Mediagazer: Civitas Media to Close Suburban Newspapers in Ohio and North Carolina (LaGrange News)

7:10 AM ET, July 19, 2013

Top News:

Kevin Poulsen / Wired:

MIT Moves to Intervene in Release of Aaron Swartz's Secret Service File — Lawyers representing MIT are filing a motion to intervene in my FOIA lawsuit over thousands of pages of Secret Service documents about the late activist and coder Aaron Swartz. — I am the plaintiff in this lawsuit.

Discussion: Business Insider, Softpedia News, @mofame, Yahoo! News, @biellacoleman, Boing Boing, The Verge, @sinabahram, @jcstearns, @quinnnorton, Boston Globe and @emptywheel

Kevin Roose / New York Magazine:

Let Tech Blogs Celebrate Start-Ups — Sarah Lacy, in her TechCrunch days, interviewing Keith Rabois, formerly of Square. — Sarah Lacy is having a rough month. The founder of tech blog PandoDaily and perennial Valleywag target first ignited criticism with inflammatory comments …

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Vivendi Declined SoftBank's Lucrative Offer for Universal — Vivendi, the French media and telecommunications conglomerate, rejected an $8.5 billion cash bid from SoftBank for the Universal Music Group, even though it represented a premium of at least $2 billion more than some analysts' estimates …

Discussion: Financial Times, The Verge, Reuters, Billboard and @pkafka

Max Read / Gawker:

Incredible Photos Capture Last Moments of Boston Bombing Manhunt — In response to the Rolling Stone cover featuring Dzhokhar Tsarnaev's Instagram selfie, Boston magazine has published a number incredible of photos from behind the scenes of the manhunt that captured the accused Boston bomber …

Discussion: @johnwolfson, Boston Magazine, JIMROMENESKO.COM, CNN, WBUR, The Atlantic Wire, @johnwolfson, Softpedia News, @johnwolfson, Daily Mail, NPR, The Huffington Post, New York Magazine, TechCrunch, Mediaite, Poynter, @hunterw, CBS News, The Wrap and Media Nation

Erin Banco / New York Times:

Judge in Manning Case Allows Charge of Aiding the Enemy — The military judge in the trial of Pfc. Bradley Manning decided on Thursday not to drop a charge accusing Private Manning of “aiding the enemy.” If he is found guilty of the charge, he faces a life sentence in military custody with no chance of parole.

Discussion: Guardian, Washington Post, Amnesty International, The Huffington Post, Reuters, Kirk LaPointe's …, NPR and New York Magazine

Emily Bazelon / Slate: Bradley Manning trial and WikiLeaks: The government's charge that he aided the enemy is wrong and dangerous.

Ben Wizner / Freedom of the Press Foundation:
How Today's Ruling in the Bradley Manning Case Could Adversely Affect Journalists and Whistleblowers

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Techdirt

LaGrange News:

Civitas Media to Close Suburban Newspapers in Ohio and North Carolina — DAVIDSON, N.C. - July 17 -, 2013 - Civitas Media, parent company to the LaGrange Daily News, a multi-platform information provider to local communities, announced today that it is closing eight suburban weekly newspapers in the Dayton, Ohio and Raleigh, NC areas.

Discussion: CaryCitizen, Dayton, Ohio … and bizjournals

Sandra Laville / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch admits error in criticism of police investigations — Media mogul writes to MP Keith Vaz to retract ‘incompetence’ remark but says inquiries have taken too long — Read the full text of Murdoch's letter to Vaz — Rupert Murdoch has admitted he was wrong to describe phone-hacking …

Discussion: Variety, Crikey, @chucktodd and Hollywood Reporter

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘New York Post’ gears up for early August web relaunch — Late last month, Robert Thomson, C.E.O. of the new publishing-focused iteration of News Corp., told The Financial Times that the New York Post was working on a plan to compete nationally with large, well-financed digital media brands like Buzzfeed.

Discussion: bizjournals

David Freedlander / The Daily Beast: New York Post Looks Thinner After News Corporation Split

Hollywood Reporter:

'Anchorman's' David Koechner Makes Instagram Movie — The actor created a buddy-cop comedy consisting of eight 15-second segments. — Actors David Koechner and Harland Williams have used Instagram's new video tool to create a buddy-cop movie consisting of eight 15-second segments.

Discussion: Variety and Mashable

Derek Thompson / The Atlantic Online:

How Watching ‘Unbundled’ ESPN and AMC Could Cost More Than Your Whole Cable Bill — One last word (for now) on sports and the cable bundle — ESPN would cost as much as $30 a month if you yanked it out of the cable bundle and made it a standalone service, according to new analysis from Needham Insights.

Discussion: Yahoo! News

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:

Former Fox Exec Mike Darnell Moving to Warner Bros. TV — New position will put him in charge of unscripted programming for the production company behind “American Idol” rival “The Voice” — It looks like Mike Darnell has found a new gig. — Darnell, who until the end of June had served …

Discussion: B&C, Digital Spy, Reuters, Associated Press, Variety and Broadcasting & Cable

Dorothy Pomerantz / Forbes:

Don't Get Too Excited About Those Netflix Emmy Nominations — The fact that Netflix scored 14 nods at this morning's Emmy Awards nominations is the story of the day. Until recently, Netflix was a tech company distributing content that other companies made. Now, suddenly, it's a player in creating that content.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Speakeasy, Home Media Magazine, B&C, New Yorker, Variety, AllThingsD, @atdmedia, /Film, Media & Entertainment, Media Money … and Digits

Zachary M. Seward / Quartz:
Netflix's “House of Cards” gets first major Emmy nominations for online-only show

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:
Netflix Needs To Turn Emmy Nominations Into Subscribers

Discussion: Daily Dot

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

What Will It Take To Make Cheap Over-The-Top TV Viable? — In theory, there are any number of reasons why a person might eschew a cable or satellite subscription and choose to get his television over a broadband connection, ie. over the top. Maybe he has a demanding job that makes it impossible to wait around for the cable guy.

Discussion: Corporate Intelligence

Erik Maza / WWD:

Ad Sales Tick Up for September Issues — THE SEPTEMBER ISSUES: In the first half of the year, total magazine advertising pages fell as a whole, but the big fashion books were an exception to the trend, posting upticks that were decent, if smaller when compared with last year's comparatively blockbuster numbers.

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:
Condé Nast Touts Biggest September in Five Years

Discussion: Folio, Mashable, AdAge, WWD Media Headlines, The Huffington Post and FishbowlNY

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

CBS and Time Warner Cable take distribution feud public — A CBS ad warns some Time Warner Cable subscribers that they may lose access to the network. (CBS) — CBS and Time Warner Cable are taking their business battle public, with each launching ad campaigns critical of the other.

Discussion: New York Times and Reuters