Mediagazer: Barnes & Noble Urges U.S. Regulators to Probe Microsoft on Mobile Patents (Susan Decker/Bloomberg)

1:05 PM ET, November 9, 2011

Top News:

Andrew Crook / Crikey:

Farewell Big Harto: News Ltd CEO John Hartigan resigns — Rupert Murdoch has delivered a savage verdict on the health of his Australian operation, with veteran News Ltd CEO John Hartigan stepping aside and Rupert taking the company's chairmanship for himself.

Discussion: Adweek

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Murdoch's Aussie boss steps down — Rupert Murdoch has lost one of his most loyal and effective newspaper executives. John Hartigan, chairman and chief executive of News Corp's Australian division, News Limited, is stepping down. — In making the announcement today …

Discussion: mUmBRELLA, Sydney Morning Herald and TheAustralian

Jim Galloway / Atlanta Journal-Constitution:

NBC's David Gregory apologizes for saying ‘no grand wizard’ in GOP — On NBC's “Today” this morning, David Gregory - the host of “Meet the Press” — was addressing the lack of Republican infrastructure that might encourage a beleaguered Herman Cain to leave the GOP presidential contest.

Discussion: TVNewser, Erick's blog and RealClearPolitics Video Log

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Josh Kraushaar: ‘Profoundly irresponsible’ for Cain campaign to say he's related to sexual harassment accuser — Tuesday afternoon, as reporters started to spread the name of one of Herman Cain's accusers, they kept asking Josh Kraushaar, executive editor of National Journal Hotline, if he is related to Karen Kraushaar.

Discussion: Media Matters for America, Mediaite, The Daily Caller, Media Diary and Forbes

Maggie Haberman / Politico:

Cain aide wrongly insists they've ‘confirmed’ accuser's son works for POLITICO — Herman Cain campaign manager Mark Block, in an appearance with Sean Hannity on Fox News just now, insisted that a relative of the second woman to publicly accuse the candidate of sexual harassment in the 1990s works at POLITICO.

Discussion: Mediaite, CNN, The New York Observer, National Review, The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Business Insider, Media Decoder, Gawker, NPR and The Daily

Kelly McBride / Poynter:
Why did journalists act as a pack in withholding names of Herman Cain's accusers?

Discussion: Media Matters for America, MarketShare, Forbes, Real Clear Politics, Mediaite, Big Journalism, New York Times, USA Today, New York Post, The Daily, NetNewsCheck Latest and Poynter

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Gone in a Flash: How Adobe's abandonment of Flash for mobile devices impacts news orgs — Jason Perlow at ZDNet broke a pretty big story overnight: Adobe is abandoning development of the mobile version of Flash Player. As the text of the announcement Perlow obtained has it:

Discussion: AllThingsD, Folio, ZDNet, Forbes, VentureBeat, Softpedia News and L.A. Times Tech Blog, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Fox News to use Google+ Hangouts for GOP candidate interviews — Fox News anchor Bret Baier will use Google+ Hangouts (group video chats) to moderate live discussions with each of the Republican presidential candidates and members of the public. First up is Mitt Romney on Nov. 15, to be followed by others later.

Discussion: Special Report, Strange Attractor, The Next Web and NewscastStudio Blog

Glyn Moody / Techdirt:

Russian Internet Content Monitoring System To Go Live In December — Back in April of this year, the Russian government put out a tender: … The stated purpose of the monitoring system was quite specific: … Here's what it would be searching for:

Stephen Mangan / Reuters:

Endemol set to reject prospective bidders: report — (Reuters) - Endemol, the debt-burdened Dutch TV production company, and its lenders are set to rebuff offers from Time Warner (TWX.N) and others for the group, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday. — The newspaper cited people familiar …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:
RTL eyes up possible Endemol bid

Discussion: @edmundlee

Tim Adler / Deadline.com: Time Warner's $1.3B Bid For Endemol Shows How Much Rupe Overpaid For Shine

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Discovery Executive to Leave — After two years as the chief operating officer of Discovery Communications, Peter Liguori will leave at the end of the year, the company said Wednesday. — His departure had been rumored for weeks. Discover said It does not plan to name a replacement.

