Mediagazer: NYPD orders officers not to interfere with press (Colleen Long/Associated Press)

7:50 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: Mediaite, Telegraph, Guardian, Future of Journalism, The Wrap, @chrisspyrou, The Next Web, FishbowlNY, The Staggers, mediabistro.com, paidContent, ShortFormBlog, The New York Observer, Deadline.com, Gawker, 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 Decoder, Telegraph, Company Town, rbr.com, Media & Entertainment, mnilive.com, Press Gazette, BtoB Magazine and The Wrap

Jill Treanor / Guardian: BSkyB investors urged to oppose James Murdoch's re-election as chairman

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: Guardian

Paul Maley / The Australian: ‘No improper offer’ by News Ltd

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

Discussion: Media Matters for America and Guardian

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

CNN:

CNN's Stan Case dies in wreck — (CNN) — Stan Case, an anchor for CNN Radio, has died in a car crash in Birmingham, Alabama, a police spokesman said Wednesday. — “Stan was a news anchor for CNN Radio and a mainstay of the network since he joined CNN in 1985,” said Jim Walton, president of CNN Worldwide.

Discussion: TVNewser

Associated Press: Longtime CNN radio anchor Stan Case killed in car crash in Birmingham, Ala.

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

Discussion: Daily Mail

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

Jim Romenesko:

College editor: Seeing our work go uncredited is ‘frustrating’ — Jason Alpert, the 20-year-old editor UC Davis's California Aggie, tells me that 30 or more news organizations have contacted the paper for permission to use its protest photos. “We let them use them as long as they cite California Aggie and the photographer,” he says.

Discussion: FishbowlLA

Andrew Price / The Atlantic Online:
The Life of a Photo: The Pepper-Spraying Policeman

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab and The Week

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: OverDrive's Digital …, PC Magazine, GigaOM and The Digital Shift

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

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

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: MediaFile, Online Video News and Editors Weblog

Liau Yun Qing / ZDNet:

SPH sues Yahoo for copyright infringement — Singapore media organization Singapore Press Holdings (SPH) has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against Yahoo for reproducing content from its stable of newspapers. The Web giant has refuted the charge, however, saying it intends to “vigorously defend” itself.

Colleen Long / Associated Press:

NYPD orders officers not to interfere with press — NEW YORK—The New York Police Department's commissioner on Wednesday sent an internal message to officers ordering them not to unreasonably interfere with media access during news coverage and warning those who do will be subject to disciplinary action …

The Huffington Post:

Ferzat Jarban Dead: Cameraman Is First Reported Journalist Killed In Syria — The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reported that cameraman Ferzat Jarban was the first journalist killed in Syria since the organization started tracking journalists' deaths in 1992. He was found dead on Sunday.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

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. The network's “Nightly News” broadcast with Brian Williams averaged 9.1 million viewers over five days last week, clearly outdistancing rivals at ABC and CBS.

Discussion: TVWeek.com

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 …