Mediagazer: Fake Twitter Followers Becomes Multimillion-Dollar Business (Nicole Perlroth/NYT Bits)

2:05 PM ET, April 6, 2013

Top News:

Nicole Perlroth / NYT Bits:

Fake Twitter Followers Becomes Multimillion-Dollar Business — Far from slowing, the market for fake Twitter followers seems to be taking off. — The fake Twitter follower phenomenon made headlines last summer after Mitt Romney's Twitter following jumped by 100,000 in a matter of days.

Discussion: @martinsfp and Business Insider

Reuters:

Exclusive: Former News Corp President Chernin bids $500 million for Hulu — (Reuters) - Former News Corp president Peter Chernin bid around $500 million for Hulu, the online video streaming service he helped create in 2007, according to two sources with knowledge of Hulu's sale process.

Discussion: Radio & Television …, AllThingsD, AllThingsD, Electronista, VentureBeat, Home Media Magazine, SlashGear, CNET, Variety, The Verge, Deadline.com, Engadget and Broadcasting & Cable

Wikimedia France:

French homeland intelligence threatens a volunteer sysop to delete a Wikipedia Article — Wikimedia France strongly condemns pressure on Wikipedia sysop by French homeland intelligence agency (DCRI) — In early March, the DCRI (Direction Centrale du Renseignement Intérieur) …

Discussion: Geekosystem

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

CNN Looking To Revive ‘Crossfire’ — CNN is looking to bring back “Crossfire,” TVNewser hears. The long-running political debate show was canceled in 2005. — It isn't entirely clear what time the program would air, though we hear it would likely be a 30-minute format.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Meet Penguin Random House, The World's Largest Book Publisher That Will Counter Amazon — After the U.S. cleared the deal, the European Commission has officially approved the proposed merger between two of the biggest book publishers in the world, Random House and Penguin.

Joshua Farrington / The Bookseller:
Penguin Random House merger cleared in Europe

Discussion: EU Press Room, paidContent, Guardian, The Next Web, BBC, Bloomberg and Reuters

Jeremy Greenfield / Digital Book World:

Indie Bookstore Sales of Kobo Ebooks Dwarf Google; Still Small — The Harvard Book Store in Cambridge, Mass. has sold about 80 e-readers, three tablets and few hundred ebooks with Kobo so far. — Just six months after forging a partnership with the American Booksellers Association (ABA) …

Discussion: Forbes

Associated Press:

Journal Register Sale Complete — NEW YORK (AP) — The sale of Journal Register, which owns newspapers in 10 states, to 21st CMH Acquisition Co., has been finalized, the company said Friday. — The sale stems from a bankruptcy auction that included 21st CMH as its only bidder.

Erik Maza / WWD:

Cuts at the New York Observer — OBSERVER CUTS: The New York Observer laid off 11 people from the business side of its overall media group on Friday, it said, as part of a reorganization of its sales team. — They are the most significant cuts at the weekly since June 2009 …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Kelvin MacKenzie dropped from the Telegraph — Speculation that a Hillsborough backlash caused the Telegraph to drop Kelvin MacKenzie after his first online column — The Daily Telegraph has dropped Kelvin MacKenzie after only his first online column for the newspaper.

Discussion: The Drum

Nick Summers / The Next Web:

Circa updates its iOS app with a faster interface and greater focus on following news stories — News consumption service Circa has been updated its iOS app to version 1.3 today, making it easier to follow multiple stories from across the Web and access them from the main homescreen.

Rebecca Greenfield / The Atlantic Wire:

Who's Afraid of Michael Arrington? — The reason the press has stayed mostly silent in the wake of sexual assault allegations connected to Silicon Valley big-wig Michael is not because, as several have suggested, the tech world is scared of the TechCrunch founder.

Discussion: Gawker, Betabeat and TechCrunch