Mediagazer: NI refutes lawyer's claim over ‘hacking lesson’ journalist (Joel Gunter/Journalism.co.uk)

1:35 PM ET, November 23, 2011

Top News:

Gideon Spanier / London Evening Standard:

James Murdoch quits the boards of Sun and Times — James Murdoch has dramatically resigned as a director of the companies that publish The Times, The Sunday Times and The Sun. — The surprise move, which has seen Rupert Murdoch's son quit a string of directorships at News International …

Discussion: The Wrap, Guardian, Mediaite, Telegraph, paidContent:UK, The New York Observer, FishbowlNY, @chrisspyrou, Gawker, Reuters, The Next Web, The Staggers, mediabistro.com, Deadline.com, The Huffington Post and Business Insider

Nicholas Wapshott / The Daily Beast:

Why James Murdoch Might Never Take Over Rupert's Media Empire — Rupert Murdoch sees James as his last hope of keeping News Corp. under family control, but the younger man may not be able to withstand attacks from shareholders, investors, and members of Parliament, who accuse him of running a mafia racket.

Discussion: Media & Entertainment, rbr.com, Press Gazette, Company Town, The Wrap, mnilive.com, Telegraph and BtoB Magazine

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Daily Mail publisher records operating profit drop of £13m — Results for the past year report that Associated Newspapers' operating profit fell from £89 million in 2010 to £76 million in 2011 — Operating profit for Associated Newspapers fell by £13 million in the past year …

Discussion: Press Gazette and Journalism.co.uk

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Mail Online Readers Say They Will Pay, But They Won't Be Forced To

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Robert Andrews / paidContent: Mail Online Won't Be Profitable Until 2013, As U.S. Investment Drags

Guardian:

NI under pressure over McCann diaries — Madeleine McCann's mother says she felt ‘totally violated’ as father demands investigation into how NoW got hold of diaries — News International has come under pressure to explain how it got hold of Kate McCann's private diaries and published …

Discussion: Press Gazette and Journalism.co.uk

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:
NI refutes lawyer's claim over ‘hacking lesson’ journalist

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

The Independent: Editor ‘berated’ Madeleine McCann's parents

Dylan Welch / Sydney Morning Herald:

Investigation of political favours against News Ltd — FEDERAL police are investigating allegations that News Ltd offered a then-serving federal senator a “special relationship” involving favourable coverage if he crossed the floor on a vote of financial interest to the company.

Discussion: Media Matters for America and Guardian

Enda Curran / Wall Street Journal: News Ltd. Denies Australian Senator's Claims

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Penguin Restores Library Lending To Kindle, But Not For New E-Books — Penguin is once again making its e-books available to libraries through Kindle, OverDrive reports. New Penguin e-books, however, remain unavailable to libraries on any platform. — OverDrive's statement:

Discussion: The Digital Shift

BBC:

Ex-NoW reporter Sean Hoare ‘died of natural causes’ — An inquest into the death of former News of the World showbusiness reporter Sean Hoare has found he died of natural causes. — Mr Hoare, 47, who claimed phone hacking was rife at the paper, was found dead at his home in Watford in July.

Chris Hewett / Watford Observer: Phone hacking whistleblower and former News of the World reporter Sean Hoare died of natural causes, inquest told

Los Angeles Times:

L.A. Times Media Group makes exec changes to focus on new media — Los Angeles Times Media Group tasks four executives with increasing advertising and other revenue from digital and emerging media. — Andrea Nunn, formerly of HBO, takes on the new position of vice president of media …

Discussion: Adweek

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Dear Dish Network: Your Spam Makes Me Sad. Please Stop. — I don't know how to say this any other way, so I'll be direct: Please stop with the spam. — I'm talking about crud like this, which you left in the comments of one of my stories: … Now, this pitch, written by “Andrew_K_Anderson …

David Bauder / Associated Press:

Brian Williams' newscast outdraws NBC prime time — Some weeks NBC must wish it could start prime time a couple of hours earlier.

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Lovefilm Gets Its Defence In Early: Buys Netflix's Ad Slots — Amazon's Lovefilm has bought up adverts under its rival's business name, as Netflix (NSDQ: NFLX) prepares to launch on Lovefilm's home turf early next year. — Lovefilm has bought search keyword ads against searches for the keyword …

Anna Heim / The Next Web:

Disney movies are coming to Youtube — Disney movies are coming to YouTube, Variety reports. Besides “Winnie the Pooh” and “Pirates of the Caribbean,” the deal also includes titles from Dreamworks and Pixar such as “Cars 2″ and “Alice in Wonderland”, which will be available for rental on Google's video platform.

Discussion: AllThingsD, TechCrunch and Hollywood Reporter, more at Techmeme »

Ryan Lawler / GigaOM:

YouTube now serving up 3.5 billion videos a day — YouTube continues to grow the number of videos its viewers watch, with now more than 3.5 billion served up every day. That number wasn't part of any formal release, but was part of a presentation given by YouTube VP of global sales Lucas Watson at the Monaco Media Forum.

Discussion: Online Video News and Editors Weblog

Erika Fry / CJR:

Zuccotti Park's Airspace Was Never Closed — Did the New York's police close airspace to prevent news helicopters from getting footage of police action against Occupy Wall Street protesters? — That is certainly the story—it has been widely reported by outlets including The New York Times …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Runnin' Scared, Gothamist and Capital New York