Mediagazer: Tribune Co. publishing spinoff may include $325 million dividend (Robert Channick/Chicago Tribune)

11:40 AM ET, February 20, 2014

Top News:

Rebekah Brooks acquitted of one charge of misconduct in phone hacking trial — Former News of the World editor Rebekah Brooks has been formally found not guilty of one charge of misconduct in a public office but she remains on trial for four further counts.

BBC:
Phone-hacking trial: Brooks denies knowledge while NoW boss

Discussion: Press Association and @bbcbreaking

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Rebekah Brooks: NoW spent up to £250,000 on Divine Brown story

Discussion: Press Association, @kamintone and ITV

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Rebekah Brooks not on trial for having worked for Rupert Murdoch, court told

Discussion: Deadline.com and New York Times

Ahram Online:

Trial of Al Jazeera journalists adjourned until 5 March — Journalists are standing trial for joining a terrorist group and airing false news - charges labeled ‘absurd, baseless and false’ by the Qatari channel — The trial of 20 journalists working for Al Jazeera, including four foreigners, has been adjourned until 5 March.

Discussion: Poynter, Al Jazeera Press Office, Al Jazeera America and Reuters

Maggie Michael / Associated Press:
Trial of Al Jazeera reporters begins in Egypt as Human Rights Watch group denounces charges

Discussion: Associated Press, @inigogilmore, Agence France Presse, BBC, Agence France Presse, Bloomberg, Foreign Policy, CNN, Los Angeles Times, @leloveluck, @leloveluck, allAfrica.com, Al Jazeera English and Guardian

ABC:
Peter Greste profile: Career of a foreign correspondent

Discussion: TheAustralian, Sydney Morning Herald, ABC Radio Australia, @perryalexj, @sarahskynews, HeraldSun, ABC, Brisbane Times, @ivorytowerjourn and NEWS.com.au

Ravi Somaiya / New York Times:

Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi joins Omidyar's First Look Media to cover financial and political corruption — Start-Up Site Hires Critic of Wall St. — Matt Taibbi, who made a name as a fierce critic of Wall Street at Rolling Stone magazine, has joined First Look Media …

Baltimore Sun:

Baltimore Sun Media Group to buy City Paper — Staff reports — The Baltimore Sun Media Group said today it is buying the alternative weekly City Paper for an undisclosed price. The transaction is set to close in March, the company said. — The move brings together two of the Baltimore area's most well-known news organizations.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Poynter, @carr2n, @alexkoppelman, @pinkgrammar and @jfruh

Liz Gannes / Re/code:

Before Facebook Deal, WhatsApp Was Helping BuzzFeed and Shazam Go Viral With New Platform Tools — Unlike mobile messaging competitors including Line and WeChat, WhatsApp has taken a resolute stance against becoming a platform that distributes games and other apps.

Discussion: Facebook, Sequoia Capital, Fortune, CNNMoney.com, TechCrunch, The Verge and The Verge

Bloomberg:

Sochi Olympics a ‘Tremendous Success’ for NBC, CEO Says — NBCUniversal, overcoming smaller prime-time TV audiences, views its Winter Olympics coverage in Sochi as a “tremendous success,” Chief Executive Officer Steve Burke said. — “In 2011 we made a major commitment of over $4 billion …

Discussion: CBS News and Forbes

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

How The Syrian Electronic Army Hacked Us: A Detailed Timeline — Early Thursday morning, a Forbes senior executive was woken up by a call from her assistant, saying that she'd be working from home due to a forecast predicting the snowiest day of the year. When she ended the call …

Discussion: Digiday

Dylan Byers / Politico:

POLITICO taps Hotline EIC for Campaign Pro — POLITICO has hired National Journal Hotline editor-in-chief Steve Shepard to help launch the latest venture in its growing subscription-service empire: Campaign Pro, “a vertical aimed at political, PAC and campaign professionals.”

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Mathew Ingram / Gigaom:

LinkedIn's competitive advantage over other publishers: $1.5B in annual revenues — LinkedIn has the one thing other publishing platforms would kill for — We've been writing a lot lately about the increasingly blurry lines between platform and publisher, a world in which new-media entities …

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, blog.linkedin.com, Re/code, Real Lawyers Have Blogs, @emilybell, Engadget and Forbes

Ted Johnson / Variety:

Utah Federal Judge Halts Aereo in Salt Lake City and Denver — A federal judge in Utah has imposed a preliminary injunction on Aereo's operations, a win for broadcasters as they seek to halt the startup streaming service in Salt Lake City and Denver. — “Based on the plain language …

Andrew Lapin / Current.org:

ProPublica receives $1M grant from MacArthur Foundation — ProPublica will receive a $1 million Award for Creative and Effective Institutions from the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the funder announced Thursday. The nonprofit is the only news organization among the seven recipients selected.

Discussion: ProPublica, Poynter, Politico and Minneapolis Star Tribune

Bloomberg:

Slim Said to Plan Bigger New York Times Stake by Year-End — Billionaire Carlos Slim plans to exercise warrants by the end of the year that will more than double his stake in the New York Times Co. to as much as 19 percent, a person with knowledge of the matter said.

Discussion: Crain's New York Business, Reuters, @tobinharshaw and FishbowlNY

Washington Post:

Alison Coliagnese to become reader representative — Announcement from Marty Baron, Executive Editor, and Fred Hiatt, Editorial Page Editor: — We're delighted to announce that Alison Coliagnese will become the Post's Reader Representative, succeeding Doug Feaver.

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune Co. publishing spinoff may include $325 million dividend — Debt accompanies assets as two companies separate … When Tribune Co. spins off its publishing business, expected by midyear, the Chicago Tribune, Los Angeles Times and six other daily newspapers will be on their own to navigate the fast-changing media landscape.

Discussion: @alexckaufman

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

FCC wants to improve quality of closed captioning — FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler wants to improve closed captioning. — “Five wins and a very light power reese know” sounds more like gibberish than a weather forecast. — But that was the closed captioning on a WeatherNation report last month.

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

New Report Says How Much Advertising Is Going to Piracy Sites $227 million in 2013 — In the longstanding fight to combat online piracy, there's been growing pressure on the advertisers whose ads appear on sites that steal copyrighted material. The Obama administration has called for private-sector actions to reduce piracy.

Discussion: PR Newswire, @lamyj, @respectcreators, copyrightalliance.org …, Techie News, WorldScreen.com, TorrentFreak and VentureBeat

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

China's Tencent signs deal for access to exclusive Business Insider content — Business Insider Just Launched An Awesome New China Partnership With Tencent — Here's The Google-Translate Version — Business Insider just launched a cool new content partnership with China Internet behemoth Tencent.

Discussion: Tech in Asia and @hblodget

Julie Bosman / New York Times:

Author James Patterson sets up $1M fund to help independent bookstores innovate — James Patterson Giving Cash to Bookstores — Independent bookstores, with their paper-thin profit margins and competition from Amazon, have found themselves a Daddy Warbucks.

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, Associated Press, Bookmarks and bookforum.com