Mediagazer: AT&T, DirecTV tell congressional subcommittees they must merge to compete with TWC, Comcast (Gautham Nagesh/Wall Street Journal)

6:50 PM ET, June 24, 2014

Top News:

Nick Davies / Guardian:

Scotland Yard want to interview Rupert Murdoch about crime at his UK papers — Exclusive: Detectives contacted media mogul last year but agreed with lawyers to wait until end of phone-hacking trial — Rupert Murdoch has been officially informed by Scotland Yard that detectives want to interview …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Bloomberg, TIME, UK - The Huffington Post, @bynickdavies, @arusbridger, @richardjmurphy, @pete_sinclair and Digital Spy

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:
Hacking Trial: Rebekah Brooks Found Not Guilty on All Counts, Andy Coulson Found Guilty on One

The Independent: How culture of News of the World's glory days led to its downfall

Matthew Holehouse / Telegraph:
Phone hacking: David Cameron to make ‘profound apology’ over Andy Coulson

Discussion: @davidfolkenflik, International Business Times, @snoozeinbrief, @psawers, BuzzFeed and @jonathanhaynes

Joan E. Solsman / CNET:

Apple TV's walled garden gets new channel: AOL — With the arrival of an AOL video channel on the Apple TV set-top box Tuesday, Apple is now bringing a wide array of free, ad-supported video across the deep moat it has built around its $99 streaming-media device.

Discussion: 9to5Mac, TIME, VentureBeat, Mashable, AppleInsider, The Next Web, @aol_inc, The Verge, Cult of Mac and @sharonprofis

Todd Spangler / Variety:
ABC News launches Apple TV channel, no pay TV subscription required

Discussion: ABC News, Capital New York, Gigaom, Lost Remote, Mediaite and Business Insider

Michael Cader / Publishers Lunch:

Perseus Imprints to be Sold to Hachette Book Group; Distribution Units to Ingram Content — The owners of the Perseus Books Group have agreed to a sale of the company, in an unusual three-way transaction, with a formal announcement expected later today following final execution of the documents.

Discussion: New York Times, Publishers Weekly, Media & Entertainment, Forbes, Gigaom, @publisherslunch, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, @carlzimmer, @laurahazardowen, @staciemichelle, @publisherslunch and @msatris

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Yahoo hires Daily News digital editor to build breaking news desk — Yahoo has been poaching talent from legacy media outlets for much of the past year, and in its latest landgrab, the massive online portal turned content producer took a dip into New York's tabloid pool.

Discussion: Politico, @anjalimullany, @carr2n and MediaWire Daily

Jon Russell / The Next Web:

Technorati quietly killed its once-authoritative blog ranking system in May — There was once a time when Technorati.com meant something to online publishers. It was their professional reputation, and featuring on it was the goal of many. — Technorati hosts its own ranking system …

Discussion: Businessweek, @mathewi, @thestalwart, @sarahw, @loic and @themediaisdying

BBC:

Egypt trial: Journalists protest over al-Jazeera trio — “The case is unjust,” BBC Director of News James Harding told the gathering — Hundreds of journalists have gathered in London to protest against the seven-year jail terms given to three al-Jazeera journalists in Egypt.

Associated Press:
Egyptian president refuses calls that he pardon or commute the sentences of jailed Al Jazeera journalists

Discussion: Guardian, New York Times, @apdiplowriter, Poynter, ABC, @monaeltahawy, @ap and Columbia Journalism Review

Bridie Jabour / Guardian:
Australia's foreign affairs minister appeals to Egypt's president to help journalist Greste

Discussion: News24, @lenoretaylor, Hollywood Reporter, @clinic4journos, Daily Dot, ninemsn, NEWS.com.au, Agence France-Presse, Huffington Post Canada, mUmBRELLA, Crikey, Guardian and Guardian

Erin Griffith / Fortune:

Why YouTube is spending mega ad dollars to promote Vice News — With a billion people tuning in each month, YouTube's audience is almost as big as Facebook's. And yet, the network lags Facebook in monetization: Last year YouTube earned around $5.6 billion, coming in below Facebook's $7.8 billion.

Paul Farhi / Washington Post:

National Geographic explores new frontiers with Gary Knell at the helm — The sea otter story didn't make that night's network news or hit newspaper front pages when it broke this month, but it was kind of a big deal for the Web site that reported it. NGNews.com, the digital home …

Discussion: @jimrichardsonng and @postbaron

Trei Brundrett / Vox Media:

Collaborative writing and editing platform Editorially acquired by Vox Media — Editorially Joins Vox Media — The founders of Editorially—Mandy Brown, David Yee, and Jason Santa Maria—are joining Vox Product as we mark the next step in the evolution of our platform, Chorus.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Gawker suspends staffer after story pulls from Miami New Times — Gawker Editor Max Read has suspended staff writer Jay Hathaway after he posted a story that drew on a Miami New Times story without attribution. An editor's note now adorns the post. Here's Read's memo to Gawker staff:

Discussion: The New York Observer, @abeaujon, FishbowlNY and Riptide 2.0

Robert Channick / Chicago Tribune:

Tribune Publishing targets Aug. 4 for spinoff — Tribune Publishing has set Aug. 4 as the target date for spinning off from Tribune Co., according to sources familiar with the situation. The spinoff date was included in a presentation for lenders conducted by Tribune Publishing June 17 in New York, according to sources.

Discussion: Poynter and @skbaer

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The Times of London is going after American digital subscribers — by advertising on television — Watching the United States' down-and-up-and-down draw against Portugal Sunday night, I was surprised to see an ad for The Times of London: — (That's actually a U.K. version of the ad …

Gautham Nagesh / Wall Street Journal:

AT&T, DirecTV tell congressional subcommittees they must merge to compete with TWC, Comcast — AT&T and DirecTV Try to Sell Congress on Benefits of Proposed Merger — Companies Say They Must Join Forces to Compete Against Comcast and Time Warner Cable

Discussion: VentureBeat, Deadline.com, Los Angeles Times, Washington Post, Reuters, Broadcasting & Cable, Ars Technica, NationalJournal.com, Re/code, Bloomberg, Advanced Television and Businessweek

Sarah Sloat / Wall Street Journal:

German Publishing Group Files Complaint Against Amazon — Online Retailer Accused of Strong-arm Tactics Over Pricing — FRANKFURT—The association of German publishers said Tuesday it filed a complaint against Amazon.com Inc., accusing the online retailer of trying to strong-arm a publisher into more favorable pricing.

Discussion: PandoDaily, Gigaom, Bloomberg and New York Times