Rupert Murdoch is not giving up, the BBC cuts hundreds of jobs

Good morning. Let’s do this.

1. Rupert’s not leaving: Rupert Murdoch “is determined and unlikely to walk away anytime” from his bid for Time Warner. (NYT) | “Are people losing interest in the machinations of media giants, and the consolidation of power in the industry? Were they ever interested?” (WSJ) | “A combined 21st Century Fox/Time Warner would produce about $65 billion in revenues. That’s the size of…Google.” (Nieman) | David Carr: “perhaps if Time Warner stays up for grabs, one of the Silicon Valley players will simply buy its own content factory instead of negotiating for rights with those already in the business?” (NYT) | Related longish read: Peter Jukes on Rebekah Brooks‘ rise and fall (New Statesman)
2. Jill Abramson was on Greta Van Susteren’s show last night: Same basic points as her Cosmo interview, but you might as well watch. (Fox News) | Hadas Gold types up the key quotes. (Politico)
3. The seven-day-per-week print newspaper is toast: Publishers, it’s time to make your plan to go Sundays-only, David Boardman writes. (Poynter)
4. Screens don’t make you stupid. But distraction may: In a new study, people who read a text onscreen fared worse in a test of comprehension than people who read it in print, Maria Konnikova writes. But there’s lots of evidence that the lure of online distractions is a bigger threat to comprehension. (The New Yorker) | “I’m not blaming the Internet for procrastination. …Yet I am blaming the Internet for sucking people into a cacophony of links, videos and pictures that are constantly being dangled in their faces like some sort of demented digital carrot on a stick.” (NYT)
5. People share positive stuff, Part 3,475: “Thought Catalog’s compilation of life advice, nostalgic lists and ‘betcha didn’t know this’ type wisdom drew more than 34 million unique visitors in June, according to Quantcast, a digital advertising and audience measurement firm. By contrast, the website of Time magazine had about 2.6 million unique visitors during the same month, according to Quantcast.” (NYT) | The real problem with clickbait: “those clever headlines and questioning tweets often lead to disappointing content.” (Poynter) | Related: “Instagram isn’t going to make the mistake of most digital advertising and be hostage to the click because there are no clicks to count.” (DigiDay) | Britain’s Independent launches a BuzzFeed clone. (The Guardian)
6. Pinterest readers can wait for news: “More than half of Buzzfeed’s Pinterest referral traffic goes to posts more than two months old.” (Forbes)
7. Jose Antonio Vargas says his detention wasn’t a stunt: “Pressed by ‘New Day’ host Chris Cuomo on how he, an immigration activist, could possibly be ignorant of the interior check, Vargas responded, ‘I did not anticipate it. . . . I’d never been to the Texas border.'” (The Washington Post)
8. Today’s world news, edited by Kristen Hare: The BBC plans to cut 415 jobs, Mark Sweney and Jason Deans report in The Guardian. The Beeb is also creating 195 positions. According to the BBC, director of news James Harding said the network will be at the front of the “fourth revolution in news.” | The Trinity Mirror is merging three newsrooms into one, Roy Greenslade reports for The Guardian. The Daily Mirror, the Sunday Mirror and Sunday People will all be staffed by one newsroom. | Speaking of things that smell fishy, The Witness – Durban Edition, from Durban, South Africa, features a psychic predicting sardines today (Newseum.)

   

9. NPR un-downgrades its ombudsman position: “The language in the current job description about not providing commentary or passing judgment is a mistake and we are removing it,” new NPR honcho Jarl Mohn tells Joe Strupp. (MMFA) | Previously: “NPR downgrades and disables its ombudsman” (PressThink)
10. Job moves, edited by Benjamin Mullin: Leah Finnegan, formerly of The New York Times, has been nabbed by Gawker, where she’ll be a senior editor. Finnegan “hates the right people” and will help the site’s staff “fake intelligence and sophistication day to day,” said Gawker editor-in-chief Max Read. Finnegan said she won’t be removing her New York Times back tattoo, though, so don’t ask. (Poynter) | Rebecca Sinderbrand, currently deputy White House editor at Politico, will join The Washington Post as as political news editor. (@sinderbrand, Washington Post PR) | Lauren Skowronski has been named vice president of corporate communications at NBC Universal. She was vice president of media relations for MSNBC. (The Wrap) | Nancy Gillen will be managing editor of Marie Claire. Previously, she was a managing editor at Glamour. (@HearstCorp) | Caroline Davis will be managing editor at Hollywood Life. Previously, she was a staff editor of US Weekly. (FishbowlNY) | Matt Davies, a Pulitzer Prize-winning editorial cartoonist, will be the editorial cartoonist for Newsday, and will start in the fall. Previously, he had drawn for Hearst Newspaper Group. (Newsday) | Lastly, Callahan & Associates is looking for a “content shepherd,” a job the credit firm compares to Captain America, a sous chef and a Nascar pit crew chief. Get your resume in, if that sounds like your thing. (Poynter) Send Ben your job moves: bmullin@poynter.org.

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