Mediagazer: WordPress Hits 50 Million Self-Hosted Blogs Another milestone for creator Mullenweg By Kari Lipschutz (Kari Lipschutz/Adweek)

12:00 PM ET, July 11, 2011

Top News:

Paul Mason / BBC:

Murdoch: the network defeats the hierarchy — Rupert Murdoch has dispensed power, terrorized politicians and shaped politics — The Murdoch empire fractured, a Conservative prime minister attracting bets on his resignation, the Metropolitan Police on the edge of yet another existential crisis …

Discussion: The latest episodes …, New York Times, Daily Mail, Guardian, Wall Street Journal, Future of Journalism, The Huffington Post, Metamedia, PC Magazine and Telegraph

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

Life After Rupert's Reign: What Will Happen in a Post-Murdoch World? — With the Closure of the News of the World, the Rule of One of the Most Powerful Media Moguls of All Time Has Officially Begun to Wind Down — With Sunday's closure of News Corp.'s 168-year-old News of the World …

Discussion: Adweek, BuzzMachine, mediabistro.com, Press Gazette, Globe and Mail, Guardian and Media Week

Howard Kurtz / Washington Post:

British tabloid tactics are rampant in American journalism, too — It takes some doing to get an entire country up in arms about media misconduct, but News of the World rose to the occasion. — By hacking into the phones of terror victims and a missing 13-year-old girl later found murdered …

Discussion: FishbowlDC and CJR

Nick Davies / Guardian:

Charles and Camilla warned over hacking — Palace confirms police recently approached couple to warn them they were likely targets of private investigator Glenn Mulcaire — Police have warned Buckingham Palace that they have found evidence that the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall …

Discussion: BBC, Adweek, The Huffington Post and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

David Carr / New York Times:

A Tabloid Shame, Exposed by Earnest Rivals — The phone-hacking scandal that is mushrooming in Britain, with arrests, skullduggery and influence peddling, would be a delicious story for The News of the World if it were not about the newspaper itself. Instead, the hunter became the hunted …

Discussion: Mirror.co.uk, The Daily Beast, Poynter, The Wire and Guardian

John F. Burns / New York Times:

Labour Party Vows to Fight Murdoch's Bid to Take Over Satellite Company — LONDON — The $12 billion bid by Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation to take over Britain's most lucrative satellite broadcast company, British Sky Broadcasting, ran into fresh trouble on Sunday when the opposition Labour Party promised …

Discussion: Gothamist, Guardian, Telegraph and Felix Salmon

The Independent:
I'm a hacking victim too, Gordon Brown to announce

Discussion: Guardian

BBC: Murdoch says chief Rebekah Brooks is his first priority

Raf Sanchez / Telegraph:
News of the World final crossword has a message for ‘catastrophe’ Rebekah Brooks

Discussion: Crikey, Future of Journalism, Guardian, paidContent and Gawker

Simon Dumenco / AdAge:

What It's Like to Get Used and Abused by The Huffington Post — The Blog Queen Defends Her Aggregation Practices by Saying She Drives Traffic. Oh, Really? — One of the great and pressing questions of the post-blog age is: What constitutes unfair — unethical — aggregation?

Discussion: Poynter and eMedia Vitals

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

AOL's HuffPost Enters Crowded Online Arena With HuffPost Celebrity Site — The Huffington Post Media Group, AOL's fast-moving content unit, is launching a celebrity site called HuffPost Celebrity today, as well as another called HuffPost Culture. — HuffPost Celebrity …

Jessica E. Vascellaro / Wall Street Journal:

Netflix Isn't Kicking Tires at Hulu — The sale of video site Hulu LLC is entering its next phase. — Initial presentations to potential suitors mostly wrapped up last week, according to people familiar with the matter. Next, interested bidders will comb through the business in greater detail …

Discussion: Fast Company, Online Video News, Company Town, GigaOM and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

An iPad App for Cosmo Guys — Cosmopolitan offers the answers to a lot of crucial questions. Should you get back with your ex? How do you make your pony tail sexy? Are those the right sunglasses for summer? — But one area the magazine has not delved into much is giving advice …

Discussion: Adweek and eMedia Vitals

Tanzina Vega / Media Decoder:

Black News in New Focus — NBC News and Interactive One, a network of Web sites aimed at African-Americans, plan to announce a partnership on Monday that will combine the editorial and sales resources of both properties. The partnership will focus on aligning NBC's African-American news site …

Discussion: Poynter and News One

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Diane Sawyer Tweets Through Jaycee Dugard Special — Diane Sawyer began Tweeting Friday ahead of tonight's live tweet of her Jaycee Dugard special. (Sawyer's second Tweet was about the death of former First Lady Betty Ford). It was Dugard's first interview since being set free from 18 years …

Discussion: Mediaite and The Wire

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

A Compass for Conservative Politics — WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — Without the soupy South Florida humidity and the fastidiously clipped lawn, the Newsmax headquarters here would be a lot like one of those diners in New Hampshire and Iowa where autographed pictures of politicians cover the walls.

Discussion: The Wire

Russell Adams / Wall Street Journal:

Famous Faces Slip In at Some Magazine Titles — Magazines that traditionally kept people off their covers are opening up the valuable real estate to celebrities and other public figures, highlighting a question facing a growing number of publishers: In a celebrity-driven culture …

Kari Lipschutz / Adweek:

WordPress Hits 50 Million Self-Hosted Blogs Another milestone for creator Mullenweg By Kari Lipschutz — Wordpress celebrated its 50 millionth self-hosted blog on Sunday. Just a day after reaching the achievement, WordPress welcomed more than 130,000 more self-hosting bloggers to the WordPress family.