsider.com:

Disney to Acquire Lucasfilm Ltd. — Global leader in high-quality family entertainment agrees to acquire world-renowned Lucasfilm Ltd, including legendary STAR WARS franchise. — Acquisition continues Disney's strategic focus on creating and monetizing the world's best branded content …

Discussion: Daring Fireball, Techdirt and Corporate Intelligence

Nat Ives / AdAge:

Newspaper Circulation Holds Steady Again — Digital Circulation Now 15.3% of the Total — Paywalls still seem to be paying off for newspapers. — The industry's average weekday circulation over the six months ending in September slipped just 0.2% from the equivalent period a year earlier …

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 …

Julie Moos / Poynter:
New York Times circulation up 40% as newspaper numbers generally flat

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

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

Michael Wolff / Guardian:
The Jimmy Savile scandal, Mark Thompson and the New York Times

Discussion: London Review of Books and @emilybell

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

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Yelp Launching Visual Menus With User-Contributed Photos — Yelp is announcing a new feature today that allows users to browse restaurant menus (with accompanying food porn) directly from the Yelp website and mobile app. — Last year, the company added the ability for businesses …

Discussion: Yelp Official Blog, SocialTimes, App Advice and Engadget

Charlie Osborne / CNET:

EFF: TV networks use ‘craven’ tactics against streaming service — Startup Aereo's free broadcasting service remains the target of television networks as they try to shutter it based on copyright infringement. — The Electronic Frontier Foundation is backing startup Aereo …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine and Electronic Frontier Foundation