Mediagazer: Why TV news matters in the age of information overload (David Pierce/The Verge)

11:10 PM ET, November 19, 2012

Top News:

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: TechCrunch

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

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

David Lieberman / Deadline.com:

Lionsgate In Advanced Negotiations To Sell TVGuide.com — EXCLUSIVE. The online TV navigation site could go for about $20M — possibly as much as $25M I'm told — and would enable Lionsgate to cash in on a property that's considered peripheral to its main production and TV networks businesses.

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Is Among Those Mulling a TVGuide.com Bid for About $20 Million — According to sources close to the situation, Yahoo is among the companies taking a serious gander at TVGuide.com, the online entertainment listings, video and news site and mobile app. — Earlier today …

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: Poynter

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Lord McAlpine and ITV near settlement over Phillip Schofield blunder — Former Tory party treasurer understood to be negotiating six-figure sum with broadcaster following child abuse allegations — Lord McAlpine was on Monday night close to reaching a six-figure settlement with ITV …

Jeff John Roberts / GigaOM:
Twitter is safer in America: lessons from two sex scandals

Discussion: New York Post and Telegraph

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

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: Journalism.org and Broadcasting & Cable

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

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

David Pierce / The Verge:

Why TV news matters in the age of information overload — “And that's the way it is.” — For two decades, whenever Walter Cronkite said those words to end his nightly CBS newscast, people believed him. Cronkite was the most trusted man in America, the person we tasked with telling us …

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, Capital New York, FishbowlNY, Poynter, The Wrap and The Huffington Post

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?

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: @vivianschiller and CJR

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, The Inquisitr, @christhilk, CNN, The Wrap and Politico

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