Mediagazer: Open interviews and gatekeepers: The media can either open up or sources can go direct (Mathew Ingram/paidContent)

8:15 AM ET, May 9, 2013

Top News:

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Beats Profit Estimates on Higher Licensing Revenue — News Corp. (NWSA), the Rupert Murdoch-led media company that's set to split in two, beat fiscal third-quarter profit estimates on higher licensing fees for television shows such as “American Idol” and “New Girl.”

Discussion: @journalismbuzz, The Huffington Post, Fox Business and Reuters

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: News Corp. earnings report highlights need for coming corporate crack-up

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:
News Corp shareholders renew call for Rupert Murdoch to step down

Discussion: Forbes, Radio & Television …, Media News, Home Media Magazine, Crikey, Broadcasting & Cable and Bloomberg

TechCrunch:

Microsoft Mulling Nook Media LLC Purchase For $1 Billion — Microsoft is offering to pay $1 billion to buy the digital assets of Nook Media LLC, the digital book and college book joint venture with Barnes & Noble and other investors, according to internal documents we've obtained.

Discussion: Engadget, Pocket-lint, ZDNet, Kindle Review, VentureBeat, CNET, The Verge, Gizmodo, GeekWire, Softpedia News and Electronista

Mathew Ingram / paidContent:

Open interviews and gatekeepers: The media can either open up or sources can go direct — Startup founder Chad Whitacre caused a fuss recently when he suggested that a reporter do an “open interview” that would available to everyone — but why is that approach seen as such a threat by the some media outlets?

Discussion: eMedia Vitals, Co.Labs, 10,000 Words and Valleywag

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Dallas Morning News' paywall is getting a makeover to try to capture digital-only readers — If 2012 was the Year of the Paywall for American newspapers, 2013 is turning into the Year of Paywall Tinkering. — Last month, it was The New York Times that announced it planned to diversify …

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

McCain is prepping legislation to overhaul pay-TV business — Sen. John McCain wants to overhaul the TV industry. — The maverick wants to cook the TV industry's golden goose. — Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is preparing to introduce legislation perhaps as early as Thursday …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

ITN reports 61% rise in profits, boosted by the Olympics and US elections — News provider to ITV, Channel 4 and Channel 5 rewards chief executive John Hardie with a £1.2m pay package — Capitol gain ... The US presidential elections helped ITN towards a 61% rise in profits.

Curtis Brainard / Columbia Journalism Review:

A new ‘golden era’? — Nautilus is the latest in a proliferation of science-news sites — Nautilus, a new science magazine whose first issue appeared online April 29, has New York Times reporter Dennis Overbye, one of the beat's veterans, feeling a bit a nostalgic. In a review on Monday, he wrote:

Discussion: bookforum.com

Leslie Kaufman / New York Times:

Hearst Hires Digital Chief To Oversee Web Brands — Hearst Magazines, the publisher of such venerable titles as Esquire and Cosmopolitan, said on Wednesday that it was creating a new position, president of digital media. — The job will go to Troy Young, 45, who will be responsible for content …

New York Times:

A Bid to Thwart Los Angeles Times Sale to Kochs — LOS ANGELES — An effort by two conservative billionaires to take over The Los Angeles Times and seven other newspapers is setting off a firestorm of opposition here. Public employee unions, the leaders of the State Legislature …

Discussion: LA Observed and Chicago Reader

Kaila Stein / American Journalism Review:

A Digital Guy at the Helm — Trif Alatzas, the new executive editor of the Baltimore Sun, is excited about the opportunities for journalism in a transformative era for newspapers. — Kaila Stein (kstein1010@gmail.com) is a student at the Philip Merrill College of Journalism at the University of Maryland.

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Social + mobile = the “dynamite” combo ITV News needed to build reputation and audience — Since ITV News launched its atomized, live, streaming redesign a little over a year ago, they've adhered fairly resolutely to a single maxim: “We'll tell you what we know, when we know it.”

Discussion: bbc.co.uk and National Updates

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Pink slips for a dozen-plus ‘Daily News’ staffers; vets Joanna Molloy and Albor Ruiz among them — The Daily News is now undergoing what employees of the tabloid have been fearing for weeks: Multiple insiders tell Capital that layoffs have hit the newsroom today.

Discussion: Melville House Books, FishbowlNY and New York Magazine

Tom Bill / Reuters:

Murdoch's News International in talks to occupy Shard neighbor — (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's News International is in talks to occupy the whole of an empty office block at the foot of London's Shard, Western Europe's tallest skyscraper, two sources told Reuters.

Discussion: egi.co.uk, Bloomberg, London SE1 community website and Guardian