Mediagazer: Don't Look Now But AOL Sold Off Its Industry News Sites (Jeff Bercovici/Forbes)

10:50 AM ET, May 15, 2013

Top News:

Holder Defends Justice Department in Journalists' Records Seizure — WASHINGTON — Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. on Tuesday defended the Justice Department's sweeping seizure of telephone records of Associated Press journalists, describing the article by The A.P. that prompted …

Discussion: NPR, FishbowlNY, TVWeek.com, msnbc.com, Erik Wemple, The Volokh Conspiracy, Politico, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, The New York Observer, Media Nation, Daily Mail and The Huffington Post

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

Leak Investigations Are an Assault on the Press, and on Democracy, Too — This was supposed to be the administration of unprecedented transparency. President Obama promised that when he took office, and the White House's Web site says so on this very day. It reads:

Discussion: Capital New York, The Huffington Post, Free Press and Free Press Blog

Washington Post:

Damage to press freedom likely outweighs national security gain — WHEN THE Justice Department launched its investigation of alleged leaks of national security information by the Obama administration a year ago, we were skeptical. The history of such probes is mainly a tale of dead ends and unintended negative consequences.

Discussion: New York Times, Reuters, Newsday, FOX News Radio, The Huffington Post, TheBlaze.com and FishbowlNY

Timothy Lee / Washington Post:
In AP surveillance case, the real scandal is what's legal

Discussion: law.cornell.edu, Poynter, Hit & Run, Media Matters Action Network, New Yorker, Naked Security, Mediashift and @ggreenwald

Erik Wemple:
AP subpoena: Journo says he lost sources in 2001 case

Discussion: Poynter

Diane Bartz / Reuters:

Apple tells U.S. of tough talks, not collusion, with publishers — (Reuters) - Apple Inc responded to Justice Department accusations it conspired with publishers to push up electronic book prices, saying it negotiated with a number of publishing companies separately and crafted different agreements with each.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Washington Post, iLounge, 9to5Mac, App Advice, AppleInsider and CNET

New York Times:
U.S. Now Paints Apple as ‘Ringmaster’ in Its Lawsuit on E-Book Price-Fixing

Discussion: Business Insider, TUAW, Kindle Review and NPR

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of where NewsRight went wrong — Quietly, very quietly, NewsRight — once touted as the American newspaper industry's bid to protect its content and make more money from it — has closed its doors. — Yesterday, it conducted a concluding board meeting, aimed at tying up loose ends.

Discussion: @niemanlab

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Don't Look Now But AOL Sold Off Its Industry News Sites — Ever since they joined forces two years ago, Tim Armstrong and Arianna Huffington have been under the microscope, their every move dissected and critiqued. So it's impressive, in a way, that they were able to unwind one of their misadventures without attracting any notice.

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

The New Yorker Launches Strongbox, an Open-Source Anonymous Tip Tool Built by Aaron Swartz — Technology gives journalists unprecedented power to track down information. And technology gives lots of other people the ability to follow journalists' footprints. Just ask the Associated Press.

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog, The New Yorker Blog and New Yorker

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

E-Book Sales a Boon to Publishers in 2012 — E-book sales, especially in the thriving romance genre, gave the book business a lift in 2012, according to a survey of publishers released Wednesday. — In a year that was monopolized by the “Fifty Shades” erotic novels and their various knockoffs …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and paidContent

Greg Sandoval / The Verge:

Exclusive: Google readies its Spotify competitor with Universal and Sony now on board — By signing the three largest record labels, it's likely we'll see Google roll out its new subscription music services at I /O — Odds are increasing that Google will give us a peek tomorrow during …

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

PaidContent Founder Rafat Ali Raises Another $1.1M For Skift, His Site For Travel News And Data — Skift, the travel industry-focused site that was launched in July 2012 by PaidContent founder Rafat Ali and Jason Clampet (who ran previously content and editorial partnerships at Frommers.com) …

Discussion: Folio, VentureBeat, AllThingsD and The Next Web

Tania Branigan / Guardian:

China tries to rein in microbloggers — Authorities show determination to control burgeoning culture of social media by closing accounts of writers and intellectuals — China has launched a new drive to tame its boisterous microblogging culture by closing influential accounts belonging …

David Carr / New York Times:

The Two-Way Street That Is Snooping and the News Media — Word on Monday that the Justice Department had obtained the records of more than 20 phone lines at The Associated Press sent the Fourth Estate into a frenzy. Big Government, Big Data, Big Brother, all the golems of an increasing surveillance-driven age were invoked.