Mediagazer: Canada's Quebecor Halves Profit as Newspaper Losses Mount (Etan Vlessing/Hollywood Reporter)

8:40 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: The Huffington Post, @journalismbuzz, Fox Business and Reuters

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

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, ZDNet, Kindle Review, VentureBeat, CNET, The Verge, Gizmodo, GeekWire, Pocket-lint, 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

Etan Vlessing / Hollywood Reporter:

Canada's Quebecor Halves Profit as Newspaper Losses Mount — Revenues also fall in the Quebec media giant's broadcast and entertainment divisions. — TORONTO - Quebecor's once-mighty tabloid newspapers are bleeding red ink. — The Quebec media giant on Wednesday posted first-quarter earnings …

Discussion: Macleans.ca and Globe and Mail

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 …

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

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.

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 …

Discussion: Media Week and The New York Observer

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

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