Mediagazer: Ted Forstmann, CEO of IMG Worldwide, Dead at 71 (Daniel Frankel/The Wrap)

2:20 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: 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: The Staggers

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

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: NetNewsCheck Latest, Media Decoder and Pressthink

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 — UPDATE: Mashable has confirmed with us that Ben Parr was fired on Friday. — Parr got in touch with us to say this: “I'm proud to call myself a Mashable alumnus. I have a couple of amazing things up my sleeve.”

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

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: paidContent, Poynter, FishbowlNY, Prof Chris Daly's Blog and The Next Web

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: LA Observed, Poynter, FishbowlNY, The New York Observer, Mixed Media and Business Insider

Daily Mail:

News of the World journalists' computers were destroyed by ‘putting them through a grinder and smashing them up’ — The phone hacking scandal has taken a new twist after it was revealed computers used by News of the World journalists were destroyed by putting them ‘through a grinder’.

Discussion: Independent.ie

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

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 …

Discussion: AllThingsD, Future of Journalism, VentureBeat, NetNewsCheck Latest, GigaOM, The Verge, ZDNet, PC Magazine and Softpedia News, more at Techmeme »

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

NDA-Worthy PE Firms Silver Lake and TPG Meet With Top Yahoo Operating Execs — After signing strict nondisclosure agreements required by Yahoo, top private equity firms Silver Lake and TPG have been meeting with top operating execs there to get a closer look-see at the Silicon Valley Internet giant.

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: TUAW, Electronista, Fast Company and FT Tech Hub, 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

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

BSkyB names new independent directors — Le Monde shareholder Matthieu Pigasse and Aberdeen Asset Management founder Martin Gilbert appointed ahead of AGM — BSkyB is to appoint Matthieu Pigasse, controlling shareholder of Le Monde and the French edition of Huffington Post …