Mediagazer: ‘House of Cards’ continues grand Hollywood tradition of fake newsrooms (Andrew Beaujon/Poynter)

4:15 PM ET, February 4, 2013

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Super Bowl Gets Highest-Ever Ratings, Plus 24 Million Tweets — A historic sibling rivalry, an iconic player's retirement, a Destiny's Child reunion, a momentum-changing blackout and a dramatic finish: Add up all the storylines from Super Bowl XLVII and you get one of the most-watched championship games ever …

Discussion: Lost Remote, Media Decoder, AdAge, Mediaite, Home Media Magazine, ESPN, Yahoo! News, GigaOM, CNET, Broadcasting & Cable, Twitter Blog, Speakeasy, Radio & Television …, Capital New York, The Wrap, Mashable!, AllThingsD and Reuters

Will Leitch / SportsonEarth:

Power Failure — As embarrassing as it was for the NFL and the city of New Orleans that the power went out for 34 minutes during Super Bowl XLVII, it's not even close to how humiliated CBS should feel. It's difficult to overstate how much the San Francisco 49ers saved CBS's bacon by constructing …

Discussion: NY Daily News, TVNewser, TVNewser, Adweek, Deadspin, Baltimore Sun, WNYC and TVSpy

Dan Deeth / Better Broadband Blog:

Super Bowl XLVII: The Return of the Super Dip — For the second year in a row, the Super Bowl was streamed online for viewers in the US. While many might think the big game might cause big demand on fixed access networks, the truth is while everyone is watching the game on their television …

Discussion: AllThingsD, GigaOM, The Wrap, CNET and The Next Web

AdAge:
Marketers Jump on Super Bowl Blackout With Real-Time Twitter Campaigns

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Circulation revenue up at Gannett, which credits paywalls — Gannett's fourth quarter earning report contains a sentence that will thrill paywall apostles: … That's attributed to CEO Gracia Martore, who also notes circulation revenue increased for the third quarter in a row.

Discussion: Thomson IR, Wall Street Journal, Broadcasting & Cable, Reuters, NetNewsCheck Latest, Gannett Blog and USA Today

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

Gannett Profit Tops Analysts' Estimates on Election Advertising — Gannett Co. (GCI), which publishes 82 U.S. daily newspapers and owns 23 television stations, reported fourth-quarter earnings that topped analysts' estimates, fueled by U.S. presidential election advertising.

Discussion: Gannett Blog

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

‘House of Cards’ continues grand Hollywood tradition of fake newsrooms — “House of Cards” was filmed in part at the Baltimore Sun's building, where producers built the newsroom for the fictional Washington Herald (not to be confused with The Washington Globe from the 2009 film “State of Play” …

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Andrew Sullivan's New Site Has a Super Friendly Paywall — Today is the day uber-blogger Andrew Sullivan declares independence, moving his Daily Dish blog from The Daily Beast to a new home at dish.andrewsullivan.com. — In case you haven't heard, Sullivan's foray into entrepreneurship …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online and NetNewsCheck Latest

Jeff Blagdon / The Verge:
Andrew Sullivan's grand experiment in reader-supported online journalism is now live

Discussion: The Dish and New York Magazine

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily: Andrew Sullivan and the new wisdom of the leaky meter

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

The Google Fund for the French Press — At the last minute, ending three months of tense negotiations, Google and the French Press hammered a deal. More than yet another form of subsidy, this could mark the beginning of a genuine cooperation. — Thursday night, at 11:00pm Paris time …

Discussion: Guardian and Kirk LaPointe's …

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Why Google's settlement with French publishers is bad for the web

Discussion: Top Digital Journal News

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

The Verge Hires Writer Who Quit CNET in Protest — Greg Sandoval, the CNET senior writer who resigned in protest when the site's parent company, CBS, interfered with its editorial coverage last month, has been hired by The Verge, the Web site that first revealed the full extent of CBS's involvement.

Discussion: New York Magazine, @brianstelter and @joshuatopolsky

Greg Sandoval:
My new home — I'm saved. Two weeks ago, I resigned from CNET …

Discussion: Poynter, The Wrap, @sandonet and Talking Biz News

Taren Stinebrickner-Kauffman:

Why Aaron died — Last week, I awoke to find Aaron with me. He was sitting next to my bed, grinning his cheeekist grin, holding my hand. — For a few minutes, I savored a sweet uncertainty: Were the last few weeks all a nightmare, and Aaron was still with me?

Doree Shafrir / BuzzFeed:

What's The Real Story Behind The New York Times Buyouts? — No one outside the building really knows — but maybe because no one really cares anymore. — Late Friday afternoon, inside The New York Times building at 40th Street and 8th Avenue, around 100 staffers gathered on the second floor …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Dylan Byers / Politico: Boring old media

Bloomberg:

News Corp. Sells IGN Websites to J2 Global's Ziff Davis — News Corp. (NWSA) sold its IGN Entertainment websites to J2 Global Inc. (JCOM)'s Ziff Davis for an undisclosed amount. — The transaction will add to J2 Global's 2013 earnings, excluding transition costs, the company said today in a statement.

Discussion: Ziff Davis, The Next Web, The Wrap, VentureBeat, FishbowlNY and Joystiq

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

London gets first dedicated digital terrestrial TV channel as ESTV launches London Live — London is to have its first dedicated digital terrestrial television channel, offering a service to 4 million homes, the broadcasting watchdog Ofcom announced today. — The new London Live channel …

Discussion: pressgazette.co.uk, standard.co.uk, Telegraph, Reuters, Londonist, Journalism.co.uk and Guardian

Kristen Schweizer / Bloomberg:
Billionaire Lebedev Wins License to Start New London TV Station

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Josh Stearns / Groundswell:

Giving to an Idea: Press Freedom and Transparency Journalism — Those in the fundraising world understand that donors want to give to an idea, not an organization. They want to understand how their funding will support values that they hold dear, and work that helps achieve those values.

Discussion: MediaShift Idea Lab and Media Channel

John Paxton / Digital First:

The Subscription Project - Or A Paywall By Any Other Name — Paywall. — Even the name is debated so contentious is this subject in the news industry. — The Pros and Cons of some form of online paid access for newspaper websites have been argued in such extremes that nuance and accuracy have been the first victims of the debate.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:

Ars Technica Ads Get Ahead of the Story — In an analytics-obsessed Web climate, everyone is chasing the big story. The problem is, more often than not, big breakout traffic scoops yield attention, eyeballs and notoriety, but very few dollars. Last month, Deadspin broke the story …