Mediagazer: So how much did a private investor group pay for the OC Register? (Matthew DeBord/Southern California …)

12:15 PM ET, June 15, 2012

Top News:

Ina Fried / AllThingsD:

Microsoft Is Doing Its Own Tablet. How Do You Like Them Apples? — Tired of losing ground to the iPad, Microsoft is poised to serve up its own entry in the suddenly booming tablet market. — After signaling for months that it would attack the market only through its traditional hardware partners …

Discussion: Forbes, VentureBeat, The Wrap, Mashable!, ZDNet, Light Reading, msnbc.com, Fast Company, The Verge, GigaOM, Business Insider, TUAW, Macgasm, Softpedia News, dailywireless.org, CNET, The Next Web, Techland and Engadget

John Hudson / The Atlantic Wire:

The Secret to ‘Ailing’ CNN's Success — Vanilla cable news channel CNN is ceaselessly derided for its rock-bottom primetime ratings and gimmicky presentation but the middle-of-the-road network is actually a profit-generating behemoth. Still, you wouldn't get that from the latest …

Discussion: Business Insider

Michael Massing / CJR:

How far can CNN sink? — How far can CNN sink? — In April, CNN recorded its lowest monthly ratings in more than 10 years. In May, it recorded its lowest monthly primetime ratings in more than 20 years. It's now regularly eclipsed not only by Fox News (long the leader in cable news) but also by MSNBC.

Discussion: Mediaite and The FJP

Reuters:

YouTube chief mulls paid subscription — (Reuters)-YouTube is exploring selling subscriptions to access to some of its video offerings, potentially providing a way for certain cable channels to be available outside the traditional “bundles” offered by cable network providers, said YouTube boss Salar Kamangar.

Discussion: SocialTimes, eMedia Vitals, The Next Web and Engadget

Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:

The Newseum caves in on reporters' access — Yes, that's the First Amendment carved onto the vertical slate in front of the Newseum. — For many of us, it began with a tweet Thursday morning from Boston Globe editor Marty Baron: — Press escorted out of #Romney event at, of all places …

Discussion: The Boston Globe, @jayrosen_nyu, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Gannett Blog, Boston Globe, The Huffington Post, The Atlantic Wire, Poynter, Indecision Forever, Erik Wemple, Mediaite and Politico

BBC:

NeverSeconds blogger Martha Payne school dinner photo ban lifted — Martha's NeverSeconds blog started as a writing project with her dad — A council has lifted its controversial ban on a nine-year-old girl taking photographs of her school meals. — Martha Payne, from Argyll …

Discussion: Forbes, Gawker, Argyll and Bute Council, CNET, Boing Boing, Daily Dot, neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk, Telegraph, ZDNet, The Next Web, Wired, The Verge and Guardian

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Sly Bailey to leave Trinity Mirror immediately — Chief executive to step down from troubled Daily Mirror publisher six months earlier than planned — Trinity Mirror chief executive Sly Bailey is to step down six months earlier than planned, as the troubled Daily Mirror publisher looks to speed up an overhaul of senior management.

Discussion: Kleinman, Telegraph, Media Week, Guardian, Press Gazette, Press Association, BBC and Media Week

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Twitter's expanded tweets are a double-edged sword — As we reported on Wednesday, Twitter is in the process of rolling out what it calls “expanded tweets,” a new feature on both the web and mobile version that shows additional content for certain publishers and services, such as the New York Times and ABC News.

Discussion: Twitter Developers, eMedia Vitals, Journalism.co.uk, API Voice, The Content Strategist and Marketing Pilgrim

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Daily News America’ to launch by end of June — The latest Daily News digital editor, Ted Young, arrived in the paper's newsroom this week, and he already appears to have made a splash. — Readers of dailynews.com today may have noticed a design feature that's not all that common on the homepage …

David M. Herszenhorn / New York Times:

Russian Official Apologizes for Threatening Journalist — MOSCOW — Russia's chief federal investigator apologized on Thursday for an “emotional breakdown,” a day after he was publicly accused of threatening the life of a journalist. — The apology, by such a high-ranking public official …

Discussion: Big News Network.com

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Why the updated ABC News iPad app changes by time of day — Building a good app starts with asking yourself the right questions. — The most fundamental one: What does my audience want? That's the problem that people at ABC News have tried to solve since launching an iPad app almost two years ago.

Discussion: paidContent, eMedia Vitals, NewscastStudio Blog, Lost Remote, Radio & Television … and TVNewser

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

WordPress, Tumblr and Facebook: Threading Social Through the Blogosphere — Matt Mullenweg and Toni Schneider of Automattic, speaking at the Le Web conference. — For today's blogging platforms, hosting a compelling set of publishing tools is no longer enough — you've got to get social.