Mediagazer: In Defense of Journalistic Facelessness (Hamilton Nolan/Gawker)

9:00 AM ET, November 2, 2011

Top News:

Robert Booth / Guardian:

Julian Assange loses appeal against extradition — High court judges rule the WikiLeaks founder should face accusations of rape in Sweden — The WikiLeaks founder, Julian Assange, has lost his high court appeal against extradition to Sweden to face rape allegations.

Discussion: The Firewall, Future of Journalism and Journalism.co.uk, more at Techmeme »

The Guardian:

Julian Assange loses extradition appeal - full judgment

Raphael G. Sattter / Associated Press:

As Assange awaits ruling, WikiLeaks faces its fate — LONDON (AP) — As Julian Assange awaits a judge's extradition verdict, it could be WikiLeaks' very future that's at stake. — Its finances under pressure and some of its biggest revelations already public, WikiLeaks may not have the strength …

Discussion: Gawker

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Wired' Bringing Advertisers and Its Blogs Closer Together — It may have taken nontraditional publishers like Federated Media to pave the way for “conversational media,” in which advertisers mix more directly with the blogging community. But now premium content brands want to get in on the act.

David Jolly / New York Times:

Satirical Magazine Is Firebombed in Paris — PARIS — The office of a magazine here was firebombed early on Wednesday, the publisher said, after the satirical weekly published an issue “guest edited” by the Prophet Muhammad to salute the victory of an Islamist party in Tunisian elections.

Discussion: www.thetakeaway.org

Mark Hosenball / Reuters:

Law firm documents add to heat on James Murdoch — (Reuters) - A law firm which represented Rupert Murdoch's London tabloids has turned over to the British parliament documents which could embarrass his son James when he returns to testify before a committee investigating a phone-hacking scandal.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Press Association

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:
Phone hacking: Internal News International documents published

Discussion: Guardian

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
Phone hacking: QC warned of ‘culture of illegal information access’ at NoW

Discussion: Digital Spy, Media & Entertainment, Press Gazette and Future of Journalism

Tim Molloy / The Wrap:

Ratings: ‘Rock Center’ Off to Bad Start as Halloween Cuts Into Ratings All Around — “Rock Center with Brian Williams” is off to a bad start, debuting 38 percent lower than the premiere of “The Playboy Club,” the now-canceled drama it replaced in the Mondays-at-10 timeslot.

Discussion: TVNewser and rbr.com

Bill Carter / New York Times:
‘60 Minutes’ Draws Viewers With the Madoffs

Discussion: TVNewser and GalleyCat

Hollywood Reporter:
Brian Williams' ‘Rock Center’ Premiere: What the Viewers Are Saying

Discussion: The Huffington Post, EW.com, Washington Post, Washington Post and Chickaboomer

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

AOL Beats Estimates, Posts Another Sales Ad Increase. But About Those Domestic Numbers ... Here's a first look at AOL Q3 earnings: Revenue of $532 million and an earnings loss of $0.02 per share. Wall Street estimates for the company tend to be all over the map, but Yahoo Finance thinks …

Discussion: paidContent and Reuters, more at Techmeme »

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Wall Street Journal, USA Today, New York Times top latest circulation report — ABC has released circulation figures for the six-month period ending Sept. 30, 2011. This is the second reporting period in which ABC is counting circulation differently, so you can't compare current figures to previous periods.

Discussion: MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, Media Decoder, Media News, Adweek, Capital New York and Future of Journalism

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:
The sideways numbers you'll see in today's newspaper circulation report

Discussion: Media Nation, MediaPost, WWD, LA Observed and NewsBulletin Connection

David Kaplan / paidContent:
Fas-Fax: Major Newspapers' Total Digital Editions Rise 63 Percent

Discussion: BtoB Magazine

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
More Proof That Paywalls Work From...Newsday?

Discussion: Poynter, On Media's Blog, NetNewsCheck Latest, New York Magazine, The New York Observer and The Wrap

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Three lessons news sites can take from the launch of The Verge — Maybe it's just the 30-something former rock critic in me, but I keep accidentally calling new gadget site The Verge The Verve instead. But whatever you call it, The Verge's launch today is one of the most anticipated in the online news space in some time.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Future of Journalism, NYConvergence.com, Business Insider, The Verge, Adweek and paidContent

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:

Yahoo News hires David Chalian as Washington bureau chief — David Chalian, currently the political editor at “PBS Newshour,” will become the Washington bureau chief of Yahoo News later this month. — The move is part of Yahoo's renewed focus on original content and political coverage of the 2012 presidential election.

Heidi Kulicke / Editor & Publisher ®:

How Media Companies Are Fighting Back Against Hackers — Hackers have been wreaking havoc on websites since the early days of dial-up. But as the Internet has become more sophisticated, so have hackers. Victims range from financial companies, retail sites, and government entities …

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

The ‘Times’ debuts its latest Goliath: A new, web-friendly event calendar for New York — The New York Times today launches its very soberly named Arts & Entertainment Guide, which is actually a big deal: It means a Goliath is entering the online event-calendar market for really the first time.

Alex Pham / Company Town:

Sirius XM third-quarter subscriber growth rattles investors — Sirius XM Radio Inc.'s subscriber growth received a cool reception on Wall Street as investors worried that the satellite radio company might lose customers early next year when its 12% price hike is set to hit.

Discussion: Media Decoder, AllThingsD and rbr.com

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

In Defense of Journalistic Facelessness — The mighty, omniscient “journalistic tone” is largely a convenient myth. Newspapers and other media outlets long adopted this self-assured institutional writing style which admitted no doubt as a way to appear more knowledgeable than they really were.

Discussion: Poynter and The Loyal Opposition

Odette Yousef / wbez.org:

Al Jazeera English hits Chicago cable waves — WTTW carries Qatar-based news channel — Starting today, Chicagoans have cable access to news from Al Jazeera English. The Qatar-based channel will air its international coverage on local public television station WTTW.

Discussion: On Media's Blog and Poynter

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Gawker network three times more valuable than Drudge Report, according to survey — The financial news site 24/7 Wall St. has come up with a list of the 25 most valuable blogs (perhaps more aptly, aggregators and news sites) based on revenue, profits, market differentiation and “founder risk …

Mike Sauter / 24/7 Wall St.:
The Twenty-Five Most Valuable Blogs In America - 2011

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Frances Martel / Mediaite:

Politico's Ken Vogel Refuses To Confirm Or Deny Cain Story Came From Rival Camp — As the fallout continues from last night's scandalous Herman Cain exposé, many trying to parse Cain's response to accusations of having had to settle a sexual harassment claim as head …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Guardian and ProPublica