Mediagazer: Liberty Media Will Pay $2.62 Billion for 27% Stake in Charter (Alex Sherman/Bloomberg)

10:50 AM ET, March 19, 2013

Top News:

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BBC Worldwide criticised for sale of Lonely Planet at ‘significant loss’ — Travel guides sale to US billionaire Brad Kelley for £80m less than originally paid was not good business, says BBC Trust — BBC Worldwide has been criticised by the corporation's governing body for incurring a …

Discussion: Media Week, Deadline.com and Bookseller news

Georgia Wilkins / Sydney Morning Herald:
Lonely Planet sold to US firm for $75m

Discussion: bbc.co.uk and Bookseller + Publisher's …

BBC:

Press regulation: Papers seek legal advice — Papers are currently self-regulated voluntarily through the Press Complaints Commission — A number of national newspapers are taking “high-level legal advice” about whether to co-operate with a new press watchdog established by royal charter and backed by legislation.

Discussion: The Sun, Telegraph, The Independent, Hollywood Reporter, Daily Mail and Guardian

Press Gazette:
Statutory press regulation regime is passed by Parliament

Discussion: pressgazette.co.uk and Guardian

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Bloggers may face libel fines under press regulation deal

Discussion: Big News Network.com, UK News and Opinion and Boing Boing

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

ABC Works on an App for Streaming Shows to Mobile Devices — THE WALT DISNEY Company, while sorting out the future of the online video Web site Hulu, has an app in the works that may render Hulu passé for some people. — The app will live stream ABC programming to the phones …

Discussion: Media Decoder, Engadget, Gizmodo, AppNewser, World Internet TV on PC, CNET and The Verge

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

NewsCred gets new $15M investment, adds New York Times as a partner — NewsCred has become a quiet force in media by offering brands and publishers an easy way to acquire high quality news content from brands like Bloomberg and Economist. In a further sign of its growing influence …

Discussion: TechCrunch, Media & Entertainment, Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, The Next Web and Business Insider

Mike Shields / Adweek:

Meet the Most Suspect Publishers on the Web — If you spend enough time in the murky world of ad exchanges, ad tech middlemen and real-time bidding software, you might come away wondering why any major brand even bothers with online advertising. — Not only are banners dull and click-through rates low …

Discussion: Guardian

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Massive bot network is draining $6 million a month from online ad industry, says report — A London analytics firm says it has identified a bot network that is tricking marketers into showing billions of ads every month to phantom visitors. The botnet reportedly relies …

Discussion: Wired.co.uk

Freya Petersen / GlobalPost:

Family of WSJ journalist Daniel Pearl, beheaded in Pakistan, welcomes arrest of suspect — What do you think? — The family of slain Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl has welcomed the arrest in Pakistan of man allegedly involved in his brutal 2002 beheading.

Discussion: ABCNEWS, Washington Times, LA Observed and The Huffington Post

Nasir Habib / CNN:
Pakistan arrests man in Daniel Pearl's slaying

Discussion: New York Times, UPI, New York Post, CBS News, Jewish Press, Bloomberg, Daily Mail, Encino-Tarzana, CA Patch, National Turk News, DAWN.COM, ABC News and Committee to Protect …

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

The Washington Post to charge frequent users of its Web site — This summer, The Washington Post will start charging frequent users of its Web site, asking those who look at more than 20 articles or multimedia features a month to pay a fee, although the company has not yet decided how much it will charge.

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

This Is the Scariest Statistic About the Newspaper Business Today — Here it is: In 2012, newspapers lost $16 in print ads for every $1 earned in digital ads. And it's getting worse, according to a new report by Pew. In 2011, the ratio was just 10-to-1.

Discussion: The Week, Slate, Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media, LA Observed, Globe and Mail and Chickaboomer

Erik Wemple:
On cable TV, talk is cheap — and profitable

Discussion: About.com Journalism, Hot Air, The Huffington Post, TVNewser, Tampabay.com, Associated Press and Poynter

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon Publishing promises authors faster royalty payments — Amazon Publishing said in a letter to literary agents Monday that it will start paying its authors royalties on a monthly basis, up from every three months. — “In this digital age, we don't see why authors should have to wait six months …

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Iraq Media Failure Can Happen Again — NEW YORK — Since “Mission Accomplished” proved to be anything but, the media has done plenty of hand-wringing and soul-searching over the run-up to the Iraq War. — Major news organizations have retracted or re-examined pre-war stories, while “liberal hawks” churned out mea culpas.

Discussion: Salon, TVNewser, Poynter and New Republic

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

How Much for a How-to Lesson? Demand Media Gets Into Paid Content by Buying CreativeBug. — The Internet is swimming in how-to-guides and videos, and a lot of them are produced by Demand Media. You can see all of those for free. — But if you want to take a lesson on crocheting …

Discussion: The Next Web

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Liberty Media Will Pay $2.62 Billion for 27% Stake in Charter — John Malone's Liberty Media Corp. (LMCA) agreed to buy about 27 percent of Charter Communications Inc. (CHTR) from its private-equity investors for about $2.62 billion. — Liberty will pay $95.50 apiece for about 26.9 million shares …

Discussion: The Wrap, bizjournals, Associated Press, Agence France Presse, Dow Jones Newswires, Reuters, Digital TV Europe, FierceCable, Fox Business, DealBook, Deal Journal, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

Streaming Internet Service Runs Out of Legal Moves — Ivi, a pay TV service that was streaming over-the-air TV signals on the Internet without permission, has finally reached the end of the road in court. — The Supreme Court on Monday denied the company's petition for certiorari and refused …

Discussion: New York Times, NetNewsCheck Latest and GeekWire

Roque Planas / The Huffington Post:

‘Generation Y’ Blogger Plots Unprecedented Project In Communist Cuba — Communist Cuba may soon see a non-government newspaper produced on the island. — Cuban blogger Yoani Sánchez said she plans to launch an independent digital newspaper this year, and may follow with a paper edition …

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

End of an era for Daily Variety — Lots of Hollywood honchos need to change their reading habits: The Tuesday edition is Daily Variety's last. Instead, the industry news source is focusing on its website and weekly magazine. — Daily Variety has been a print publication for almost 80 years.

Wired:

The New Rules of the Hyper-Social, Data-Driven, Actor-Friendly, Super-Seductive Platinum Age of Television — From Game of Thrones to the new Arrested Development, television is better than ever. And it's not just a lucky accident. Turns out that networks and advertisers are using all-new metrics to design hit shows.

Discussion: Gizmodo

Raphael Minder / New York Times:

Spanish Magazine Publisher Bets Against the Crisis — MADRID — Andrés Rodríguez, the publisher and founder of SpainMedia, has the most at stake in the debut this month of a Spanish-language edition of Forbes, the U.S. business magazine, in crisis-hit Spain.

Discussion: Garcia Media and Media Decoder