Mediagazer: Ex-WPer Morley named Salon Washington editor (Jim Romenesko/Poynter)

5:30 PM ET, August 18, 2011

Top News:

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

First US-based NoW reporter is arrested — James Desborough arrested by police investigating UK hacking allegations, while Glenn Mulcaire sues News International — James Desborough, an award-winning former reporter at the News of the World, has been arrested by officers investigating the phone-hacking scandal.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, Company Town, Multichannel, Broadcasting & Cable, The First Post, The Wire, Deadline.com, paidContent, The New Yorker Blog, Adweek, New York Magazine, Gawker and FishbowlLA

Peter Lauria / Reuters:

News Corp executives mull chance James Murdoch may leave — (Reuters) - News Corp's senior management is starting to think about what the company might do if James Murdoch stepped aside, sources inside and close to the global media empire said. — With Rupert Murdoch's younger son under …

Discussion: New York Magazine, The Huffington Post and On Media's Blog

Lindsay Fortado / Bloomberg:

Ex-Investigator Mulcaire Said to Sue News Corp. Over Legal Fees — Aug. 18 (Bloomberg) — Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed in 2007 for intercepting voice-mail messages while working for News Corp.'s News of the World, sued the company. — The lawsuit against News Group Newspapers Ltd. …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and The Wrap

Sarah Lyall / New York Times:
New Hacking Arrest: Hollywood Reporter for British Tabloid

Discussion: The Informer

Verne G. Kopytoff / New York Times:

That Remake of AOL? It's Still Being Written — SAN FRANCISCO — AOL hit a hard bump on its road to becoming a digital media company. — Last week it reported another loss and told Wall Street analysts it was not going to get much better: operating income for the year could be down as much as 20 percent because of weaker ad sales.

Discussion: Media Nation, Fortune and The New York Observer

Bloomberg:
AOL Discounted Gets Last, Best Hope in Private Equity

Discussion: Betabeat and The Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Kat Stoeffel / The New York Observer:

New York Press Is Dead, Long Live Our Town Downtown — As has been rumored for weeks, Manhattan Media is shutting down the New York Press and reviving Our Town Downtown, starting September 1. The weekly publication-a magazine/community newspaper hybrid, according to the press release-will focus on news …

Discussion: On Media's Blog, Poynter, FishbowlNY, Gothamist, New York Magazine and AAN

Steve Krakauer / CNN:

Christine O'Donnell and Howard Schultz — The former Senate candidate talks about the 2012 GOP field and her new book, and the Starbucks CEO on his plan to boycott campaign donations. — Set edition preference — READ about Piers Morgan's long career in journalism here.

Discussion: Guardian, CNN, The New York Observer, Guardian, NY Daily News, Adweek and Broadcasting & Cable

Daniel D'Addario / The New York Observer:
Christine O'Donnell On Her Piers Morgan Walk-Out: ‘It was fun.’

Discussion: On Media's Blog, TPMDC and Gothamist

Bloomberg:

Guardian Loses Fight for Web Readers Even After Taking Out Murdoch Tabloid — The U.K.'s Guardian took down Britain's best-selling Sunday newspaper by exposing that the Rupert Murdoch-owned tabloid hacked a murder victim's voicemail. It may still lose an intensifying battle for British readers.

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Capital New York Snags Yahoo's Joe Pompeo In Mini Hiring Spree — NEW YORK — Capital New York, a website that promises to show readers “how New York works,” will soon have several more reporters working for it. — Launched in June 2010 by ex-New York Observer editors Tom McGeveran and Josh Benson …

Discussion: paidContent, The Wrap, @rafat, New York Magazine, NYConvergence.com and AdAge

Michael A. Memoli / Los Angeles Times:

In China, reporters covering Biden get the heave-ho — Only minutes into the vice president's remarks, Chinese officials began directing journalists toward the exits. Soon the shooing became shoving. — Reporting from Beijing— Vice President Joe Biden's famously loquacious style …

Discussion: New York Magazine, Gawker, The New Yorker Blog, The Huffington Post, TPMDC and Political Punch

Dylan Byers / Adweek:

Newsweek-Daily Beast Announces New Hires, Promotions — Tina Brown's Newsweek-Daily Beast Company got hit hard last week. First, editor-at-large Randall Lane left to become editor of Forbes, and then international general manager Alan Bone bounced to Bloomberg Businessweek. — This week brings better news.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google Hires Silicon Valley Tech Blogger Louis Gray as Google+ Evangelist — Notable Silicon Valley tech blogger and startup consultant Louis Gray is finally turning his passion for Google's products and services into a career. Gray has just accepted the position of Product Marketing Manager …

Discussion: The Business Insider, louisgray.com and Pulse2

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Memo to newspapers: The future of media is a two-way street — Plenty of newspapers and other mainstream media entities are happy to use social tools like Twitter and Facebook to promote their content, host comments on their news stories in order to build traffic, and otherwise try and take advantage of the web.

Discussion: mediabistro.com and JackLail.com, Thanks:mathewi

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Ex-WPer Morley named Salon Washington editor — Romenesko Misc. — Jefferson Morley tells me he becomes Washington Editor of Salon “at the behest of David Talbot, founder/editor/CEO who wants to reemphasize political coverage of the Great Recession, the 2012 race, and the sorry state …

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Alysia Santo / CJR:

Web First, Print Later — Why some digital news startups are branching into print — When Knight Foundation executive John Bracken said that “Print is the new vinyl” this weekend, the point of his comparison seemed lost on many. In a post on the Knight Foundation blog, Bracken clarified his metaphor:

Discussion: Editors Weblog and Street Fight

Ed Pilkington / Guardian:

A life unravelled ... whistleblower who incurred wrath of the Murdoch empire — Relentless legal pursuit of ex-News Corp employee likened to ‘Rambo tactics’ — Five years ago Robert Emmel was enjoying the American dream. He lived in a detached house in a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia …

Discussion: Company Town