Mediagazer: Is Ashton Kutcher's Massive ‘Social TV’ Effect on ‘Two and a Half Men’ Sustainable? (Simon Dumenco/AdAge)

8:40 PM ET, September 27, 2011

Top News:

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.

Discussion: MediaFile, Erik Wemple, Adweek and New York Magazine

Bloomberg:

News Corp. Marketer Used Movie Lessons to Instill Fear in Rivals, Clients — A News Corp. unit that used lessons gleaned from gangster films to motivate employees and crush rivals is the latest arm of Rupert Murdoch's media empire to be swept up in a probe that began with hacking and bribery allegations.

Discussion: Business Insider and Mogulite

David Folkenflik / NPR:

News Corp.'s U.K. Actions Under Scrutiny In U.S. … The British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp. is in negotiations to pay several million dollars to settle the claims of the family of a slain girl whose mobile voice mail messages were hacked by a private investigator for one of its tabloids.

Discussion: Poynter and Capital New York

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

Discussion: paidContent:UK and The Huffington Post

Media Decoder:

James Rubin Abruptly Departs Bloomberg — 5:03 p.m. | Updated James P. Rubin, a former assistant secretary of state hired by Bloomberg News just 10 months ago to help lead its new opinion-writing section, has left his job after a rocky start. — His departure came as a surprise …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Poynter, On Media's Blog, Business Insider and Talking Biz News

Gail Shister / TVNewser:

Andy Rooney To End Regular ‘60 Minutes’ Appearances — First on TVNewser: Andy Rooney's “60 Minutes” commentary on Sunday is expected to be his last regular appearance, TVNewser has learned. — Rooney, who began his whimsical end-of-show pieces in 1978, was MIA from last week's 44th-season premiere.

Discussion: Mediaite, Speakeasy, Media Decoder, CBS News, Broadcasting & Cable, The Huffington Post, On Media's Blog, Gawker, New York Magazine, The Wrap, FishbowlDC and TVSpy

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: The Wrap, MediaPost, Future of Journalism, VatorNews, Deadline.com, Light Reading, GeekWire, rbr.com, VentureBeat, Adweek, Gizmodo and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

About Group Restructures Guide Operations Team; 15 Gone, 10 Being Added — The New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Co.'s About Group is reorganizing the way its Guide teams operate, as new CEO Darline Jean charts a path out of spiraling ad declines related to the weak economy and users.

Discussion: Business Insider, The Wrap, Adweek, NetNewsCheck Latest, Poynter, The Next Web, @antderosa and @benpopper

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Licensed journalists in Britain? Surely Labour is joking... Can Labour's shadow culture secretary, Ivan Lewis, be serious? — In his party conference speech today he implied that journalists should be licensed and that naughty journalists should be de-licensed. — Come back John Wilkes.

Discussion: Guardian and Telegraph

Patrick Wintour / Guardian:
Labour plans tighter media regulation

Discussion: Telegraph, Boing Boing, Press Gazette, The First Post, The Huffington Post, Sky News, Helen Lewis Hasteley and Crikey

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: FishbowlNY and MediaPost

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Hearst Passes 300,000 Monthly Digital Subscribers, Takes a Bow — Hearst, which is about to sell its digital magazines via Amazon's new tablet, wants the world to know it's selling its digital magazines on plenty of other gadgets, too: The publisher says it is now racking up more than 300,000 paid digital downloads per month.

Discussion: Electronista, CNET News, Softpedia News, Editors Weblog and PC Magazine

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

CBS News and ‘60 Minutes’ Dominate at News & Documentary Emmy Awards — Last night the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences handed out its 32nd annual News & Documentary Emmy Awards. CBS News dominated its competition, pulling home 10 awards-the most for a network news division in a decade.

Discussion: On Media's Blog, The Huffington Post, Broadcasting & Cable, Multichannel, TVSpy and Inside TV

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 …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

How publishers can overcome the abundance problem in mobile advertising — The mobile advertising market is booming. Total U.S. mobile ad spending is expected to rise from almost $800 million last year to $4 billion in 2015. This sounds great to publishers hoping to build mobile revenue streams.

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.

Brian Steinberg / AdAge:

Conan's Ratings Are Down, but He's Huge Online — Turner's New Pitch to Advertisers Touts Late-Night Host's Web Popularity — It's a natural angle, considering the intensifying scrutiny around the weakened TV ratings-and the “make-goods” that have come with them-for Mr. O'Brien's late-night “Conan” show on TBS.

Tim Carmody / Epicenter:

Netflix Isn't a Cable Company; Netflix Is a Video Channel — Have you guys seen Shrek Forever After? (Don't worry; I'm going somewhere with this.) — So after the first three Shrek movies, the once-disruptive ogre has settled down into quiet, prosperous family life.

Discussion: Bloomberg, Thanks:tcarmody

Christina Warren / Mashable!:

Sports Illustrated Puts Football Rivals on the iPhone and iPad — Sports Illustrated continues its push into digital arenas that extend beyond the print publication. The company's latest iOS app, Sports Illustrated Football Rivals for iPhone [iTunes link] and iPad [iTunes link] …

Discussion: AdAge, mediabistro.com, App Advice and eMedia Vitals

Tim Edwards / PC Gamer:

ITV documentary can't tell the difference between gaming and reality; mistakes Arma 2 for secret IRA film — Here's an upload of a video from a recent ITV documentary into Colonel Gaddhafi's support of the IRA. It contains shocking footage of a helicopter being shot down using weapons allegedly supplied by that baddie.

Discussion: Telegraph, Guardian and Business Insider

Ben Popper / Betabeat:

How Newsweek's Most Notorious Fellow Got Caught Conning Silicon Alley — Jerry Guo considers himself a modern nomad. The 24-year-old Chinese-American stays in a different apartment each month, couch surfing or subletting, whatever works best. “Moving around makes it easier to find cool new venues,” Mr. Guo explained.

Discussion: Gawker