Mediagazer: Baidu Buys PPS Video for $370 Million, Now China's Biggest Video Platform (C. Custer/Tech in Asia)

8:40 AM ET, May 7, 2013

Top News:

Newspapers: A Cautionary Tale For Local TV — The parallels between TV stations today and newspapers in 2005 should be heeded by local TV executives. The trends are equally troubling and there is much they can learn from newspapers' experience and response. Clearly, audience and advertisers are moving to digital platforms.

Discussion: @kenericson and @dskok

C. Custer / Tech in Asia:

Baidu Buys PPS Video for $370 Million, Now China's Biggest Video Platform — Well, the rumors are true. Chinese search company Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) announced today that it has acquired PPS.tv's streaming video service for $370 million. The acquisition bolsters Baidu's video offerings …

Discussion: Quartz, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, TechNode and The Next Web

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Double coverage: How The Boston Globe used its dual sites to cover the marathon bombing — April 15 was always going to be a big day for The Boston Globe. Marathon Day is traditionally one of the busiest for the newspaper, with its staff deployed around the city following the race …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals and Boston Globe

Adrian Chen / Gawker:

Newly Declassified Memo Shows CIA Shaped Zero Dark Thirty's Narrative — Kathryn Bigelow's Osama bin Laden revenge-porn flick Zero Dark Thirty was the biggest publicity coup for the CIA this century outside of the actual killing of Osama bin Laden. But the extent to which the CIA shaped the film has remained unclear.

Discussion: Pressing Issues

Emily Moore / blog.wan-ifra.org:

Press aid in France: online press to pay same low taxes as printed press — The reduced level of VAT that currently benefits the printed press in France thanks to a government aid program is due to be extended to the nation's digital media publications as well, following demands from Spiil …

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

The Huffington Post launches its local Japanese edition — “This year, we want to go from international to truly global,” said Jimmy Maymann, CEO of The Huffington Post, in an interview with TNW a few weeks back. — Indeed, 2013 is shaping up to be a pretty big year for The Huffington Post …

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk, The Huffington Post, Times of India, Hollywood Reporter, The Japan Daily Press and The Huffington Post

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

MSNBC.com Staffs Up — MSNBC.com is staffing up ahead of a major relaunch later this year. The relaunched site will focus on the world of politics and the personalities that populate MSNBC's programming. There will also, however, be plenty of political news and information.

Deirdre Mask / The Atlantic Online:

Why Do NPR Reporters Have Such Great Names? — What makes NPR reporters' names so particularly mellifluous? There's that pleasing alliteration — Allison Aubrey, Louisa Lim, Carl Kassell, Susan Stamberg. And it's hard to match those mouth-filling double-barrelled names.

Dominic Patten / Deadline.com:

‘They Stole It’: Dr. Phil Sues Gawker Over Manti Te'o Hoaxer Video — Dr. Phil claims that Gawker caused his ratings to drop by lifting video from his show and he's going after them for it. The copyright infringement suit is over the TV shrink's interview with the man who says he fooled …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, TMZ.com and Mediaite

Paul Harris / Guardian:

Harper Lee sues agent over copyright to To Kill A Mockingbird — Author claims she was duped into signing over the rights on her prizewinning book — Harper Lee, the reclusive author of To Kill A Mockingbird, has sued a literary agent, claiming that he tricked the ageing writer into assigning him copyright on the classic book.

Discussion: NPR, USA Today, New York Times and bookforum.com

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Monday Q&A: The New York Times' new head of video production on plans for growth — Rebecca Howard occupies a unique position at The New York Times. She came to the paper with experience from the AOL/Huffington Post video department and Fox Digital Studios, where she has worked on both branded and original content.

Discussion: Soup

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Howard Kurtz's Bad Reporting About Jason Collins Cost Him a Lot of Money — Contrary to appearances, Howard Kurtz didn't lose his job at the Daily Beast over his boneheaded reporting about gay basketball star Jason Collins, or over his excessive extracurricular work. What he did lose was money — quite a lot of it.

Discussion: Media News, The Huffington Post and Tampabay.com