Mediagazer: 21st Century Fox Bid Puts CNN in Cross Hairs (Keach Hagey/Wall Street Journal)

1:25 AM ET, July 17, 2014

Top News:

Time Warner rejected $80B takeover bid by Murdoch's 21st Century Fox last month, no longer in discussions — Rupert Murdoch Said to Have Made Offer for Time Warner — Twenty-First Century Fox, the media empire run by Rupert Murdoch, made an $80 billion takeover bid in recent weeks …

Discussion: TimeWarner Blog, USA Today, Quartz, Bloomberg, timewarner.com, Forbes, New York Times, Re/code, Forbes, TVNewser, Latest News & Headlines, Bloomberg, Business Insider, Multichannel News, Engadget, Deadline.com, bookforum.com, JIMROMENESKO.COM, USA Today, Business Wire, Quartz, Top Digital Journal News, Mashable, Reuters, The Wrap, @jackshafer, @smartfootball, Newsonomics, VatorNews, Mediaite, Slate, @poniewozik, Talking Biz News, Capital New York, Variety, TheStreet.com, Bloomberg, euronews, Bloomberg, DW.DE, RTTNews, New York Post, AM New York, Bloomberg, Adweek, ABC News, International Business Times, Capital New York, US News, Comic Book, Business Insider, Washington Post, Telegraph, The Daily Caller, Forbes, Businessweek, Los Angeles Times, Associated Press, The Wrap, cnbc.com, Financial Times, Business Insider, TIME, Telegraph, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Hollywood Reporter, Reuters, Yahoo! Finance, The Huffington Post, Radio & Television …, Associated Press, Guardian, CNNMoney.com, NY Daily News, New York Magazine, Home Media Magazine, C21Media, FierceCable, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, @erinade, Globe and Mail, VentureBeat, Talking Points Memo, Politico, Forbes, AdAge and Capital New York

David Carr / New York Times:

In Modern Media Realm, Big Mergers Are a Bulwark Against Rivals — When the news broke on Wednesday that 21st Century Fox, Rupert Murdoch's huge media and entertainment company, made an $80 billion offer to buy Time Warner Inc., another big media conglomerate, it seemed like a seismic jolt in the business landscape.

Discussion: @peterlauria3, @michaelroston, @cdixon, @jayrosen_nyu, The Corsair, Top Digital Journal News, Deadline.com, Mashable, Business Insider and Forbes

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

What If Rupert Murdoch Really Is Unstoppable — and Immortal? — If the Media Mogul Really Wants to Buy Time Warner, Nothing Can Stop Him — Content Marketing 2014 — Rupert Murdoch appears to be convinced that not only will he live forever, but eventually he'll own every global media company of consequence.

Discussion: USA Today, BuzzFeed, Variety, Latest News & Headlines, Variety, USA Today, @dellcam, Media & Entertainment and @themarkberman

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

21st Century Fox Bid Puts CNN in Cross Hairs — Time Warner's No. 3 Cable News Network Would Interest Several Buyers — After years of being a high-profile problem child for parent Time Warner Inc., CNN could soon find itself up for adoption. — As part of 21st Century Fox's bid for Time Warner …

David Boardman / Poynter:

Essay: Hey, Publishers: Stop fooling us, and yourselves — For an industry built on a foundation of truth-telling, the newspaper business sure has trouble telling the truth about itself. — Last month at the World Newspaper Congress in Turin, Italy, the chief spokesperson for U.S.-based dailies …

Discussion: @pmarca, @chadedge, @samkirkla, Gigaom, @albertocairo, @bobstep, @geostanley, @derekmyoung, @samkirkla, @jillkimball, @stevebuttry and @greggriffin

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

The newspaper crisis, by the numbers — Roughly a decade after the commercial debut of the Internet, America's newspapers posted record high advertising sales of $49.4 billion in 2005, leading many publishers to think their businesses would not be seriously affected by the digital revolution.

Discussion: @grovesprof

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Netflix says ‘no rules’ would be better than FCC's net neutrality proposal — Netflix filed a comment with the FCC yesterday strongly condemning the commission's new net neutrality proposal, which would allow internet service providers to offer so-called “fast lanes” to companies that can afford them.

Discussion: Netflix US & Canada Blog, The Hill, @acedtect, Techdirt, The Slanted, Variety, Gigaom, FierceOnlineVideo News and BGR

Joe Strupp / Media Matters for America:

NPR Backs Off Planned “Downgrade” Of Ombudsman — National Public Radio is backing away from a revised job description for its ombudsman that suggested the person in the position should avoid “passing judgment” on any errors in NPR News coverage, calling that listing “a mistake.”

