Mediagazer: Ex-policeman told: ‘newspapers too big for us’ (Josh Halliday/Guardian)

11:10 AM ET, November 30, 2011

Top News:

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Ex-policeman told: ‘newspapers too big for us’ — • Alastair Campbell alleges that the Daily Mirror paid private eyes to investigate him and Peter Mandelson — • He describes a ‘frankly putrid’ press with some sections ‘barely worth defending’ — • The PCC has failed …

Discussion: Editor's Blog, Guy Fawkes' blog, Telegraph and Guardian

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Alastair Campbell: phone hacking may have revealed Cherie Blair's pregnancy — Tony Blair's former spin doctor tells Leveson inquiry lifestyle consultant Carole Caplin suspects her phone was hacked — Alastair Campbell has submitted evidence to the Leveson inquiry saying he believed a story …

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:
Paul McMullan defends Milly Dowler phone hacking

Discussion: Guardian, Journalism.co.uk and Journalism.co.uk

Guardian:
Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson are ‘scum of journalism’, Leveson told

Discussion: Company Town, Poynter, Future of Journalism, New York Times, Gawker, Journalism.co.uk and BBC

Robert Dex / The Independent: Jeremy Hunt: Police ended hack inquiry

Guardian:

Woman arrested in hacking investigation — Operation Weeting detectives have arrested a 31-year-old woman in connection with phone hacking at News International — Detectives investigating phone hacking at News International have arrested a 31-year-old woman.

Discussion: Press Gazette and @skymartinbrunt

Martinbrunt / @skymartinbrunt:

Bethany Usher, 31, now lectures in journalism at Teeside University. Worked at News of the World 2006 to 2007 in Manchester

Matt Rosoff / MattyDread:

On slideshows... I'm flattered MG Siegler would take the time to single out one of my slideshows for SAI as being interesting enough to read, but annoying when formatted as a slide show. — So. A few ideas to think about. — Bad slideshows are horrible, agreed.

Discussion: @erickschonfeld and parislemon

MG Siegler / parislemon:

ANNOYING: The Article As A Slideshow — Matt Rosoff's thoughts on Google becoming more like Microsoft should have been a provocative and effective article. Instead it's a slideshow. Why? I have no clue. — Well okay, pageviews, clearly. But it's still weird to see this type of story formatted this way.

Discussion: Business Insider and @mattrosoff

Sarah Marshall / journalism.co.uk:

Guardian's Facebook app delivering 1m extra hits a day — The Guardian's Facebook app is generating almost a million extra page impressions per day, according to figures released by the news outlet and by Facebook. — Two months on from its launch at Facebook's f8 conference in London …

Discussion: Poynter, Media Week, currybetdotnet, The Next Web, Journalism.co.uk and Facebook Developer Blog

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Parenting Fills Facebook's Most Shared Articles of 2011 List — Articles about natural disasters and parenting advice from CNN, Yahoo! News, the New York Times, and Huffington Post topped Facebook's new list of the most shared articles in the US for 2011. Facebook measured which articles were Liked …

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Yahoo! News, Future of Journalism, Gawker and Lost Remote

Simone Wilson / LA Weekly:

Occupy L.A. Eviction: Is LAPD Restricting Coverage With Last-Minute ‘Pool Media’? — Creating limited media pools at high-profile, heavily policed events isn't an uncommon practice at the Los Angeles Police Department. — “When we don't have resources to accomodate every single outlet …

Discussion: L.A. NOW, Runnin' Scared, BAGnewsNotes, LAist, The Informer and The Huffington Post

Ruth Fowler / Huffington Post UK: LAPD Made Sure The Whole World Ain't Watching

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Magazines Pull Back on Tablet Bells and Whistles — When the iPad launched, magazines rushed to shovel expensive rich-media features into their tablet editions. But now that they have to create editions for the new Kindle Fire and Nook Color and their ilk, some are downplaying the need for often-expensive enhancements.

Discussion: Editors Weblog, Garcia Media, Macworld, NetNewsCheck Latest, eMedia Vitals, FishbowlNY and magCulture.com/blog

Jim Romenesko:

‘Mounting Nittany’ sex column on hold as Penn State deals with Sandusky case — The “Mounting Nittany” sex column used to run every Thursday in Penn State's Collegian — typical fare: “Let's talk sex, hugs and handjobs” — but it's been MIA for several weeks now.

Discussion: College Media Matters and Deadspin

Reuters:
ESPN's Skipper talks NBA, Penn State scandal

Discussion: MediaFile

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Former ‘CBS Evening News’ Producer Dick Meyer Tapped to lead BBC News, America — The BBC has tapped former CBS news producer and executive Dick Meyer as its executive producer of BBC News, America. Meyer was most recently executive editor of NPR, and before that led CBSNews.com.

Discussion: TVWeek.com and Poynter

Omaha World-Herald:

Buffett to buy The World-Herald — The Berkshire Hathaway company has agreed to purchase The Omaha World-Herald Co. from its employee shareholders and the Peter Kiewit Foundation. The transaction is expected to close in late December, pending approval of The World-Herald's shareholders …

Amy Chozick / New York Times:

Warner Said to Pick New Head of Time Inc. Magazine Unit — Time Warner Inc. has selected the head of a digital advertising firm to run its Time Inc. magazine unit, according to people with knowledge of the hiring. — The company is expected to announce later Wednesday that Laura Lang …

David Kaplan / paidContent:

About.com Rolls Out Lifestyle Content On Flipboard — As the New York Times (NYSE: NYT) Co.-owned About Group continues its turnaround efforts in the face of weak display and cost-per-click ad sales, the flagship guide site is hoping that its placement within the social reader app Flipboard …