Mediagazer: How Much Does an NBC Turnaround Even Matter Any More? (Brian Steinberg/AdAge)

2:55 AM ET, November 5, 2011

Top News:

Layoffs at the ‘Daily News’: Police desk, City Hall, federal courts and photo department hit so far — Layoffs have come to the Daily News. — Since this morning, staffers to be laid off have been getting called into a conference room to meet with senior vice president of human-resources Jeff Zomper.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment and @huffpostmedia

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

News Corp. Begins Settlement Program for Phone-Hacking Victims — News Corp. (NWSA)'s U.K. unit started a voluntary settlement program for thousands of potential victims of phone hacking by the company's News of the World tabloid, which was shuttered in July as the scandal expanded.

Discussion: Company Town, Journalism.co.uk, FishbowlNY, Gawker, New York Magazine, Guardian, Guardian and Business Wire

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Man arrested over alleged police payments named as Sun journalist — Reporter arrested over alleged payments to police officers believed to be paper's district editor, Jamie Pyatt — A Sun journalist has been arrested as part of Scotland Yard's investigation into alleged payments to police officers by newspapers.

Discussion: Reuters, Poynter, Media & Entertainment, Reuters, New York Times, Press Gazette and Guardian

Mark Fitzgerald / Poynter:

Booted for plagiarism, California columnist finds his Patch — A California writer who lost his newspaper column after plagiarizing has explained himself on the local Patch site, where he's now a blogger. Why? — Nicole Charky, the Patch editor for the towns of Montrose and La Crescenta …

Discussion: Montrose, CA Patch, FishbowlLA and Montrose Patch

Kimberly Dozier / Associated Press:

AP Exclusive: CIA following Twitter, Facebook — McLEAN, Va. (AP) — In an anonymous industrial park in Virginia, in an unassuming brick building, the CIA is following tweets — up to 5 million a day. — At the agency's Open Source Center, a team known affectionately as the “vengeful librarians” …

Discussion: PC Magazine, Gawker, Business Insider, ReadWriteWeb, WebProNews, Future of Journalism and The Politico

Erika Fry / CJR:

Charges dropped against first reporter arrested at Occupy Wall Street — A good sign came out of New York City's criminal court yesterday for journalists who have been swept up in arrests at the Occupy Wall Street protests. — Disorderly conduct charges were dropped against WNET's MetroFocus …

Discussion: Forbes, Fast Company, Media Matters for America, Reporters Committee News, Runnin' Scared, On the Media, Mediaite and JSOnline

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

Howard T. Owens Named President of National Geographic Channels — Former Reveille executive to replace Steve Schiffman — National Geographic Channels U.S. has named former Reveille chief Howard T. Owens its president, replacing Steve Schiffman, it was announced late Friday.

Discussion: The Wrap and Deadline.com

Lucas Shaw / The Wrap:

Business Insider Blossoms the HuffPost Way — Founded as a site focused on digital news in New York, Business Insider has the kind of growth and buzz that invite comparisons to new media darling The Huffington Post. — But that's not necessarily all positive.

Discussion: Poynter

Will Richmond / VideoNuze:

Google To Go Over-the-Top and Compete With Pay-TV Operators? Don't Bet On Success. — Is Google planning to go over-the-top and compete with pay-TV operators for subscribers? That's the tantalizing possibility the WSJ is reporting this morning, though its article is long on speculation …

Discussion: AllThingsD, Epicenter and Deadline.com, more at Techmeme »

Committee to Protect Journalists:

Israel arrests journalists aboard flotilla — Israeli forces arrested an unidentified number of journalists today after a group of soldiers boarded two humanitarian aid ships sailing toward Gaza and forced them to redirect to the Israeli port of Ashdod, according to news reports.

Discussion: Democracy Now and Guardian

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

TVGuide.com-paidContent Survey Shows Big Spike In Online, Time-Shifted TV — Consumers are watching more TV today than ever before, but that increased consumption is rapidly changing with the times. According to a new survey from TVGuide.com and paidContent, a good part of the growth in TV usage …

Discussion: ChasNote

Brian Steinberg / AdAge:

How Much Does an NBC Turnaround Even Matter Any More? — Tuning In: By the Time Comcast Gets Things Right, Broadcast's Prime Roost Won't Be the Same — Imagine switching your TV set to NBC and finding nothing there but static. Would you be surprised? More important, would you care?

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Time Warner makes €1bn Endemol bid — US media group seeks to take over debt-laden production company behind Big Brother and Deal or No Deal — Time Warner has made a takeover bid for Endemol, the debt-laden Dutch production company behind Big Brother and Deal or No Deal.