Mediagazer: RTL eyes up possible Endemol bid (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

8:55 AM 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.

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: Sydney Morning Herald, mUmBRELLA and TheAustralian

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: Media Decoder, The Huffington Post, Washington Post, Mediaite, CNN, Business Insider, Gawker and The Daily

Julie Moos / Poynter:
The Daily names original Herman Cain accuser, other news orgs follow

Discussion: Mediaite, Media Matters for America, USA Today, Guardian, The Daily, New York Post, The Daily Caller, nation.foxnews.com, NPR, Washington Post, Forbes, The Huffington Post and Media Diary

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

Discussion: Mediaite, New York Times, Forbes, Motherlode, The Caucus and NetNewsCheck Latest

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, The Next Web and NewscastStudio Blog

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

News of the World paid me to follow 90 people, claims private detective — Former policeman says he surveilled figures including Prince William and the parents of Harry Potter actor Daniel Radcliffe — A private detective has claimed that the News of the World paid him to target more than 90 people …

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

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: ZDNet and AllThingsD, more at Techmeme »

Patrick B. Pexton / Washington Post:

Post Roast: Jennifer Rubin's retweet — Is a news organization responsible for what its journalists put out on Twitter? And what if those journalists are opinion writers? Those questions came up in October when The Post's Right Turn opinion blogger, Jennifer Rubin, retweeted a controversial tweet …

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

RTL eyes up possible Endemol bid — RTL not thought likely to make offer until Big Brother producer resolves debt restructure — RTL is understood to be interested in a potential deal to buy Endemol, but has not submitted an offer and is not thought likely to until the Big Brother producer resolves …

Discussion: @edmundlee

Adam B. Ellick / New York Times:

A Calm Guide to Afghan Chaos Moves On — The New York Times lost its longest-tenured journalist in Afghanistan in October. While foreign reporters rotate in and out of the country, Waheed Abdul Wafa was a perennial mainstay, dedicating his life to telling stories about a war that the rest …

MediaShift:

Do the Math! How Reporters Squandered the School Loans Story — When President Obama announced his school loan relief plan at the University of Colorado, Denver, a few weeks ago, the mainstream media's coverage followed three predictable trajectories that, for the most part …

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.

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: SlashGear, GeekWire 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.

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

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Adobe ‘Restructures,’ Eliminates 750 Jobs In North America And Europe — We've been hearing rumors of Adobe layoffs all day, and the company just released a statement announcing that it is ‘restructuring’ its business, which will result in the elimination of 750 jobs in North America and Europe.

Discussion: The Verge, Business Wire, Fortune, VentureBeat, Forbes, AllThingsD, Business Insider and Tech Trader Daily, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Steve Jobs May Be Time's First Dead Person of the Year — For all the hosannas he elicited, Steve Jobs was never named Time magazine's Person of the Year, a snub that rankled him considerably. Now that he's dead, he may finally win the distinction that eluded him in life.

Discussion: Capital New York, FishbowlNY, The New York Observer and Forbes

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: Gannett Blog

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:UK:

Kobo Acquired By Japanese E-Commerce Firm Rakuten For $315 Million — E-bookseller and e-reader company Kobo is being acquired by Japanese e-commerce company Rakuten for $315 million. The company says it will continue to expand in the U.S., while growing its international market share through Rakuten.

Discussion: Canada NewsWire Group, VentureBeat, CNET News, VatorNews, PC Magazine, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, GalleyCat and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:

NY Daily News Layoffs Massacre Continues: Two More Shown The Door, Bringing Total Count to 16 — The bad news keeps coming at the New York Daily News. Another two staffers have been let go, and the rumor is that there are more to come. We've received word that Michael Bowers …

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Phone hacking: Tom Crone admits ‘incorrect’ evidence — In response to a letter from the committee Crone insists the evidence he gave in September ‘was at the time my best recollection of the relevant events’ but that some details were incorrect — Crone (right) has told the committee …

Discussion: paidContent, NetNewsCheck Latest, Guardian and The Huffington Post

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:
Leveson rejects bid for police review of inquiry evidence

Discussion: Press Gazette

Dean Starkman / CJR:

Confidence Game — “The question that mass amateurization poses to traditional media is ‘What happens when the costs of reproduction and distribution go away? What happens when there is nothing unique about publishing anymore because users can do it for themselves?’