Mediagazer: Why A Former ESPN VP Filed A Pre-Emptive Lawsuit Denying He Masturbated In Front Of Erin Andrews (A.J. Daulerio/Deadspin)

5:50 PM ET, November 3, 2011

Top News:

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:

New round of belt-tightening at L.A. Times — According to a couple of independent newsroom sources, Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton called meetings on Wednesday to inform affected people that the design, news operations and web operations staffs would be combined into one department, along with at least some of the copy editors.

Discussion: Free Press

Mallary Jean Tenore / Poynter:

AP issues staff guidelines on retweets, no ‘personal opinions’ allowed or implied — The Associated Press has added a new entry on retweeting to its social media guidelines. Staffers are reminded to keep their opinions to themselves. … Disclaimers — like “retweets do not constitute endorsements” …

Martin Bryant / The Next Web:

Despite Apple spat, Financial Times digital subscriptions see 30% growth in the last year — The Financial Times has had an interesting few months when it comes to its digital strategy, but it appears to be paying off as the business publication has announced 30% year-on-year growth …

Discussion: Financial Times, paidContent, Editors Weblog and Noted

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:
Fifth of FT.com traffic coming from mobile devices

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
FT Group revenue up 6%

Discussion: BtoB Magazine, Epicenter, mnilive.com and Press Gazette

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon Won't Pay Self-Published Author For Books It Mistakenly Gave Away — Amazon's self-publishing platform, Kindle Direct Publishing, has a rule: If you use it to publish a book, and then sell that same book on another site at a lower price, KDP retains the right to drop the price of your book in the Kindle Store too.

Discussion: Forbes, Future of Journalism and The Next Web

Wall Street Journal:

Amazon, Now a Book Lender — Kindle Owners Who Subscribe to Prime Service Will Be Able to Borrow E-Titles — As the e-reader and tablet wars heat up, Amazon.com Inc. is launching a digital-book lending library that will be available only to owners of its Kindle and Kindle Fire devices …

Discussion: MediaFile, GigaOM, Wired Magazine, Amazon.com, Gizmodo, Forbes, CNET News, paidContent, PC Magazine, Techland, WebProNews, Softpedia News, Pocket-lint, GeekWire, Gizmodo and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Shannon High Jumps to CNN, Will Oversee New Morning Show — TVNewser has learned Shannon High is leaving NBC's Peacock Productions to join CNN where she will oversee the new four-hour morning show. An announcement on the hire, and the new show, could come as early as tomorrow.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wrap, Inside Cable News, TVWeek.com and TVSpy

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

CNN Makes Morning Lineup Revamp Official — Soledad O'Brien returns to early hours with Ashleigh Banfield, Zoraida Sambolin — CNN has made the changes to its morning lineup official, announcing Thursday that Soledad O'Brien would return to hosting the network's mornings along …

Discussion: TVNewser

Ryan Chittum / CJR:

The Journal Fizzles on Occupy Oakland Protest — Several thousand Occupy movement protestors shut down the Port of Oakland yesterday, a week after Oakland police attacked the protest with tear gas and, allegedly, flashbang grenades and rubber bullets. Big news story.

Discussion: Wall Street Journal and New York Times

Matthew Fleischer / FishbowlLA:
Cartoonist Susie Cagle Arrested at Occupy Oakland Protests

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY and TVSpy

Alysia Santo / CJR:
Oakland Local Covers Occupy Oakland

Discussion: The Bay Citizen and Guardian

Gabe Rivera / Mediagazer News:

Meet Mediagazer's New (Human) Editors — If the last thing you heard about Mediagazer's staffing was its founding editor's move to The Observer, you were probably wondering who was now running the show. Well, for over a month we've been quietly assembling a team spanning three time zones …

Discussion: Beet.TV, more at Techmeme »

Emily Bell:

Google+ and Journalist Profiles: the best thing since sliced bread or the worst thing since bundled browsers? — The announcement from Google, that it is going to allow journalists to become more visible in its Google News service, as long as they have a profile on the Google+ social platform has sparked some comment and reaction.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Sarah Marshall / journalism.co.uk:
Journalists get a photo byline in Google News (but only those on Google+)

Discussion: Adweek, VentureBeat, Inside Search, Nieman Journalism Lab, Alexander Howard and Search Engine Land, more at Techmeme »

Alex Williams / New York Times:

Short Sainthood for Steve Jobs — THE glowing obituaries appeared moments after Steve Jobs's death was announced on Oct. 5. “Silicon Valley's radiant Sun King,” eulogized The San Jose Mercury News. His name was floated for Time magazine's Person of the Year, though the honor traditionally goes to the living.

Discussion: Forbes

Brandon Griggs / CNN:
Steve Jobs biography is top-selling book in the U.S.

Discussion: Bookseller news, CNET News and Speakeasy

D.M. Levine / Adweek:

Four Years In, Fox Business Network Still Treading Water — It was an abysmal month for Fox News' young sibling channel. Fox Business Network saw an average daily viewership of around 65,000 for October, according to Nielsen, which also happened to be the month of the network's four-year anniversary.

Discussion: TVNewser and Inside Cable News

Katy Bachman / Adweek:

“The Internet Community is Always in a Complete Lather” — With the debate over bills meant to crack down on digital piracy heating up on Capitol Hill, Adweek caught up with Robert Levine, author of Free Ride: How Digital Parasites are Destroying the Culture Business, and How the Culture Business …

Discussion: Copyhype

A.J. Daulerio / Deadspin:

Why A Former ESPN VP Filed A Pre-Emptive Lawsuit Denying He Masturbated In Front Of Erin Andrews — Last month, ESPN announced it was eliminating its bi-coastal, 25-person Content Development department, which was responsible for the network's 30 for 30 series, among other things.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of Yahoo Livestand — Those Pew research numbers — 11 percent of U.S. adults owning a tablet, tablet news-reading numbers off the charts — make everybody even hungrier. — Yahoo is the latest to try to get in on the growing banquet of reading riches …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal, GigaOM, MediaPost, Forbes and AllThingsD

Colleen Taylor / GigaOM:

Twitter quietly debuts new ‘Top News’ and ‘Top People’ search features — Twitter's web interface got a couple of nice new additions Wednesday, seemingly aimed at making it easier to find relevant content when conducting a search within the site. — For some users, Twitter's website …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and WebProNews

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter: How Twitter's new ‘top news’ search results will help (and hurt) publishers

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Ali Velshi Gets New Domestic Role at CNN, Adds CNNI Program — Along with the announcement of its new morning lineup, CNN has announced a new role for anchor and correspondent Ali Velshi. For CNN/U.S. Velshi will launch new “signature segments” next month in which he analyzes economic, political or global news of the day.

Discussion: Mediaite

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Phone hacking: number of possible victims is almost 5,800, police confirm — News of the World private investigator Glenn Mulcaire may have targeted 2,000 more people than previously acknowledged — The number of possible victims of phone hacking by the News of the World private investigator Glenn Mulcaire …