Media Brief

I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on. Some content may need a subscription.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is preparing to cut up to half its staff, according to the Guardian. It says Jeremy Hunt has proposed cuts of between 35 and 50 per cent. The Culture Department has one of the smallest staffs - 590 - and budgets - £2.1bn.

In my blog at the BBC College of Journalism I ask what did Jeremy Hunt actually say about the TV licence fee?

According to the Guardian the sports minister Hugh Robertson is set to announce that TV coverage of the Ashes will stay on Sky, rejecting a recommendation that the cricket series should be shown free-to-air.

Amazon in the US says ebooks are now outselling hardbacks. It has sold 143 digital books for every 100 hardbacks in the last three months reports the Guardian and Radio 4's PM programme.

The BBC newspaper review says newspapers analyse the Cameron-Obama 'love-in' at the White House.

Links in full

• Guardian | Culture department braces itself for redundancies of up to 50%
• BBC | Kevin Marsh Devil and details
• David Conn | Guardian | Ashes to stay on Sky as government rejects free-to-air recommendations
• David Teather | Guardian | Amazon's ebook milestone: digital sales outstrip hardbacks for first time in US
• BBC | Newspaper Review

• Read my archive of media stories on Delicious

• Read Tuesday's Media Brief