Mediagazer: Tablet Video Startup Watchup Raises $500K From Knight Foundation, News Vets, Others (Anthony Ha/TechCrunch)

5:25 PM ET, December 10, 2012

Top News:

Bloomberg Weighs Making Bid for The Financial Times — Not long ago, The Financial Times would have been the crown jewel of any media company, instantly conferring prestige and influence on its owner. Now, given the likely bidders, one of the world's most respected and distinctive financial newspapers …

Felix Salmon:

Why Bloomberg is interested in LinkedIn — As Henry Blodget realizes, the most interesting part of the latest speculation about Bloomberg buying the FT is buried en passant: … As Blodget also notes, this isn't really an either/or choice: the price tag for LinkedIn would be so gargantuan …

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:
Does Michael Bloomberg Really Need a Newspaper?

Discussion: Quartz, New York Magazine, Business Insider and Talking Biz News

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette:

Owners of Australian prank call radio station accuse British media of ‘witch-hunt’ — Radio DJ's Michael Christian and Mel Greig during an interview on Australia's Channel Seven. Picture: Today Tonight/PA Wire — The owners of the Australian radio station behind a prank call …

Discussion: NY Daily News, Yahoo! News, The Daily Beast and Guardian

Bloomberg:
Royal Phone-Hoax Death Prompts Cancellation of Sydney Radio Show

Discussion: Sky News, Yahoo! News, myfoxphilly.com, The Age, Mediaite, HeraldSun, The Independent and New York Times

Rob Taylor / Reuters:
Royal phone scandal highlights new media risks

Discussion: The Daily Beast

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Royal hoax call could be an ‘offence under UK law’

Discussion: New York Magazine

Matthew Flamm / Crain's New York Business:

Magazines ramp up publishing in 2012 — Magazine publishers are still tightening their belts three years after the nightmare of the advertising recession shook the industry to its toes. But the itch to launch new magazines shows no sign of going away. In 2012, veteran publishers …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Folio and Noted

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

In “Seismic Shift,” New COO De Castro Planning to Move Yahoo Ad Sales to Category Model (Backed Up by “Marissa Halo") — In what will be a major shift in how the Silicon Valley Internet giant sells online advertising, Yahoo's new COO Henrique De Castro has briefed employees on a plan to move …

Discussion: VentureBeat

Meg Heckman / NetNewsCheck:

Inquirer, Daily News To Split From Philly.com — The Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News, after sharing Philly.com as their online home, are set to launch their own paywalled sites in the first quarter of 2013. “Each paper has a digital side, but it's all fed through Philly.com …

Discussion: Poynter, Knight Foundation, paidContent and @chanders

BBC:

Labour reveals its Leveson plan — Opinion is divided over how to proceed with the findings of Lord Justice Leveson — Labour has published details of how it would like to see the press regulated in the wake of Lord Justice Leveson's report on press standards.

Press Association:
Tories dismiss Labour plans for Leveson law

Discussion: Guardian

Adrienne LaFrance / Nieman Journalism Lab:

No sleep till: Technically Media's next expansion stop is Brooklyn — NEW YORK — News organizations have long seen value in their ability to connect people: linking citizens to public officials, advertisers to readers, and so on. But in today's nichified media world …

Discussion: Technically Philly

Brian Alvey / TechCrunch:

What The Daily Got Right From Day One — Editor's note: Brian Alvey is Chief Scientist and founder of Ceros. Brian is obsessed with the “brand publishing” phenomenon and talks about it endlessly on Twitter and in-person at companies around the world. — “Everything you read online …

Anna Heim / The Next Web:

Meet Matter, San Francisco's new accelerator for media startups [Interview] — If you think traditional media outlets are disconnected from the startup world, think again. While Europe has already welcomed initiatives such as BBC Worldwide's Labs and the Irish Times' Digital Challenge …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Wasserman named dean of Berkeley's j-school — Edward Wasserman has been named dean of the graduate school in journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, the university said in a press release Friday. Wasserman is a professor of ethics at Washington and Lee University in Lexington …

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Tablet Video Startup Watchup Raises $500K From Knight Foundation, News Vets, Others — Watchup, a StartX-incubated video iPad app that allows users to build their own news playlists, has raised a $500,000 angel round of funding. — It's an impressive list of investors, including Digital News Ventures …

Glenn Greenwald / Guardian:

Zero Dark Thirty: new torture-glorifying film wins raves — Earlier this year, the film “Zero Dark Thirty”, which purports to dramatize the hunt for and killing of Osama bin Laden, generated substantial political controversy. It was discovered that CIA and White House officials had met …

Discussion: The Daily Beast and Mother Jones