Mediagazer: Tom Freston's $1 Billion Revenge: Ex-Viacom Chief Helps Vice Become the Next MTV (Jeff Bercovici/Mixed Media)

6:30 PM ET, January 3, 2012

Top News:

Wendi Deng Twitter account is a fake — The news that Wendi Deng had joined her husband Rupert Murdoch on Twitter and promptly engaged in flirtatious banter with the likes of Ricky Gervais seemed too good to be true, that's because it was.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Gawker, Marketing Land, TechCrunch, FP Passport, The Raw Story and Hillicon Valley, more at Techmeme »

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Updated: Will The Real Wendi Deng Murdoch Please Stand Up? — When the CEO of News Corporation (NSDQ: NWS), Rupert Murdoch, joined Twitter a few days ago as an official, verified account, endorsed even by Twitter's Jack Dorsey, some people didn't believe that it was really him (it is).

Discussion: Media Week, Washington Post, Forbes, Erik Wemple, paidContent:UK, The Atlantic Wire, GigaOM, BBC, Digital Spy and ZDNet

Josh Halliday / @joshhalliday:
Person behind @Wendi_Deng acct claims to me he is British male in London & was “completely utterly shocked” when Twitter verified

Discussion: CNET, Guardian and Sydney Morning Herald

Don Van Natta Jr / New York Times:

9/11 Relatives Who Suspect Hacking Await Answers — Shortly after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, relatives of some of the victims began suspecting that someone was eavesdropping on their telephones. — Some heard mysterious clicking sounds on their home and mobile phones.

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

Murdoch hacking warning admission won't lead to review by BSkyB board — Murdoch hacking warning won't lead to review by BSkyB board — The BSkyB board does not regard James Murdoch's admission that he was warned of the extent of phone hacking in 2008 as “material”, sources at the company have claimed.

Gordon MacMillan / The Wall:

Is the Sun looking at charging for content again? — Is News International looking again at charging for content from The Sun? I blogged last year that News International had ditched the idea of putting up a paywall for The Sun, but an archive website has now appeared offering access to historical Sun content for 50p an article.

Discussion: @leonwatson

Alexia Tsotsis / TechCrunch:

This Month's Apple Event To Focus On Publishing And iBooks — Apple will be holding a product event later this month in New York, Kara Swisher is reporting, and we've confirmed independently with a source. — According to the source the event will not involve any hardware at all and instead …

Michael Powell / New York Times:

Gotham: At Wall Street Protests, Clash of Reporting and Policing — In late November, the police commissioner, Raymond W. Kelly, ordered every precinct in his domain to read a statement. Officers, the commissioner said, must “respect the public's right to know about these events and the media's right of access to report.”

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Media Decoder, New York Magazine and Gothamist

Alan D. Mutter / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Newspaper shares plunged 27% in 2011 — In a year when the stock market flailed mightily to end up almost exactly where it started, the shares of the publicly traded newspaper companies plummeted an average of 27% in 2011. — Of the 11 publicly held newspaper companies, the stock of only one …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Hearst U.S. Digital Biz ‘Solidly Profitable For The First Time’ In '11 — In a New Year letter to employees, Hearst president David Carey reiterated that the company's target this year is to reach over 1 million paid digital subscribers per month. — The full letter:

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Future of Journalism, MinOnline, NetNewsCheck Latest and Folio

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

Tom Freston's $1 Billion Revenge: Ex-Viacom Chief Helps Vice Become the Next MTV — Tom Freston is Vice's growth guru and not-so-secret weapon. Credit: Ben Baker/Redux — This story appeared in the 1/16/12 issue of FORBES. — Shane Smith is trying to order drinks. It's not going well.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and mediabistro.com

Tommy Christopher / Mediaite:

The Long Goodbye: Mediaite Staff Toasts (And Roasts) Managing Editor Colby Hall — You may or may not have heard yet, but Mediaite is losing Colby Hall, the only Managing Editor it has ever known. While Hall and Mediaite founder Dan Abrams have already had their say, the well-oiled cogs …

Discussion: The New York Observer

Hayley Tsukayama / Washington Post:

Google Chrome's ‘sponsored posts’ explained — Google has acknowledged that an ad campaign for its Chrome browser appears to have violated the company's own policies, landing it in some hot water this week when SEOBook's Aaron Wall and Search Engine Land's Danny Sullivan highlighted some problems.

Discussion: Search Engine Land, AllThingsD, Gawker and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Google Blames Paid Link Policy Violation On Agency Unruly, Which Blames Sponsored Blogger

Discussion: The Verge, Search Engine Land, Search Engine Land and SEO Book.com, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / The Caucus:

Taking to Twitter, Murdoch Signals Support for Santorum — The media mogul Rupert Murdoch signaled his support for Rick Santorum on Monday evening, calling him the “only candidate with genuine big vision” for the United States. — His comments were significant not only because Mr. Murdoch …

Discussion: Media Decoder, New York Times, Reuters, msnbc.com, ABCNEWS, New York Magazine, The Daily Caller, The Huffington Post and Telegraph

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Political Reporters Caught In Iowa Media Crush — DES MOINES, Iowa — Following days of saturation caucus coverage, Washington Post chief correspondent Dan Balz was reminded Monday of a fortune cookie he recently cracked open. “Analyze only when necessary,” the cookie advised.

Discussion: New York Magazine