Mediagazer: Big names among Independent leavers (Roy Greenslade/Guardian)

8:20 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, @mofame, Yahoo! News, @biellacoleman, Boing Boing, The Verge, @jcstearns, Boston Globe, @emptywheel, @quinnnorton, @sinabahram and Softpedia News

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Big names among Independent leavers — Several of The Independent's best-known journalists are among those due to leave the paper following the paper's decision 10 days ago to make 27 staff redundant. — It appears to be a cull of the older, well-paid veterans.

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 …

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Guardian chief exec Miller rejects metered paywall model and says no more redundancies planned — Uniquely among UK national newspaper publishers, Guardian News and Media has avoided compulsory redundancies. — And speaking in the wake of annual results which revealed a sharp reduction in losses …

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

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, bizjournals and Dayton, Ohio …

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

Joanna Zelman / The Huffington Post:

Officer Who Released Boston Bomber Photos ‘Relieved Of Duty’ — The Massachusetts State Police officer who released photos of Boston bombing suspect Dzhokhar Tsarnaev has reportedly been relieved of duty, but not been fired. — Boston Magazine editor John Wolfson tweeted that tactical photographer …

Discussion: CNN, Gawker, Boston Globe, WBUR, lalate news and Boston Magazine

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

Jasper Jackson / The Media Briefing:

Future's profit slowdown highlights difficulties of digital publishing transition — Digital edition sales are up, digital advertising is up, but it's still not enough for Future to meet its profit targets. The magazine publisher has revealed it expects EBITDA to be £8 million this year …

Discussion: Guardian

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.

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

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.