Mediagazer: Laughable Daily Mail ‘investigation’ smears Leveson inquiry assessor (Roy Greenslade/Guardian)

8:35 AM ET, November 16, 2012

Top News:

Napster, Udacity, and the Academy — Fifteen years ago, a research group called The Fraunhofer Institute announced a new digital format for compressing movie files. This wasn't a terribly momentous invention, but it did have one interesting side effect: Fraunhofer also had to figure out how to compress the soundtrack.

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Viacom CEO Signals No Interest in Acquisition of Major Studio — Asked if the company could bid if a studio like Sony Pictures became available, Philippe Dauman said “I continue to not see any large-scale acquisition.” — Viacom CEO Philippe Dauman said Thursday that he continues to expect …

Discussion: The Wrap

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:
Viacom Profit Increases, but Movie Division Hurts Revenues

Discussion: Home Media Magazine and Radio & Television …

Jennifer Saba / Reuters: Viacom posts higher profit; CEO says MTV is not broken

Keach Hagey / Digits:

Esquire To Make Print Magazine Interactive Through Netpage App — Magazines' future might be digital, but — Newsweek-style forced marches aside — that future is also years away. In the interim, magazines must figure out how to exist as print objects in an increasingly digital world.

Discussion: Publishing Executive …

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

HuffPo is not for sale, except maybe at the right price — Within months of AOL acquiring Arianna Huffington's blog and news network in 2011, reports surfaced claiming it could quickly off-load the property. — Speaking to me at Monaco Media Forum, AOL Huffington Post Media Group international SVP Jimmy Maymann said:

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Mark Thompson says he didn't see letter about BBC allegations sent on his behalf — Mark Thompson says he was not aware of the details in a letter he authorized threatening London paper The Sunday Times with “defamation proceedings” over an article it was preparing about BBC program “Newsnight” …

Discussion: Deadline.com, New York Times and New York Magazine

Jessica Roy / Betabeat:

Social Media Companies Have Absolutely No Idea How to Handle the Gaza Conflict — After announcing their intention to attack Hamas on Twitter, the Israeli Defense Force began military operations in Gaza yesterday. The Alqassam Brigades, Hamas's military arm, also has a Twitter account …

Discussion: Fast Company, Wired, Daily Download, The Verge, ReadWrite, Daily Dot, WorldViews, Red Alert Politics, Mother Jones, BAGnewsNotes, AllThingsD, Poynter and Forbes

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:
Anonymous Hackers Hit Israeli Sites In Retaliation For Gaza Attacks

Discussion: NYT Bits, Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day and The Other McCain

Ben Fritz / Los Angeles Times:

Variety lays off staff, plans to reduce frequency of publication — Variety has laid off nearly 20 staffers and will cut back on its print frequency. (Variety) — The new owner of Variety is laying off nearly 20 employees at the Hollywood trade paper while preparing to cut back on the number of times it prints each week.

Discussion: Deadline.com and LA Observed

Daniel Terdiman / CNET:

Hollywood bigwig Peter Chernin joins Twitter's board — The former News Corp. executive, who also helped launch Hulu, has become the eighth member of Twitter's board of directors. … Twitter said this afternoon that former News Corp. executive Peter Chernin has become the newest member of its board of directors.

Discussion: @twitter, Media Week, GigaOM, The Verge, Lost Remote and The Next Web

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Laughable Daily Mail ‘investigation’ smears Leveson inquiry assessor — I have been worried about the Daily Mail's editor, Paul Dacre, for some time. After seeing today's issue of his paper, I really think it's time for the men in white coats to visit its Kensington offices as soon as possible.

Discussion: Guardian, Daily Mail, Daily Mail, Daily Mail, theweek.co.uk and TheAustralian

Glynnis Macnicol / Capital New York:

Nate Silver receives the adulation of New York's media demimonde in Nick Denton's Soho loft — “It's like we've taken a time machine back to 2007,” remarked one guest as he mounted the staircase to the second-floor loft apartment of Nick Denton, lord of the Gawker Media empire.

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

A Counterculture Totem to Return as a Leaner Magazine — From 2002 to 2008, Arthur was music's version of a literary-minded “little magazine.” Distributed free in record stores and coffee shops, it celebrated underground culture of all kinds and attracted writers like Alan Moore ("Watchmen" …

Discussion: Arthur Magazine and The Awl

Matt Brian / The Next Web:

Kobo's Arc Android tablet goes on sale in the UK and Canada, launching in France on November 19 — Perhaps often forgotten thanks to Amazon's dominance of the e-reader market, Kobo is attempting to make its mark on the Android tablet market, today launching its Kobo Arc device in the UK and Canada.

Discussion: Canada NewsWire Group and EBOOK MAGAZINE

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

New York Times hosts ad client dinner at Guy Fieri restaurant it panned earlier in the day — Guy Fieri has responded to Pete Wells' scathing New York Times review of his Times Square restaurant. Fieri told the “Today” show's Savannah Guthrie that he thought the review was “ridiculous” and “overboard.”

Discussion: Gawker, The Braiser, The Daily Beast, PopWatch, Bites, Eater National and Speakeasy

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:
Guy Fieri Responds to Pete Wells: ‘He Had an Agenda’

Discussion: AdAge, Gawker, TVNewser and Eater National

Jim Romenesko:

How Elizabeth Spiers got Mediabistro noticed - then failed to profit from its sale — When Mediabistro was sold in 2007, I told some people that I thought Elizabeth Spiers deserved at least a few of the millions that Laurel Touby took to the bank. — Touby (left) and Spiers

Discussion: The Awl and New York Times

Penelope Green / New York Times:
The Loft That Mediabistro Built

Discussion: @laureltouby, Gawker, @laureltouby and @real_kaplan

Jack Shafer:

The sex scandal as civic lesson — The saturation coverage of the Petraeus sex scandal has yet to annoy many people besides policy wonks, but it won't be long before a full-throated essay attacking the endless column inches and hours of airtime devoted to the salacious story arrives.

Discussion: Poynter, CNN, Daily Dot and Guardian

John Jannarone / Wall Street Journal:

Drop in Ratings for DVR Viewing Mirrors Live TV — Some television executives have blamed use of digital video recorders as a reason for sharp declines in “live” viewing of most major broadcast networks this fall. But data capturing a full week of delayed viewing through DVRs reveals nearly identical audience declines.

Tara Conlan / Guardian:

BBC rules out costly search for George Entwistle replacement — BBC Trust chairman Lord Patten and trustees will not follow lengthy search and interview process for next director general — Lord Patten, the BBC Trust chairman, and fellow trustees have ruled out another lengthy and costly search …