Mediagazer: How Media Companies Are Fighting Back Against Hackers (Heidi Kulicke/Editor & Publisher ®)

6:05 AM ET, November 2, 2011

Top News:

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: Media News, Media Decoder, Adweek, Capital New York and Future of Journalism

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

Discussion: MediaPost, WWD, LA Observed and NewsBulletin Connection

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

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

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

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

Jason Deans / Guardian: Phone hacking: NoW lawyer warned editor of ‘damning email’ in 2008

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

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: Future of Journalism and The Verge

Dan Walker Smith / Adweek:
Engadget Alumni Launch The Verge

Discussion: Future of Journalism, eMedia Vitals, Nieman Journalism Lab, ShortFormBlog, NYConvergence.com, Business Insider, NetNewsCheck Latest, AllThingsD and paidContent

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

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.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

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

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 …

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

Nellie Andreeva / Deadline.com:

CNN's ‘Piers Morgan Tonight’ Gets Beat In The Ratings By A 3 AM Fox News Show — CNN's 9 PM anchor Piers Morgan Tonight is regularly pummeled in the ratings by its Fox News primetime counterparts. But in October, it also got beat by Fox News' overnight program Red Eye, which airs at 3 AM.

Discussion: TVNewser

Anna Sanders / The New York Observer:

John Swansburg Leaves the New Yorker After Only 2 Months, Returns to Slate — Early this morning, Slate editor-in-chief and chairman Jacob Weisberg tweeted that former colleague and culture editor John Swansburg was “back!” A New Yorker spokesman confirmed that Mr. Swansburg's …

Thanks:megan

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

Major Book Publisher Files Mass-BitTorrent Lawsuit — Since early 2010 more than 200,000 people have been sued in the U.S. for sharing copyrighted works via BitTorrent. Thus far these lawsuits have been the exclusive territory of independent and adult film studios, but today they are joined …

Discussion: Melville House Books, Publishers Weekly, TeleRead, the Econsultancy blog, Softpedia News, Free Press, ReadWriteWeb and The Digital Reader

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Our relationship with e-books: It's too complicated

Discussion: TeleRead

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Newly-Bankrupt MF Global Owes CNBC $850,000 — Financial services company MF Global filed for bankruptcy protection yesterday, and surprisingly CNBC is one of the company's larger creditors. MF Global owes CNBC nearly $850,000, and while that pales in comparison to the more than $1.2 billion …

Discussion: FT Alphaville, The Atlantic Online and Forbes

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:

Limbaugh Denounces Herman Cain Story — Rush Limbaugh tore into Politico on his Monday show, denouncing the web site for what he called a “hit job” on Herman Cain. Limbaugh said that the story was an “unconscionable, racially stereotypical attack” on Cain. — Politico posted an explosive story about Cain on Sunday.

Discussion: Poynter, Washington Post, Erik Wemple and Slate