Mediagazer: Emerging From Scandal, News Corporation Looks at Potential Acquisitions (Amy Chozick/New York Times)

7:00 PM ET, November 19, 2012

Top News:

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

GetGlue Acquired by Viggle for $25M, Stock — Viggle Inc. has purchased GetGlue for $25 million in cash and 48.3 million shares in stock, with the goal of making the merged companies the dominate force in social TV. Together, the two companies will have more than 4 million users.

Discussion: Business Wire, Forbes, Lost Remote, GigaOM, TechCrunch, CNET, Mashable!, Hollywood Reporter, Multichannel.com, AdAge, VentureBeat, App Advice and mediabistro.com

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

GetGlue + Viggle Is a Big Bet Based on Small Numbers — Viggle, which pays users to “check in” to TV shows, says it will shell out more than $70 million for GetGlue, which lets users “check in” to TV shows, but doesn't pay them. — The combined company, according to a Viggle press release …

Discussion: Lost Remote

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Viggle's Deal To Buy GetGlue Hinges On $60M Of Financing ‘From 2 Strategic Investors’, Expected To Close In Next 30 Days — A little detail in the 8-K form filed today by TV loyalty service Viggle, announcing its acquisition of social TV service GetGlue for $25 million in cash plus 48.3 million shares …

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:

Twitter is safer in America: lessons from two sex scandals — Two recent incidents raise questions about how the law should respond when social media wrongly labels someone a paedophile. The incidents, which took place on different sides of the Atlantic, also showed why free speech laws are better in America.

Discussion: New York Post and Telegraph

Josh Halliday / Guardian: Lord McAlpine and ITV near settlement over Phillip Schofield blunder

Dominic Ponsford / PressGazette: Journalists among 10,000 who could face legal action over McAlpine Twitter messages

Michael Kinsley / New York Magazine:

In Conversation: Tina Brown — Days after the election and a month before she'll retire the print edition of Newsweek, the pioneering editor talks with Michael Kinsley about the future for newsweeklies, American Anglophilia, and personally presiding over the end of the twentieth century.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, The Wrap and The Huffington Post

Nicholas Carlson / Business Insider:

LEAKED: MySpace's Master Plan To Raise $50 Million And Relaunch As A Spotify Killer — The parent company of MySpace is trying to raise $50 million in order to re-launch MySpace as a direct competitor to Spotify and Pandora in 2013. — This is according to documents obtained by Business Insider, which we have included in this post.

Discussion: TechCrunch, VatorNews, VentureBeat, CNET, hypebot and The Next Web

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

Emerging From Scandal, News Corporation Looks at Potential Acquisitions — News Corporation is starting to look like its old self again. — The media conglomerate, which had been on its heels for more than a year because of the phone hacking scandal in Britain, is looking to make acquisitions again.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Poynter

Journalism.org:

The Final Days of the Media Campaign 2012: Final Weeks in the Mainstream Press — Throughout most of the general campaign period, President Obama received slightly better coverage in the mainstream press than Governor Romney did. An earlier PEJ report showed that from August 27 to October 21 …

Discussion: Poynter, Journalism.org and TVNewser

Andrew Kirell / Mediaite:
Fox & MSNBC Became More Extreme As Election Day Neared, Reports Pew

Discussion: Mother Jones and Journalism.org

The Hollywood Reporter:

The Hollywood Reporter, After 65 Years, Addresses Role in Blacklist — Billy Wilkerson was nervous. it was July 1946, and The Hollywood Reporter owner, editor and publisher was preparing to embark on a landmark campaign that would expose communists working in Hollywood.

Discussion: The Wrap and Pressing Issues

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Tom Rosenstiel to leave Pew's PEJ for API — Project for Excellence in Journalism director Tom Rosenstiel is leaving the organization to become executive director of the American Press Institute. API and the Newspaper Association of America announced in January they would merge.

Discussion: CJR and @vivianschiller

Guardian:

Operation Elveden: CPS to decide whether to bring charges — Prosecutors due to announce decision on criminal charges after investigation into payments by journalists to public officials — Prosecutors will announce on Tuesday if they believe they have enough evidence to bring criminal charges following …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian: Leveson inquiry: press intrusion victims to meet party leaders

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Saddam Hussein underpants photos defended by News Corp — Rupert Murdoch's company stands by decision to publish pictures in 2005, despite claims of payments made to US troops — Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation has aggressively defended the publication of pictures of Saddam Hussein …

Peter Jukes / The Daily Beast: Did News Corp. Illegally Purchase Saddam Hussein Photos from U.S. Officials?

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch and the Jews — His Twitter slip about the ‘Jewish-owned press’ was revealing - of prejudice, paranoia and neoconism - and none of it is pretty — Whoops. — Rupert Murdoch's unchaperoned tweeting was bound to get him into trouble. On Saturday, he slipped into an antisemitic usage …

Discussion: Poynter, Media Decoder, CNN, @christhilk, The Inquisitr and Politico

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Dyle Brings Legal, Live TV to Your iPad, With Many Strings Attached — Want to watch live TV on your iPad? You don't have many options. — A handful of networks, including Disney and ESPN, will stream shows to your tablet, but you'll need a cable subscription to make them work.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Engadget and Mashable!

Guardian:

Sky magazine tax loophole saved broadcaster up to £40m a year — A magazine for satellite TV customers published by BSkyB was used as a tax avoidance scheme that saved the company up to £40m a year. The broadcaster had been saving millions in VAT by charging satellite customers …

Discussion: Digital Spy

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Slate Scales. But Is It Too Late to the Game? — Since Slate launched in 1996, there's always been the question of whether an online news magazine can attract enough advertising to support high-quality original content without a companion print product. Signs were pointing to “no” …

Rajeev Syal / Guardian:

BBC execs face grilling by MPs over £450k George Entwistle payoff — Commons committee to question BBC managers over payoff for former director general who resigned over Newsnight affair — MPs are to question BBC executives on Thursday over the £450,000 payoff agreed …

Discussion: exaronews.com/feed/latest and Media Law Prof Blog

David Carr / New York Times:

Washington Post's Chief Falters Anew — At 11:45 a.m. last Tuesday, the editorial staff of The Washington Post was summoned on short notice to an announcement on the fifth floor of its building to hear something they already knew — that Marcus Brauchli would be leaving after four years as executive editor.

Discussion: Poynter, Media Decoder, CJR and Washington Post