Mediagazer: In China, reporters covering Biden get the heave-ho (Michael A. Memoli/Los Angeles Times)

2:40 PM ET, August 18, 2011

Top News:

Amelia Hill / Guardian:

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

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

Sarah Lyall / New York Times:

New Hacking Arrest: Hollywood Reporter for British Tabloid — LONDON — The British police arrested the Hollywood reporter for the defunct News of the World tabloid on Thursday, bringing the number of arrests in the phone hacking case to 13. — The reporter, James Desborough …

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 and The New York Observer

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

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

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

Daniel D'Addario / The New York Observer:

Christine O'Donnell On Her Piers Morgan Walk-Out: ‘It was fun.’ — After walking out of her interview with Piers Morgan, Christine O'Donnell addressed the Women's National Republican Club on West 51st Street, starting about forty-five minutes late, just before seven.

Discussion: On Media's Blog, Gothamist and TPMDC

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, @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 Huffington Post, The New Yorker Blog, TPMDC and Political Punch

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: Poynter and New York Magazine

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

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

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

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: Pulse2 and louisgray.com, more at Techmeme »

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Bleacher Report ups its game by taking contributors to school — There's a reason most pro sports teams hold training camp before their season starts: Everyone needs to tighten up their game. Carrying over that theme, the team at Bleacher Report has created a program to better develop the skills of their thousands of contributors.

Mike Shields / digiday:DAILY:

Revenge of the TV Buyers — Free TV on the Web seems increasingly doomed, as the broadcast networks are rapidly taking back control of their online content distribution. Meanwhile, Nielsen is pushing TV-like measurement for Web campaigns. Soon, many believe, TV networks will be able …

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb