Mediagazer: Southwest Offers Free In-Flight TV in Partnership With Dish Network (Jack Nicas/Wall Street Journal)

9:00 AM ET, July 4, 2013

Top News:

Nitasha Tiku / Gawker:

Rupert Murdoch Caught on Tape: “We Will Hit Back” — ExaroNews a British investigative web site, has just published the full transcript of a secretly recorded meeting between media mogul Rupert Murdoch and the staff of The Sun, a U.K. tabloid owned by News Corp., in which Murdoch admitted …

Discussion: ExaroNews, Guardian, pressgazette.co.uk, pressgazette.co.uk, Guardian, Columbia Journalism Review, Guardian, Variety, Guardian, Media News, The Independent, @exaronews, Agence France Presse, Associated Press, Deadline.com, @ryanchittum, UK News and Opinion and Firedoglake

Andy Davies / Channel 4:

Revealed: the Rupert Murdoch tape — “Incompetent” cops, regrets over his own investigation, promises to protect Sun journalists: a secret recording reveals Rupert Murdoch's real attitudes to the scandal that has engulfed his empire. — Watch Channel 4 News from 7pm to hear the audio recording

Discussion: Deadline.com, ExaroNews, New York Times, Daily Mail, BBC, Digital Spy, @edgecliffe, Telegraph, Financial Times, New York Magazine, @exaronews, @lisaocarroll, @arusbridger, The Drum, The Huffington Post and @blakehounshell

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Rupert Murdoch Tape: British Politician Urges Police to Question Media Mogul — Parliamentarian Tom Watson wants the News Corp chairman interviewed about “what he did know about criminality in his organization.” — LONDON - British politician Tom Watson has urged police …

Ahram Online:

Islamic TV channels off air, police arrest crews — The Muslim Brotherhood-owned television channel Misr 25 went off air along with several other Islamist-run channels, including the controversial Hafez and Al-Nas, shortly after the military statement announcing the ouster of president Mohamed Morsi.

Discussion: Guardian, @eldahshan, @ajelive, @antderosa, @aymanm and @rt_com

RT:

Al Jazeera, other TV stations forced off air in Egypt — Al Jazeera's Egyptian broadcast has been taken off the air. Both Reuters and Al Jazeera itself reported that security forces raided Cairo offices and detained at least five staff members. — Karim El-Assiuti has told Reuters …

Discussion: Al Jazeera Blogs, Committee to Protect …, @aymanm, @blakehounshell, @rt_com, @ranialmalky, @marquardta, Mediaite, @mlcalderone, @anblanx, Talking Points Memo and Business Insider

Yasmine Saleh / Reuters:
Egyptian army secures state TV studios: sources

Discussion: @msentropy, @shadihamid, @acarvin, @3bdulr, @bgittleson, @haseebmaudoodi, @aliabunimah, @acarvin, Variety, The Independent, The Dawn News, Reuters and @skytwitius

Jim Romenesko:

Patch editor: ‘From what I see on the ground, we are on our last legs’ — I've received a few emails in recent days from Patch people unhappy with Patch 2.0. One was from a former manager who said “I can speak to morale issues, tone deaf management and why the new website could be the final straw …

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Yahoo Acquires Xobni for Upward of $30 Million (Like ATD Said, Part 2) — Yahoo said it has bought Xobni, as AllThingsD had previously reported it was planning to do. — According to numerous sources close to the company, Yahoo paid $30 million to $40 million for the maker of address book apps and plugins.

Discussion: The Smartr & Xobni Blog, Xobni Support, CNET, Business Insider, Guardian, SocialTimes, Los Angeles Times, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, GeekWire, Engadget, App Advice, Softpedia News, Pocket-lint, Mashable, Digits and WebProNews

Jack Nicas / Wall Street Journal:

Southwest Offers Free In-Flight TV in Partnership With Dish Network — Southwest Airlines Co. is offering free live television to fliers' smartphones, tablets and laptops under a partnership unveiled Monday with Dish Network Corp. — The move that marks a departure from other airlines' strategies …

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:

No Quid Pro Quo by You're the Boss Writer, but Intrigue, Anyway — Ed Zitron may not be the savviest public relations person around. When he e-mailed a New York Times business editor, he asked for the strictest anonymity about his complaint: that a writer for the You're the Boss small-business blog …

Discussion: @sulliview and Talking Biz News

GlobalPost:

Postmedia Q3 loss surges to $112.2 million on impairment charge, lower revenues — TORONTO - Postmedia Network Canada Corp. says it lost $112.2 million in its latest quarter on a $93.9-million impairment charge and a drop in revenue. — The media company, which owns several newspapers including …

Discussion: The Province and Globe and Mail

Eric Deggans / Poynter:

Snowden's leaks force media self-examination — Besides forcing government and national-security institutions to face the public about their spying efforts, Edward Snowden's decision to release information on America's massive public surveillance efforts has thrown another system into a flurry of self-examination:

Discussion: Mediashift, Erik Wemple, Kirk LaPointe's … and Adweek

Helienne Lindvall / Guardian:

Pre-release music: will a ‘promo service’ help stop leaks? — Promo Hutt allows fans to subscribe to their favourite labels and receive access to new tracks up to six weeks upfront — A multitude of artists have vented their frustration over pre-release leaks of their music.

Richard Horgan / FishbowlNY:

Meet Reddit's New Director of Communications — Internet company PR jobs don't get much better than this. In the sense that alongside Yahoo and a few other very select sites, reddit can be counted on for gargantuan, self-generated publicity momentum. — Victoria Taylor is reddit's very first director of communications.

Discussion: SocialTimes