Mediagazer: Rupert Murdoch sells A shares, but still in control (Yinka Adegoke/Reuters)

7:25 PM ET, November 21, 2011

Top News:

Mail titles hit back at Grant over ‘mendacious smears’ — Mail on Sunday denies claims by actor Hugh Grant that it hacked his phone in 2007, calling his allegations ‘mendacious smears driven by a hatred of the media’ — Hugh Grant arrives at the Leveson inquiry today alongside his lawyer David Sherbourne

Discussion: Guardian, Gawker, Company Town, Big News Network.com, The New Yorker Blog, Digital Spy and Journalism.co.uk

Mimi Turner / Hollywood Reporter:
Hugh Grant Accuses ‘The Mail on Sunday’ of Phone Hacking

Discussion: @jemima_khan, @joelmgunter and @mrnickclark

George Eaton / New Statesman:
Hugh Grant's 10 myths of tabloid journalism

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Staggers and Journalism.co.uk

Daily Mail:
News of the World journalists' computers were destroyed by ‘putting them through a grinder and smashing them up’

Discussion: Independent.ie

James Robinson / Guardian:
Phone-hacking victims must not launch ‘witch-hunt’, says News International

Discussion: Big News Network.com

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Three Years Later, the Guardian Wants a Buyer for PaidContent — Three years after buying PaidContent, the Guardian Media Group has put the New York-based media news site and its parent company ContentNext on the block. — The British newspaper publisher has hired boutique bank Coady Diemar Partners to market the company.

Discussion: VentureBeat, paidContent:UK, @edmundlee and @rafat

Nick Summers / The Daily Beast:

Bloomberg's Plan for World Domination — With an army of reporters and wonky information services, the media company is expanding from Wall Street to Washington, Where it hopes to control—even more. — Bloomberg was everywhere, like Bloomberg likes to be.

Discussion: Capital New York, Poynter, Capital Tonight, New York Times, TVNewser, PolitickerNY and Future of Journalism

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Protest Puts Coverage in Spotlight — As police officers cleared protesters last week from Zuccotti Park in Lower Manhattan, the birthplace of Occupy Wall Street, they made sure most reporters were kept blocks away, supposedly for their own protection. — But in almost every other respect …

Discussion: Forbes, Nieman Journalism Lab, Media Decoder and Pressthink

David Freedlander / PolitickerNY: In Light of ‘Occupy’ Arrests, New Group ‘To Monitor NYPD/Press Relations’

Vanessa Grigoriadis / New York Magazine:

Maharishi Arianna — Atop AOL, hiring and borrowing freely from the old media, a new age news guru is building her grandest temple yet. — On a recent Sunday afternoon, Arianna Huffington, the 61-year-old editorial director of the newly merged AOL-Huffington Post …

Discussion: Poynter, Mixed Media, FishbowlNY, LA Observed, The New York Observer and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

At 154, a Digital Milestone — The Atlantic Media Company owes its name and legacy to the 154-year-old monthly magazine founded by New England literary greats like Ralph Waldo Emerson. But in October, the company marked a very modern milestone: digital advertising revenue exceeded print advertising revenue for the first time.

Discussion: Publishing Executive …, Poynter, paidContent, The Next Web, Gawker, Prof Chris Daly's Blog, FishbowlNY and NetNewsCheck Latest

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

iPad Magazine Readers to Publishers: More, Please — After an initial wave of excitement about iPad magazines, some publishers have dialed back their enthusiasm. But the readers who have actually downloaded them like them quite a bit. — So says a survey commissioned by a publishers' trade group …

Discussion: MediaPost, Poynter, paidContent, mocoNews, NetNewsCheck Latest, Electronista, Future of Journalism, Epicenter, TUAW, Fast Company, BtoB Magazine and FT Tech Hub, more at Techmeme »

Yinka Adegoke / Reuters:

Rupert Murdoch sells A shares, but still in control — News Corp Chief Executive and Chairman Rupert Murdoch sold off the bulk of his common shareholding according to a regulatory filing but, have no fear the 80 year-old mogul is still very much in charge both in terms of management and financial control.

Discussion: Media Decoder, New York Magazine and FishbowlNY

Ben Parr:

2,446 Articles Later, A Goodbye to Mashable — Dear friends, family, colleagues and supporters, — Friday, November 18, was my last day at Mashable. I want to thank the Mashable team for 3+ amazing years. They truly have been the best years of my life. — I also want to thank everybody who has been part of my journey.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

Matt Lynley / Business Insider:
Mashable Fires Editor At Large And Top Writer Ben Parr

Discussion: Gawker, WebProNews, Adweek, Future of Journalism, AllThingsD and ShortFormBlog

Andy Greenberg / Forbes:

Alleged WikiLeaks Source Bradley Manning Has A Court Date: 569 Days After His Arrest — One year, six months, and three weeks after he was first jailed in a military brig in Kuwait, alleged WikiLeaks leaker Bradley Manning will have his day in court: According to a blog post Monday …

Discussion: The Law Office …, Media Decoder, New York Magazine, VentureBeat, Bradley Manning Support …, Guardian, Gawker and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »

David Kaplan / paidContent:

NYT Launches Group Digital Subscriptions For Companies — The New York Times is ready to start extending sales of its “all access” digital subscriptions across tablets and smartphones to companies and organizations with more than 50 employees. The introduction of a new structure …

Discussion: New York Times, FishbowlNY and NetNewsCheck Latest

Tom Krazit / paidContent:

Study iPad Owners Drive 88 Percent Of Worldwide Web Traffic From Tablets — One can argue the semantics over shipped units and sold units when evaluating the state of the tablet market in late 2011, but one thing seems pretty clear: way, way more people are using the iPad than any other tablet device …