Mediagazer: He's finally a best-seller! (Jim Romenesko)

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

An Election Year Dawns Without Keith Olbermann — Keith Olbermann, who came to Current TV this year to remake the channel and compete against his old home, MSNBC, is sitting out the biggest political nights of the season. — Despite being the biggest star on the fledging channel …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Inside Cable News and TVNewser

Frances Martel / Mediaite: It Begins...NY Times Report Suggests Tension Between Olbermann And Current TV

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
Cable Channels Set to Begin Election Year Coverage

Discussion: Mediaite, Hollywood Reporter, The Huffington Post, Beet.TV and TVNewser

Economist:

Blogs are blamed for cheapening debate in some fields. Yet they have enriched economics — Blogs are blamed for cheapening debate in some fields. Yet they have enriched economics — from the print edition — “LET Truth and Falsehood grapple; who ever knew Truth put to the worse …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

The Huffington Post:

CNN's New Morning Show Gets Name And Debut Date — Update: CNN announced the names of its new morning shows. The 5-7 a.m. show will be called “Early Start.” Soledad O'Brien's 7-9 a.m. program will be titled “Starting Point.” — CNN will debut its new morning show led by host Soledad O'Brien on January 2, 2012.

Discussion: New York Magazine

Discussion: Inside Cable News, TVNewser and Multichannel

The Independent:

Murdoch's £100m plan to settle hacking cases before they get to court — Rupert Murdoch's News International is thought to have prepared a legal fund of £100m to settle civil litigation actions brought by victims of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal ahead of a High Court showdown in the new year.

Lens:

From North Korea, an Altered Procession — The funeral of Kim Jong-il on Wednesday called to mind the best stage-managed Communist state productions: the falling snow, the wailing mourners, the perfectly spaced limousines and rows of chest-beating men. — So perhaps it was because the scene …

Discussion: PetaPixel, iMediaEthics, Gawker, Mediaite and Poynter

Dylan Byers / The Politico:

MSNBC now disclosing Bain Capital connection — Starting on last night's Ed Show with Ed Schultz, MSNBC anchors are now disclosing their parent company's ties to Bain Capital, the buyout firm co-founded by Mitt Romney. — In July 2008, NBC Universal, Bain Capital and Blackstone Group bought …

Storify:

Storify Story Of The Year: A detailed inventory of reporter arrests at Occupy protests — The Free Press' Josh Stearns combines the craftsmanship of traditional journalism with the latest tools of new media to contribute an important and lasting piece of enterprise journalism.

Discussion: Capital New York

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

ID's ‘On the Case’ Hires Letterman Extortionist, Former CBS News Producer Joe Halderman — TVNewser has learned that Investigation Discovery's “On the Case with Paula Zahn” has hired Joe Halderman, the CBS News producer who attempted to blackmail David Letterman in 2009.

Discussion: Deadline.com, The Wrap, NY Daily News, Mediaite, Gawker, Media Decoder and The Huffington Post

Jim Romenesko:

He's finally a best-seller! — Blum suggested how the author might add to his story, about a husband “driven to extremes” by his wife repeating the same anecdotal story endlessly. — Dick Babcock — Blum tells me: “Dick ended up re-shaping the story significantly, and the revised version was just right.”

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

News Corp investors face risk of patriarch ‘not being in charge’ — The Financial Times's Lex column argues that the cost to News Corp of the phone hacking scandal is its “most overlooked consequence.” — It scuppered the company's £7.5bn bid to buy the 61% of BSkyB it doesn't already own …

Thomas James Brennan / Lens:

From a Marine's Side of the Camera — When Finbarr O'Reilly, a Reuters photographer, embedded with my squad of Marines in Afghanistan last October, I strategically positioned myself between him and my men, to keep them out of trouble. I based my decision on experience and preconceived notions regarding combat journalists.

Nicholas White / Daily Dot:

From the Trenches: The best and worst moments of building the Daily Dot — When you're climbing a mountain, you don't realize how high you've gotten until you stop to look back. Almost exactly one year ago, there was nothing more to the Daily Dot than a full-time CEO (me) and two part-time cofounders …

Thanks:owenthomas

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Some Regional Media Group Staffers Already Getting Employment Offers — When the New York Times sold off its Regional Media Group to Halifax, the natural assumption was that many of the staffers on the 16 papers that were part of the deal wouldn't be retained. However, some are already getting much better news.

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Discussion: Poynter and Politico

Peter Schorsch / Saint Peters Blog:

The last vestiges of the St. Petersburg Times

Erik Wemple:

New York Times's Sunday Review, in review — The year is ending, so it's time for the Erik Wemple Blog to look back at the stories we've covered over our first half-year in existence. We're calling it the Look-Back Fortnight. — The New York Times bagged its legendary “Week in Review” …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Lamar Smith, Against Regulating The Internet... Until Hollywood Became His Biggest Campaign Funder — Well, well. Via Julian Sanchez, we learn that SOPA's official “sponsor” and chief supporter, Lamar Smith, spoke out in 2006 about how Congress shouldn't regulate the internet:

Discussion: Techdirt, Betabeat, VentureBeat, ITworld and Future of Journalism, more at Techmeme »