Mediagazer: Sony Blames Box-Office Trouble for Its Quarterly Loss (Eric Pfanner/New York Times)

8:45 AM ET, October 31, 2013

Top News:

Patrick Wintour / Guardian:

New press regulation system ‘entirely voluntary’, says Nick Clegg — Deputy PM dismisses claims of end to press freedom as ‘wild hyperbole’, saying no media outlet will be required to sign up — Newspapers will not be required to enter into the new system of press regulation agreed by the privy council ,Nick Clegg has said.

BBC:
Press regulation: Privy Council grants royal charter

Discussion: Telegraph, @patrickwintour, The Huffington Post, UK - The Huffington Post, Sky News, Press Gazette, Guardian, Hacked Off, @bbcnews and Big News Network.com

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
Newspapers' bid for injunction against press regulation royal charter fails

Discussion: @marksweney, Telegraph, Telegraph and Kirk LaPointe's …

New York Times Company:

The New York Times Company Reports 2013 Third-Quarter Results — NEW YORK—(BUSINESS WIRE)— The New York Times Company (NYSE:NYT) announced an operating profit of $12.9 million in the third quarter of 2013 compared with $8.9 million in the same period of 2012.

Matt Buchanan / New Yorker:

Waiting for the Next Great Technology Critic — For well over a decade, the two most influential voices about consumer technology have been a sixty-six-year-old man who lives just outside of Washington, D.C. and a fifty-year-old man who resides in Westport, Connecticut.

Discussion: @stewartmader, @fmanjoo, @laurengoode, @fmanjoo, @jasonkincaid and @samfbiddle

Press Gazette:

News of the World hacked rival journalists as part of the ‘dog eat dog’ world of journalism — Glenn Mulcaire hacked the phones of rival journalists as a “nice easy and cheap” way of “scooping” the opposition, the phone hacking trial heard today. — Andrew Edis QC for the prosecution …

Reuters:
Three ex-Murdoch journalists plead guilty to phone hacking

Discussion: Reuters, Variety, Press Association, Guardian, Gawker, ProPublica, Associated Press, Trust.org, Globe and Mail, BBC, Big News Network.com and Politico

Jim Romenesko:

‘Change is hard’: Consumer Reports restructures to survive in the digital era — Consumer Reports and Consumers Union, the policy and action division of the magazine, showed a hefty profit of $21,414,103 for the fiscal year ending May 31, 2008. The next two years were profitable, too …

Discussion: Gigaom and @1bobcohn

Erik Wemple:

Just who is meddling with the Philadelphia Inquirer? — George E. Norcross III, part owner of the Philadelphia Inquirer, likes data. He is a prominent insurance executive and a massive force in New Jersey Democratic politics, not to mention the chairman of the board of trustees …

Dave Davies / NewsWorks:
Katz rejects buyout offer, open to outside management of Inquirer

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

FT teams up with Japan's Nikkei — The Financial Times is forging close links with Japan's leading business media group, Nikkei, according to a memo on its website by the FT's editor, Lionel Barber. — He writes that the pink paper's latest Japan Special Report marks the start …

Discussion: Financial Times

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
Digital subscriptions up 24% at Financial Times

Discussion: AdExchanger, Pearson and Guardian

Umberto Bacchi / International Business Times:

Saudi Journalist Tariq al-Mubarak Arrested over Support for Women Drive Ban Protest — About 60 women in Saudi Arabia openly flouted the law by driving through the streets (Reuters) — Human rights activists have urged Saudi authorities to release a local journalist who was arrested …

Discussion: FP Passport, BuzzFeed and Associated Press

Scott Roxborough / Hollywood Reporter:

German Court Bans Internet ‘Throttling’ by Deutsche Telekom — Telekom's move to restrict broadband speeds would have made it nearly impossible for customers to use a VOD or IPTV platform other than its own Entertain service. — COLOGNE, Germany - A German court has ruled …

Discussion: Bloomberg, ZDNet and Engadget

Caroline O'Donovan / Nieman Journalism Lab:

“We're still babies at it”: BuzzFeed Video's strategy relies on identity, emotion, and sharing content as communication — A year ago, Ze Frank — Internet “virologist,” creator of the beloved the show with zefrank, and online video pioneer — was tapped to head BuzzFeed's video department …

Discussion: @peretti, @niemanlab and @dskok

Liana B. Baker / Reuters:

Comcast could license tech to other U.S. cable operators: executive — (Reuters) - A top Comcast Corp executive said on Wednesday that the company is in talks to license its latest technology, called X1, to other cable operators, which would help the industry better compete with telecom and satellite rivals.

Discussion: FierceCable

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:
Comcast downplays Netflix talks, still adding broadband subscribers

Discussion: Capital New York

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:

Sony Blames Box-Office Trouble for Its Quarterly Loss — TOKYO — After showing signs of a financial turnaround in the spring, Sony said Thursday that it had swung back to a loss in the summer quarter, with strong sales of smartphones not enough to overcome a dismal performance by the company's Hollywood arm.

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and Variety

Steven Lee Myers / Lens:

In Russia, Conflating Journalism and ‘Hooliganism’ — MOSCOW — “It was just a usual business trip for him,” Alina Zhiganova said, describing how her husband, the photographer Denis Sinyakov, set out in September to document Greenpeace International's voyage to protest oil exploration in the fragile environment of the Arctic Ocean.