Discussion: @acarvin, @sulliview, @brianstelter, @digiphile, @jayrosen_nyu and @dangillmor

Laura Hazard Owen / Gigaom:

Amazon is testing “Kindle Unlimited,” an ebook subscription service for $9.99/month — Amazon is testing an ebook and audiobook subscription service called “Kindle Unlimited” that offers “unlimited access to over 600,000 titles and thousands of audiobooks on any device for just $9.99 a month.”

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

World Cup Streaming Boosts Comcast's TV Everywhere Push — The 2014 World Cup made millions of soccer fans out of Americans who couldn't have told a winger from a false 9 five weeks ago. In similar numbers, it has also initiated them into the joys of TV Everywhere.

Discussion: Comcast Voices Blog and The Huffington Post

Michelle Castillo / Adweek:
Univision reports 73M World Cup livestreams, WatchESPN cites 43M hours of live viewing

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and stream.aljazeera.com

Chris Jasper / Bloomberg:
World Cup Final Watched Live by Record 40,000 Airline Passengers

Discussion: @panasonic_mea

Tyler Hicks / New York Times:

Pulitzer-prize winning NYT photographer describes witnessing the deaths of four boys in Gaza — Through Lens, 4 Boys Dead by Gaza Shore — GAZA CITY — My day here began at 6 a.m. Photographing something as unpredictable as war still has a routine. — It is important to be out the door …

Discussion: TVNewser, Guardian, New York Times, @justinraimondo, @cblatts, @grahamliddell and NBC News

Reuters:

Apple agrees conditionally to a $450M settlement in e-book price-fixing case; $400M will go to consumers — Apple agrees to conditional $450 million e-books antitrust accord — (Reuters) - Apple Inc has agreed to pay $450 million to resolve U.S. state and consumer claims …

Discussion: Gigaom, ag.ny.gov, Hollywood Reporter, Business Wire, New York Times, Electronista, The Next Phase, Channel NewsAsia, Publishers Lunch, AppleInsider, The Verge and Patently Apple

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

A change in the IRS process for granting tax-exempt status could be a boon to nonprofit news — It took almost a year and a half for nonprofit news site Eye on Ohio to get its tax-exempt status approved by the IRS this spring. Launched in the fall of 2012 by former business reporter Lori Ashyk …

Ricardo Bilton / Digiday:

Publishers have an updated evergreen strategy: Make the old new again — Here's an irony about the rise of the real-time Web: Sometimes what's new isn't always what performs best. — Publishers are doing all they can to wring out more value from their existing body of content.

Melissa Hellmann / TIME:

Nielsen Partners Up With Facebook to Track Television-Viewing Habits — Nielsen Media Research, the television-ratings company, will be partnering with Facebook to ascertain what television viewers are watching on their tablets and other mobile devices. — In the past, Nielsen solely tracked meters …

Discussion: Washington Post, French Tribune, redOrbit, NBC News, Tech Times, PC Magazine, Cinema Blend, Lost Remote, Tech Times and AllFacebook

Simon Parkin / Eurogamer.net:

YouTubers are running advertorials, paid promotions, and product placement without disclosures — Blurred lines: Are YouTubers breaking the law? — From unmarked advertorial to paid social promotion, Simon Parkin investigates the ethics and legality of YouTube.

Discussion: Forbes and @renireni

Kristen Hare / Poynter:

Media reporter's advice for her replacement: ‘Turn your computer off once in a while’ — Until the end of the month, Johana Bhuiyan is a digital media reporter for Capital New York. Bhuiyan's headed next to cover tech for BuzzFeed's FWD. Before she leaves our tribe of media reporters …

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

Study: Political journalists opt for stenography over fact checking during presidential debates — During the 2012 U.S. presidential debates, political journalists on Twitter primarily repeated candidate claims without providing fact checks or other contest, according to new research published …

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu, @pragmaticobot, @craignewmark, @owillis, @mlcalderone, The Huffington Post, @jaredbkeller, @markcoddington and @craigsilverman

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

Setting the record straight: how a critique of tech media's flaws came back to bite an editor — There's No Crying In Inside Baseball — Many of you have likely read the latest in a series of profiles of Kara Swisher, the grizzled WSJ reporter who struck out with Walt Mossberg to found Recode.