Mediagazer: Political ad windfall drives local TV consolidation (Sasha Chavkin/Columbia Journalism Review)

3:30 PM ET, May 15, 2013

Top News:

Mark Memmott / NPR:

Holder Isn't Sure How Often Reporters' Records Are Seized … As his Justice Department faces bipartisan outrage for searching phone records of Associated Press reporters and editors, Attorney Gen. Eric Holder says he is not sure how many times such information has been seized by government investigators …

Discussion: Free Press, Mediashift, The Huffington Post, Post Politics, The Daily Caller and Foreign Policy

Erik Wemple:

AP subpoena: Journo says he lost sources in 2001 case — In denouncing the secret subpoena of its phone records by the Justice Department, the Associated Press talked, in part, about its journalistic lifeblood: “These records potentially reveal communications with confidential sources across …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable and Poynter

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:
Leak Investigations Are an Assault on the Press, and on Democracy, Too

Discussion: Capital New York, The Wrap, Politico, Guardian, New York Magazine and Mother Jones

New York Times:
Holder Defends Justice Department in Journalists' Records Seizure

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Washington Post:
Damage to press freedom likely outweighs national security gain

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

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

Discussion: law.cornell.edu, Poynter, Media Matters Action Network, The Daily Caller, emptywheel, Rolling Stone, @ggreenwald and New Yorker

Associated Press:

Senate Dem revives media shield law — WASHINGTON — A top Senate Democrat plans to revive legislation that would protect journalists and their employers from revealing their sources, days after it was revealed that the Justice Department secretly obtained Associated Press phone records.

Discussion: The Atlantic Wire and Associated Press

Charlie Savage / New York Times:

Under Fire, White House Pushes to Revive ‘Media Shield’ Bill — WASHINGTON — The Obama administration sought on Wednesday to revive legislation that would provide greater protections to reporters from penalties for refusing to identify confidential sources, and that would enable journalists …

Discussion: Capital New York, msnbc.com, ThinkProgress, Mother Jones, @trevortimm, The New Republic and @dankennedy_nu

New York Times:

U.S. Now Paints Apple as ‘Ringmaster’ in Its Lawsuit on E-Book Price-Fixing — WASHINGTON — The e-mail, from Steve Jobs of Apple to James Murdoch of News Corporation, reads as if one old sport were trying to cajole another into joining a caper: “Throw in with Apple and see if we can all …

Discussion: VentureBeat, Hillicon Valley, Consumerist, TUAW, Business Insider, Kindle Review and NPR

Diane Bartz / Reuters:
Apple tells U.S. of tough talks, not collusion, with publishers

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

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

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, New Yorker, Poynter, Folio, The New Yorker Blog, paidContent, Runnin' Scared, The Verge, deaddrop.github.io, Foreign Policy, Kirk LaPointe's … and Boing Boing

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.

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: TeleRead, Nieman Journalism Lab and paidContent

Michael Sebastian / AdAge:

Newsweek.com Redesign Aims to Be ‘Snow Fall’ on a Weekly Basis — Metered Pay Wall Planned for New Browser-Based Experience — A team comprised of Newsweek staffers and employees of the design firm Huge were two months into the redesign of Newsweek.com — which will roll out today in beta …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab

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 …

Sasha Chavkin / Columbia Journalism Review:

Political ad windfall drives local TV consolidation — As a trend accelerates, industry and activists disagree about the consequences — As campaign ads saturated the airwaves during the 2012 campaign, and piles of campaign cash buoyed stations' balance sheets, media watchers wondered …