Mediagazer: RT's Graham Phillips tweets confirmation of his release, deportation from Ukraine (RT)

5:00 PM ET, July 25, 2014

Top News:

Juliette Garside / Guardian:

BSkyB to buy Sky Italia and Sky Deutschland for £4.9bn cash — Broadcaster to buy Fox's 57.4% interest in German firm, while Italian purchase to use cash and National Geographic sale — BSkyB is to become a pan-European broadcasting company after agreeing to buy Sky Italia …

Reuters:

Murdoch's 21st Century Fox pledges to extend buybacks — (Reuters) - Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox said on Friday it would renew a share buyback program using the proceeds from its partial exit from European pay-TV, regardless of any acquisitions the media group undertakes.

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter: BSkyB Adds More TV Subs in Latest Quarter, Posts Lower Full-Year Profit

Kamal Ahmed / BBC:
BSkyB - James Murdoch's master plan comes closer to fruition

Discussion: USA Today and @stevenjbarnett

Peter Lauria / BuzzFeed:
Why Harry Potter And The Simpsons Are Key To A Fox-Time Warner Deal

Discussion: @peterlauria3 and @buzzfeedben

Nick Davies / Guardian:

The pervasive power of Rupert Murdoch: an extract from Hack Attack by Nick Davies — In this first extract from his new book, the reporter who broke the phone hacking story looks at Rebekah Brooks's 2009 wedding - and how it was a perfect display of the nature of Rupert Murdoch's hold on British life

Discussion: @michaelemann, @peterjukes, @martinshovel, @mmfa, @dangillmor and @kenearlys

Press Gazette:

Four security guards accused of helping to destroy Rebekah Brooks evidence have case against them dropped — Four security guards accused of helping to hide or destroy evidence around the time of Rebekah Brooks's arrest will not face trial, a court was told today.

Financial Times:

Financial Times says digital subscriptions up 33%, making up 2/3 of paying audience; overall circulation up 13%, year-on-year — Financial Times - 2014 interim statement — The FT's total circulation is at an all time high - up 13 per cent year on year to more than 677,000 across print and online.

Discussion: Press Gazette, @emilyjg and Guardian

Bloomberg:
Pearson Cutting 4,000 Jobs as First-Half Sales Decline

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Simon Zekaria / Wall Street Journal:
Financial Times publisher Pearson posts first-half net profit of £227M, sales fell 6.5% to £2.05B

Discussion: Pearson, Reuters, MarketWatch, Life Style Extra and EducationInvestor magazine

Rowena Mason / Guardian:

Jimmy Wales says Google should not be ‘censoring history’ after web search company reveals it has approved half of requests — Right to be forgotten: Wikipedia chief enters internet censorship row — Jimmy Wales says Google should not be ‘censoring history’ after web search company reveals …

Discussion: @niemanlab, @chrisschaef, @jamesrbuk and The Verge

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Google Granting Around Half Europe's Search De-Index Requests — But Won't Show Its Workings — Following a meeting between European regulators and search engines yesterday, to discuss the latter group's implementation of a recent European Court of Justice privacy ruling …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, Techdirt, Softpedia News, Gizmodo UK, Telegraph, Reuters, ZDNet, @techcrunch, The Daily Caller, Washington Post and Forbes

Our Bad Media:

Six more plagiarism accusations against BuzzFeed's Benny Johnson — More Plagiarism From “One Of The Web's Deeply Original Writers” — Yesterday, this blog posted an article about serial plagiarism by Buzzfeed's Benny Johnson that came after said reporter called out another publication for plagiarizing his own work.

Discussion: Politico, Gawker, Our Bad Media, Politico, Capital New York, Talking Points Memo, New York Magazine, @noltenc, @erikwemple, FishbowlNY, @blippoblappo, @barryap1, @mobute, @tajmagruder, @abeaujon, @samfbiddle and Poynter

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
BuzzFeed is reviewing Benny Johnson's work

Discussion: Politico, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, FishbowlDC, @laura_nelson, @poynter, BuzzFeed, @juddlegum, Gawker and @scotteweinberg

Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:

Pandora joins the billion-dollar music payouts club with Spotify and YouTube — When the likes of Spotify look to a possible future as public companies, Pandora remains the most high-profile example of a post-IPO digital music business riding the Wall Street rollercoaster.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, @soundboy and TechCrunch

John McDuling / Quartz:
An epic battle in streaming music is about to begin, and only a few will survive

Discussion: @jeffmignon, @tcarmody, @morrowgl, @amchamkristiina and @damienjoyce

Anne Helen Petersen / BuzzFeed:

The Down And Dirty History Of TMZ … For just $53, you can purchase a guaranteed front-of-the-bus seat on the TMZ NYC Tour. After stepping on the bus in the middle of Times Square, a TMZ-trained tour guide — handsome, blond, amiable Australian — will ask you and the rest of the bus if you're a huge fan of the show.

Discussion: Columbia Journalism Review, @erikwemple, @niemanlab, @dkthomp, @erikwemple, @lahlahlindsey, @jackiewarner13, @nathanjurgenson, Business Insider and MetaFilter

Washington Post:

Iran confirms arrest of Post correspondent — Iran confirmed Friday that The Washington Post's correspondent in Tehran has been arrested on unspecified charges. — Gholam-Hossein Esmaili, director general of the Tehran Province Justice Department, told reporters that the …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon Rolls Out A YouTube-Like “Video Shorts” Section On Instant Video — Amazon's Instant Video service has traditionally been thought of as both a rival to iTunes and Netflix, in terms of offering movies and TV shows for rent, purchase or for free streaming via the company's Amazon Prime membership program.

Discussion: Variety and Pocket-lint

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Sources: Google signed deal to buy Twitch for $1B

John Eggerton / Multichannel News:

FilmOn found in contempt for streaming network TV after Aereo decision, will appeal — Court Finds FilmOn in Contempt — Must Pay $90,000 And Court Costs — New York District Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald has found FilmOn in contempt for continuing to deliver network TV station signals …

Discussion: MediaPost, Variety and @eggerton

RT:

RT's Graham Phillips tweets confirmation of his release, deportation from Ukraine — Graham Phillips, an RT contributor covering the conflict in eastern Ukraine, has been deported to the UK, following his arrest at Donetsk airport on Tuesday night, local media said citing Ukraine's security service (SBU).

Discussion: @grahamwp_uk, @grahamwp_uk and @grahamwp_uk

Gallup:

Russians Rely on State Media for News of Ukraine, Crimea — Few trust Western media or independent Russian media — WASHINGTON, D.C. — Most Russians have been following the news about Ukraine and Crimea over the past few months, with nearly nine in 10 paying attention before Malaysia Airlines Flight 17 …

Discussion: Mediaite

John Plunkett / Guardian:

London Live applies to Ofcom to slash local programming — Four months after launch, TV station wants to cut primetime local content from three to just one hour a day — London Live's local evening programming includes Not the One Show, a reference to BBC1's The One Show.