Mediagazer: With Verizon's $3.6 Billion Spectrum Deal, Cable and Wireless Inch Closer (Brian Stelter/Media Decoder)

5:45 PM ET, December 2, 2011

Top News:

Douglas Martin / New York Times:

Louis Silverstein, Who Gave a Bolder and Airier Look to The Times, Dies at 92 — When The New York Times began publishing on Sept. 18, 1851, it was the New-York Daily Times. — without a “The” but with a period. When the newspaper took its present name six years later, the hyphen stayed …

Discussion: Charles Apple, The Huffington Post, SND, Poynter and Gothamist

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

Fox News cries foul after being left off Facebook's most-shared articles list — The folks at Fox News are a little miffed about being left off Facebook's list of the 40 “most-shared articles” of 2011. An unbylined story on FoxNews.com accuses “the world's largest social network” of …

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Mediaite, Fox News, Techland, The FJP and PopWatch

Guardian:

Iranian TV station accused of faking reports of Somalia drone strikes — No evidence of attacks reported on controversial channel Press TV as Somali charity says reports are impossible — An Iranian TV station appears to have faked dozens of accounts of US drone strikes in Somalia which it says have killed hundreds of civilians.

Discussion: Future of Journalism and TBIJ

Paul Farhi / American Journalism Review:

Speak No Evil — The Bay Area News Group, publisher of the leading daily newspapers in San Francisco's suburbs, had some important news to share with its readers in late August. In a 700-word, unbylined article that appeared on its newspapers' Web sites, it said 11 of its dailies would soon …

Discussion: @mathewi and freefromeditors

Associated Press:

Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer to step down, will be replaced by COO James Smith on Jan. 1 — NEW YORK — Thomson Reuters CEO Tom Glocer is stepping down at the beginning of the new year. He will be replaced on Jan. 1 by James Smith, the chief operating officer of one of the world's largest news and financial information companies.

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:
Glocer, Chief Executive of Thomson Reuters, Is Being Replaced

Discussion: Reuters, NetNewsCheck Latest, Poynter, Financial Times, Media News, The New York Observer, paidContent:UK, Adweek and The Wrap

Steve Myers / Poynter:

Gary Knell defends public funding in first day as NPR CEO — Neal Conan immediately started off an interview on “Talk of the Nation” by asking Gary Knell whether he expects federal funding of public radio to continue. Without public funding, Knell responded, some parts of the country would become …

Discussion: The Huffington Post and NPR

Claire Atkinson / New York Post:

NBC faces higher fees as it kicks off football talks — The NFL is getting ready to tackle NBC for more cash, The Post has learned. — The two parties are holding early-stage talks about renewing “Sunday Night Football,” a package that has been with NBC since 2006 and is the cornerstone …

Discussion: rbr.com

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

With Verizon's $3.6 Billion Spectrum Deal, Cable and Wireless Inch Closer — The relationship between the cable industry and the wireless industry just got a bit cozier. — Verizon Wireless announced on Friday that it had entered into an agreement to acquire spectrum licenses from three cable companies …

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, PR Newswire, Comcast Voices, GigaOM, New York Times, Multichannel News, Light Reading, Susan Crawford blog, rbr.com and AllThingsD, more at Techmeme »

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

Docs Boost CNBC's Primetime in November — CNBC's primetime documentaries helped boost the channel's primetime ratings by double-digits in November, while its dayside programs were a mixed bag. — According to data from Nielsen Media Research, CNBC was up +9% in total viewers and +10% …

Discussion: GalleyCat

Josh Peterson / The Daily Caller:

Under assault for liberal bias, Politico's traffic dives — Internet traffic and Web search measurement tools from several sources indicate that despite massive promotion efforts on MSNBC and in other venues, Politico.com is rapidly losing readers, especially outside of Washington, D.C.

Discussion: American Journalism Review, Erik Wemple, Future of Journalism, Big Journalism and FishbowlDC

Mike Isaac / Epicenter:

YouTube Revamp Foreshadows Google's Vision of Media — SAN BRUNO, California — YouTube is ready for its close-up, Mr. DeMille. — Google's streaming-video arm launched a complete site overhaul on Thursday, setting its sights squarely on reshaping the media landscape.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, YouTube Blog, PC Magazine, MediaFile, Marketing Pilgrim, Media Money …, Fast Company, Bits, Deadline.com, GigaOM, The Verge, SocialTimes.com, TechCrunch and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Erik Sass / MediaPost:

Newspaper Revs Dive In Q3 — There has been no relief for the newspaper business in the second half of this year, judging by the latest figures from the Newspaper Association of America, which have total ad revenues declining 8.9% from $6.1 billion in the third quarter of 2010 to $5.56 billion in the third quarter of 2011.