Mediagazer: USA Today Turns to Private Ad Exchange in Attempt to Boost Digital Revenue (Jason Del Rey/AdAge)

6:05 AM ET, December 3, 2011

Top News:

DPA / Haaretz:

Report: Syria bans iPhone to cover up crackdown on anti-Assad protests — Statement issued by Customs Department of the Syrian Finance Ministry says, ‘The authorities warn anyone against using the iPhone in Syria’; at least six demonstrators reported killed in Syria on Friday.

Discussion: The Next Web, ReadWriteWeb, TUAW, L.A. Times Tech Blog and Electronista, more at Techmeme »

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, Gothamist and Poynter

Jason Del Rey / AdAge:

USA Today Turns to Private Ad Exchange in Attempt to Boost Digital Revenue — The aim of the private marketplace will be to move most unsold online ad inventory in a more controlled environment. — Nine months after its parent company started selling online ads for some of its newspapers …

Discussion: Reuters

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: Telegraph, TBIJ and Future of Journalism

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

Tim Kenneally / The Wrap:

ABC Shake-Up: Vicki Dummer's New Times Square Studios Replaces Daytime Chief Brian Frons — Brian Frons, longtime president of ABC Daytime, will leave the company when his contract ends in January, and his departure will usher in a shakeup in the way that ABC's daytime roster will be handled, the network announced on Friday.

Discussion: Media Decoder, Company Town, rbr.com, MediaPost and Broadcasting & Cable

St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

Lee plans to file Chapter 11 bankruptcy to restructure debt — Lee Enterprises, the owner of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and one of the largest newspaper publishers in the country, announced Friday that it will file for bankruptcy on or about Dec. 12 after efforts to work out a debt exchange deal with its lenders failed.

Discussion: Poynter, Reuters and Gannett Blog

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.

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

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

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, FishbowlDC, Erik Wemple, Future of Journalism and Big Journalism

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