Mediagazer: Apple ITunes Store Sells 25 Billion Song Downloads Over Decade (Reed Stevenson/Bloomberg)

12:50 PM ET, February 6, 2013

Top News:

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Time Inc. Layoffs Will Cost $60 Million — Time Inc.'s move to lay off about 6 percent of its workforce will cost the company at least $60 million in restructuring charges this year. — Time Inc. corporate parent, Time Warner, disclosed the number as part of its guidance for its 2013 financials.

Discussion: Folio, MinOnline, @keachhagey and @mtoney

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Time Warner Reports Higher Fourth-Quarter Earnings, Raises Dividend

Discussion: Reuters, @pkafka, Deadline.com, Bloomberg and International Business Times

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Newspapers, magazines will have ‘not-great’ choices as USPS plans to end Saturday delivery — The U.S. Postal Service intends to cut first-class delivery on Saturdays, CBS reported Wednesday. “That means most mailers, letters and catalogs would not arrive on Saturdays,” CBS' report reads.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, New York Times, Federal Eye, CBS News, USPS.com® - About, AllThingsD, Politico, VentureBeat, AdAge, Mediaite, Gawker, The Rural Blog, @jcstearns, Mashable!, Associated Press, Softpedia News and The Newspaper Guild

Bloomberg:

Google Said in Talks to Invest $50 Million in Vevo Site — Google Inc.'s YouTube is negotiating a $50 million equity investment in music video service Vevo LLC, according to two people with knowledge of the situation. — Google would own less than 10 percent of the company …

Discussion: CNET, Silicon Valley Business …, Business Insider and FierceOnlineVideo News

Andy Fixmer / Bloomberg:

Katzenberg Says Mobile Viewers Will Pay by ‘Inch’ — Hollywood studios will eventually charge less for entertainment streamed to small devices, basing prices on screen size, DreamWorks Animation SKG Inc. (DWA) Chief Executive Officer Jeffrey Katzenberg predicted.

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, @bill_gross, @alexpham and CNET

Jemima Khan / New Statesman:

The inside story of how Julian Assange alienated his allies — I passed through Los Angeles recently on my way to the Sundance Film Festival. I don't know the place well, but it always feels to me as if it is in limbo and has never grown into a proper city: a municipal playground, populated by restless kidults.

Discussion: @aljwhite

John Biggs / TechCrunch:

Automattic Pulls A Customer's Posts After Plagiarist Claims Copyright Infringement [Update] — A blog called RetractionWatch has been hit by a DMCA copyright notice from an Indian website with a tendency to plagiarize, which claims ten posts about a disgraced doctor - all of them copied …

Discussion: Ars Technica, Retraction Watch and Popehat

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Wall Street Journal Reporters Urged To Write More Short Articles, ‘Fun Brites’ — Rupert Murdoch has always been fond of shorter articles in newspapers — something Journal staffers accustomed to writing deep, investigative stories worried about when he bought the paper in 2007.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon wins broad patent to create marketplace for used digital content — Amazon has won a patent for an “electronic marketplace” where users can resell digital content. The company had filed for the patent in 2009 and it was awarded on January 29, 2013. — GeekWire first reported the news.

Discussion: CNET, Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, ZDNet and Pocket-lint

Bluefin Labs:

Bluefin Labs Joins Twitter: Getting to the Future of Social TV Faster — It's a big day for social television and for us at Bluefin Labs - we're announcing today that we're joining Twitter! — We've had an incredible time pioneering the field of social TV analytics over the last few years.

Discussion: Lost Remote, VentureBeat, Twitter Blog, Media Decoder, AllThingsD, Marketing Pilgrim, TechCrunch, Forbes, Marketing Land, Business Insider, BostInno, Redpoint Ventures, @mathewi, CNET, Mashable!, Softpedia News and GigaOM

Caleb Garling / The Technology Chronicles:
Twitter buys digital bridge to television

Discussion: Bloomberg, Engadget and The Wrap

Guardian:

Disney considers ESPN exit from British TV sports coverage — Disney's Jay Rasulo says ESPN had ‘experienced losses’ and was ‘exploring an exit’ after losing out on big broadcast deals — Disney is “exploring an exit” from the UK TV sport market after ESPN lost several big broadcast deals including live Premier League football.

Discussion: Financial Times, International Business Times and Digital Spy

Brooks Barnes / Media Decoder:
Profit Slides 6% at Disney as Movie and TV Divisions Lag

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, /Film, CNET, The Wrap, Speakeasy and Softpedia News

Reed Stevenson / Bloomberg:

Apple ITunes Store Sells 25 Billion Song Downloads Over Decade — Apple Inc. said 25 billion songs have been downloaded from its iTunes digital music store. — ITunes Store now offers more than over 26 million songs for down load in 119 countries, Apple said in a statement today.

Discussion: Apple and VentureBeat

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

News International rushes to settle phone-hacking claims ahead of hearing — Publisher of now-defunct News of the World attempts to close down scandal before court hearing as new claims are launched — Rupert Murdoch's News International is making a concerted effort to close down the News …

Agustino Fontevecchia / Forbes:

Liberty Global To Buy Virgin Media For $23B As Billionaire John Malone Challenges Murdoch — Liberty Global announced late Tuesday that it had reached an agreement to acquire Virgin Media of the U.K. for an enterprise value of $23.3 billion. The deal pits billionaire John Malone against Rupert Murdoch …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Bloomberg, Radio & Television …, Financial Times, BBC, Business Wire, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Sky News, TechCrunch, Media Week, Guardian, Broadcasting & Cable, DealBook and Telegraph

ABC News:

Guardian Australia funder says site will usher in era of open journalism — Broadcast: — The entrepreneur behind two of Australia's newest media ventures—the fledgling Global Mail and soon to be launched Guardian Australia website—has called for the development of ‘open journalism’ in a rare interview with RN Breakfast.

Discussion: TheAustralian and Guardian