Mediagazer: MSNBC Is Close to Falling to Third Place in Cable News Ratings (Bill Carter/New York Times)

12:40 PM ET, September 27, 2011

Top News:

MSNBC Is Close to Falling to Third Place in Cable News Ratings — How badly has MSNBC been hurt by the loss of Keith Olbermann? Enough, apparently, to be on the verge of falling back into third place among the cable news networks. — The ratings results for the month of September show that CNN …

Discussion: Poynter, Company Town, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, Adweek, Business Insider, National Review, The Daily Caller, Inside Cable News and Chickaboomer

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

James Murdoch's press adviser resigns — Alice Macandrew understood to have quit amid disagreements over the handling of the phone-hacking scandal — One of James Murdoch's closest advisers has resigned from News Corporation, it emerged on Tuesday, amid disagreements over the way the media group dealt with the phone-hacking scandal.

Helene Mulholland / Guardian: Sun newspaper involved in phone hacking, claims Labour's Tom Watson

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Most — But Not All — Big Magazine Publishers Sign On for Amazon's Tablet — In 2010, magazine publishers got giddy about the prospects of selling their stuff on the iPad. This year's version of the story: Lots of enthusiasm, tempered with a little bit of skepticism, over Amazon's new tablet.

Christopher Mims / Technology Review:

How Amazon's Tablet Perpetuates Apple's Stranglehold on Media App Distribution — Amazon appears to be offering publishers the same unsavory terms as Apple, which feels like a missed opportunity. — On Wednesday, Amazon will unveil its new seven-inch tablet, which is rumored to be based on the now-defunct BlackBerry Playbook.

Business Insider:

Guess Who Made The Highest Bid For Hulu — Remember how a group of bidders was circling around Hulu a couple weeks ago? Whatever happened with that? — Two sources tell us that satellite TV provider Dish was the highest bidder, coming in around $1.9 billion. It beat out both Amazon and Yahoo.

Discussion: Adweek, VentureBeat and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Several Outsiders Said to Be Considered for Time Inc. CEO Job — As Time Warner's search for a CEO of its Time Inc. magazine division grinds on, new names of suspected candidates have surfaced. Given the list, it appears that the company still seems to be focused on bringing in an outsider.

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

In real-time, journalists' tweets contribute to a ‘raw draft’ of history — When historians look through the Library of Congress' Twitter archive years from now, Andy Carvin's tweets will be among those that help tell the story of the Arab Spring. — Carvin recently acquired his own archive of tweets …

Vadim Lavrusik / Nieman Journalism Lab:

What Facebook's latest updates mean for journalists — Editor's Note: Vadim Lavrusik, Facebook's Journalist Program Manager, is responsible for building and managing programs that help journalists, in various ways, make use of Facebook in their work. Below, he explains Facebook's recent design changes.

Discussion: Daniel Bachhuber's weblog, ZDNet, eMedia Vitals, Cision Blog and bookforum.com

Marc Randolph / Kibble:

Did Netflix screw up? I don't think so. — Netflix CEO Reed Hastings announced last week that the company would be splitting off their DVD rental service into a new business to be called Qwikster. Last time I checked their blog post on the subject, there were 27,183 comments.

Discussion: MSDN Blogs and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Salon CEO Calls For ‘American Spring’ With Site's Relaunch — NEW YORK — David Talbot has seen Salon go through several iterations since founding the site in 1995. He was Salonâs editor-in-chief for a decade and served a couple of stints as CEO. In July, Talbot returned as interim CEO …

Discussion: Mixed Media, On Media's Blog and Poynter

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

China's ‘Facebook’ RenRen Buys China's ‘YouTube’ 56.com — A fusion of social and video in China... Renren, the social network which listed on Wall Street this spring, is acquiring the user-uploaded video site 56.com for $80 million. — Sequoia Capital, Steamboat Ventures, CID Group and SIG were investors.

Discussion: PR Newswire, Tech in Asia and TechCrunch

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

How David Bradley and Justin Smith Saved ‘The Atlantic’ — Four years ago, David Bradley, the chairman and sole owner of the Atlantic Media Company, came up to New York from Washington, D.C., to have dinner at The Carlyle with Justin Smith, who was then president and publisher of The Week.

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

Israel releases Palestinian Al Jazeera journalist — Network's Kabul bureau chief Samer Allawi has been released after six-week detention. Allawi has reportedly confessed to links with Palestinian militant group Hamas — Israel has released Al Jazeera's Kabul bureau chief Samer Allawi …