Mediagazer: Ali Velshi Gets New Domestic Role at CNN, Adds CNNI Program (Alex Weprin/TVNewser)

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

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: Editors Weblog, Noted, Financial Times and paidContent

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

Fifth of FT.com traffic coming from mobile devices — Overall digital subscriptions at the FT are up 30%, according to publisher Pearson, with 15% of new subscriptions for mobile devices — A fifth of the traffic to the FT's website is now coming from mobile devices, publisher Pearson announced today.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

FT Group revenue up 6% — Publisher Pearson also reports doubling of ebook sales at Penguin — Pearson has reported a 6% year-on-year revenue increase at FT Group, the division that publishes the Financial Times, announcing that ebook sales at Penguin have more than doubled in the first nine months.

Discussion: Press Gazette

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

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.

Mat Honan / Gizmodo:
Amazon Is Letting Publishers Ruin The Kindle (Updated)

Discussion: The New York Observer, TeleRead, GalleyCat and eBookNewser

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.

Brandon Griggs / CNN:

Steve Jobs biography is top-selling book in the U.S. — (CNN) — In its first week on sale, Walter Isaacson's biography of Apple co-founder Steve Jobs sold 379,000 copies in the U.S., making it by far the top-selling book in the country. — The book, titled simply “Steve Jobs,” …

Discussion: Bookseller news, CNET News and Speakeasy

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 …

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: TVWeek.com, Inside Cable News and TVSpy

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

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Murdoch fails to win Hunt's full backing — Culture secretary dodges issue of whether Murdoch is ‘fit and proper’ person to run BSkyB in wake of phone-hacking scandal — The culture secretary declined an opportunity to throw his support behind James Murdoch's continuing chairmanship of BSkyB …

Discussion: Press Gazette

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
News Corp. COO: James Murdoch Has Done a Good Job

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY, Capital New York, Jon Slattery, The Huffington Post and New York Magazine

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:
News Corp.: Net Income Down On $91 Million In Hacking, BSkyB Charges

Discussion: Press Gazette, Free Press, Guardian, Media Money …, rbr.com, Multichannel, Company Town, Adweek, MediaPost and Broadcasting & Cable

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

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.

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: WebProNews

Julie Moos / Poynter:

ABC News previews exclusive Gabby Giffords, Mark Kelly appearance — When ABC airs its interview with Gabrielle Giffords and her husband Mark Kelly, the country may well hear from the recovering Congresswoman for the first time since she was shot at an Arizona constituent event in January.

Discussion: The Huffington Post and ABCNEWS

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

Where Netflix wants to go next: India, Korea, Japan? — Netflix recently announced that it has put its international expansion on hold until global profitability returns, but that doesn't mean the company isn't already making plans for additional markets. — A recent job ad searched …

Discussion: Digits, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Murdoch, Abramson make Forbes' list of ‘most powerful people’ — News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch is No. 24 on Forbes' new list of the 70 most powerful people in the world. New York Times Executive Editor Jill Abramson is No. 64. The blurb for Abramson reads, “Bloggers come, bloggers go …

Discussion: Business Insider and The Next Web

MarketWatch:

“WSJ Live” Interactive Video Service Adds New Distribution — The Wall Street Journal today announced several new distribution channels for WSJ Live, the interactive video service for iPad, Internet-connected televisions and set-top boxes that launched in September.

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BT Vision is fastest-growing pay-TV service — Telecoms company adds more customers in a quarter than BSkyB for first time — BT Vision has become the fastest-growing pay-TV service in the UK, adding more customers in a quarter than BSkyB for the first time since launching more than four years ago.

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

‘X Factor’ Gets a 2nd Season on Fox — Fox's new singing competition, “The X Factor,” has won a second season. The network said Wednesday that it would bring the series back next year, potentially extending the scheduling pattern that features “X Factor” in the fall and “American Idol” in the spring.

Discussion: Guardian, Broadcasting & Cable and Rolling Stone