Discussion: AdAge, Multichannel, Company Town and Broadcasting & Cable

Susan Decker / Bloomberg:

Barnes & Noble Urges U.S. Regulators to Probe Microsoft on Mobile Patents — Barnes & Noble Inc. (BKS) asked U.S. regulators to investigate whether Microsoft Corp. (MSFT) seeks to monopolize the mobile-device market by demanding patent royalties on electronics running on Google Inc.'s Android operating system.

Discussion: VentureBeat, GeekWire, PC Magazine, Techland, Epicenter, Digits, SlashGear, Wall Street Journal and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

The problem with retweets & how journalists can solve it — Every so often a journalist draws criticism for something he retweeted. And whether that criticism is justified or not, it discourages some journalists from using Twitter effectively. — News organizations respond with policies urging staff to be careful.

Discussion: Pocket-lint

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Twitter and journalism: It shouldn't be that complicated

Discussion: Poynter, eMedia Vitals and Future of Journalism

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Saul Hansell Departs AOL to Be EIR at Betaworks — Saul Hansell, the prominent former New York Times tech reporter who went to AOL several years ago to head one of its content efforts called Seed, will leave the company to become an entrepreneur in residence at Betaworks.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Saul Hansell's Blog, Gawker and Betabeat

fleet street fox:

Hacks will be Hacks — JOURNALISTS will ask you questions. We will take your picture, ring your office and your home, we will double-check what you say. — We will knock on your door, keep tabs on you, and stick our noses where they're not wanted. — Sometimes people take money …

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:
News of the World paid me to follow 90 people, claims private detective

Discussion: New York Times, Digital Spy, Press Gazette, Business Insider and BBC

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

As Magazines and Retail Converge, Where Will the Editorial Line Be Drawn? — According to Forrester research, Americans will spend nearly $200 billion online in 2011, which accounts for about one-tenth of what U.S. consumers will spend on products and services all together this year.

Craig Silverman / Regret the Error:

HuffPost removes, apologizes for 'Who's Got The Tranny Look?' poll — After receiving complaints from members of the gay and transgendered community, The Huffington Post removed a poll from its website that asked readers to vote on who has more of a “Tranny Look” between Sofia Vergara and Blake Liveley.

Discussion: Equality Matters and GLAAD

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Politix founder John Ellis out at Business Insider — Political editor John Ellis quietly departed Business Insider earlier this fall. Ellis, a storied character whose short analyses were at times defining in this cycle, wasn't a great fit for the fast-paced website, both he and sources there told us.

R. Thomas Umstead / Multichannel News:

CNN's Gupta To Host New Series — Sunday Afternoon Show to Profile World Innovators — CNN will continue to build new programming around its on-air talent with the Nov. 13 launch of a new weekly series featuring Dr. Sanjay Gupta. — The 30-minute series, The Next List …

Om Malik / GigaOM:

For Amazon & Kindle, brick & mortar stores key to success — When it comes to tablets, it has so far been a one-tablet show. Apple's iPad has been and continues to be the dominant player. Amazon's Kindle Fire is being considered a legitimate contender and if Amazon's spin is to be believed …

Discussion: TeleRead, Amazon.com and ReadWriteWeb, more at Techmeme »

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

AOL Doubles Down On Its Editions iPad Magazine With UK And Canada Versions — AOL's push into iPad news aggregation—to compete with the likes of Flipboard, Zite, Pulse, Yahoo's Livestand and others—is being taken up a notch today, with the launch of the AOL Editions magazine app in the UK and Canada.

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Political Ad Spending Helps Drive a Consolidation of Local TV Stations — A period of consolidation is under way in local television — and with it, a renewed debate about the implications of merger and acquisition activity on the industry. — A torrent of deals began in September …

Discussion: Company Town, TVSpy and Gannett Blog