Mediagazer: How Watching ‘Unbundled’ ESPN and AMC Could Cost More Than Your Whole Cable Bill (Derek Thompson/The Atlantic Online)

1:10 AM ET, July 19, 2013

Top News:

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: Crikey, The Wrap, Variety, Hollywood Reporter, @chucktodd and The Independent

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

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 …

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, Boing Boing, Yahoo! News, Boston Globe, @biellacoleman, @mofame, The Verge, @sinabahram, @jcstearns, @quinnnorton and @emptywheel

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

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

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

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: Boston Magazine, JIMROMENESKO.COM, @johnwolfson, Poynter, CNN, NPR, Yahoo! News, The Wrap, New York Magazine, WBUR, Mediaite, BAGnewsNotes, TechCrunch, Hit & Run, Media Nation, @johnwolfson, @johnwolfson, CBS News, The Wrap and @hunterw

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Condé Nast Touts Biggest September in Five Years — Fashion bible Vogue seems to be the winner in the September ad page race so far. — The Condé Nast book weighed in last year at 658 ad pages; this year, publisher Susan Plagemann added 1 percentage point for a total of 665 total ad pages.

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

Erik Maza / WWD: Ad Sales Tick Up for September Issues

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: B&C, Speakeasy, TechCrunch, Home Media Magazine, AllThingsD, @atdmedia, Variety, New Yorker, /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

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

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, Associated Press, Digital Spy, Reuters, Variety and Broadcasting & Cable

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, Policy Blog and TechSpot

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

Carrie Johnson / NPR:

Justice's Rules Mean Reporter Need Not Testify, Lawyer Says — A lawyer for New York Times reporter James Risen is citing new Justice Department guidelines about when to subpoena journalists to support his argument that Risen is covered by a common-law reporter's privilege and need not testify …

Discussion: emptywheel

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: bizjournals, CaryCitizen and Dayton, Ohio …

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

John Cook / Gawker:

Here's Where Your Crackstarter Money Is Going — As you may recall, roughly six weeks ago we succeeded in raising $200,000 from readers in an effort to purchase and publish a video of Toronto mayor Rob Ford smoking crack cocaine. I'm disappointed to announce definitively that the money …

Discussion: Guardian

Steve Jordon / Omaha World-Herald:

Warren Buffett's newspaper company to buy Atlantic City paper — Warren Buffett's newspaper company said Thursday it plans to acquire the Press of Atlantic City, N.J., for an undisclosed price. The Press is owned by Abarta, a private holding company in Pittsburgh that is owned by the Bitzer and Taylor families.

Discussion: Poynter and JIMROMENESKO.COM

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Aereo's Kanojia: On Track for 22 Markets by Fall — In C-SPAN interview, calls service criticism ‘irrational saber rattling from people not interested in innovation’ — Fresh off its latest court victory, which its founder says validates the service, Aereo is on track to be in 22 markets by fall.

Discussion: Variety