Mediagazer: Discovered on Publisher's Web Site, Aspiring Author Signs Book Deal (Julie Bosman/Media Decoder)

12:50 AM ET, January 11, 2012

Top News:

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Huffington Post Losing Key Editor and Top Tech Wizard — Nico Pitney, center, in the White House briefing room, asking a question that the gentleman on the left seems to approve of. — It's a familiar story: Hot company gets acquired; then, one by one, many of the talented people …

Discussion: paidContent:UK, Business Insider, AllThingsD and FishbowlNY

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

Nico Pitney to leave The Huffington Post — Nico Pitney, executive editor at The Huffington Post and one of Arianna Huffington's top lieutenants, is leaving the website, Capital has learned. — The news was announced in a staff meeting earlier today. — According to a source …

Discussion: Gawker, @dylanbyers, FishbowlDC, Business Insider, Future of Journalism and FishbowlNY

Ben Popper / Betabeat:
Former HuffPo CTO Paul Berry Building New Startup and Incubator With Lerer Ventures

more at Techmeme »

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Confirmed: Halifax noncompete will not apply to New York Times Regional employees — At a staff meeting at the Lakeland Ledger Tuesday afternoon, employees were told to tear up the controversial noncompete agreement because it would not apply to them. The Florida paper's publisher told …

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Lawyer: Where's the journalist who leaves Halifax supposed to get a job? — The broad noncompete agreement that Halifax Media employees are being asked to sign from California to Florida may hurt journalists and journalism, but it appears enforceable in most of the states where former employees …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Jim Romenesko: Halifax waives non-compete clause for NYT Regional Media Group employees

Wall Street Journal:

Sale Explored for New Republic — The owners of the New Republic, a fixture of political journalism, are exploring a possible sale of the magazine and have hired a financial adviser, people familiar with the matter said. — Adviser Blackstone Group is expected to reach out to various media companies …

Discussion: Gawker and Business Insider

Press Gazette:

Former Met officer arrested in phone-hack leaks probe — A former Scotland Yard officer was arrested today over allegations of unauthorised leaks to a journalist. The 52-year-old man is being questioned on suspicion of misconduct in public office after being detained at his Berkshire home …

Discussion: Guardian and Journalism.co.uk

Thomas Penny / Bloomberg:
Cameron Will Be Questioned at Media Ethics Inquiry, Times Says

Discussion: @skynewsbreak, Bloomberg and Guardian

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:
Lord Justice Leveson signals he expects substantial regulatory reform

Discussion: @dansabbagh, Press Gazette, @joshhalliday, Editors Weblog and Journalism.co.uk

James Crugnale / Mediaite:

Pat Buchanan Denies Being Suspended By MSNBC, Says He's On Medical Leave — Pat Buchanan is disputing reports he was suspended from MSNBC and contends that he was instead on medical leave. “Well, you know I've had some medical issues at the end of the year which were pretty problematic …

Discussion: The Daily Caller, Inside Cable News, The Huffington Post, The Daily Caller and The Week

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

The Economist Tries A Flipboard-Like Election App All In HTML — The Economist has given HTML web apps another shot in the arm by packaging its U.S. presidential election material in to a new Flipboard-like tablet content offering that works entirely in the web browser.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Adweek, Future of Journalism and MediaPost

Nina Totenberg / NPR:

Supreme Court To Consider FCC Indecency Case … Dirty words return to the usually staid Supreme Court Tuesday. For a second time in three years, the justices are hearing arguments about a Federal Communications Commission regulation adopted during the Bush administration that allows …

Discussion: @jbflint and Free Press

Press Gazette:

Times journalist was disciplined for computer hacking — A Times journalist was disciplined in 2009 for involvement in “computer hacking”, the Leveson Inquiry has been told. — News International interim director of legal affairs Simon Toms said in written evidence to the inquiry …

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

‘The Daily’: No Longer Just For iPads (But Not For All Androids, Either) — The Daily is finally available in Android, sort of. The News Corp. (NSDQ: NWS) tablet tabloid, which has been iPad only since birth, is not being offered in the Android Marketplace but instead will start life …

Discussion: TechCrunch, GigaOM, FishbowlNY, Future of Journalism and AllThingsD

Adam Sherk:

News Organizations on Google+: Which Pages Get the Most Engagement? — News organizations (along with businesses of all kinds) have been able to create official Google+ pages for a couple months now so I thought I'd check in and see how their pages are doing.

Discussion: WebProNews, Mashable! and Poynter

Stuart Elliott / Media Decoder:

Magazine Ad Pages Fell 3.1% in 2011, With a Weak End to the Year — Declines in the second half of last year resulted in a overall drop in advertising pages in magazines for 2011 compared with 2010, according to a report distributed on Tuesday by the Publishers Information Bureau.

Discussion: MPA, Folio, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Media & Entertainment and MediaPost

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Guardian Starts Charging 280,000 iPad Readers From Friday; How Will It Go? — Starting Friday, The Guardian, a stalwart of free content, will find out just how many people will pay to read its news on tablets. — Free since its mid-October launch thanks to a Channel 4 sponsorship …

Discussion: The Wall Blog, Future of Journalism and The FJP

Alicia Shepard / Poynter:

Eric Carvin's social media goal: ‘To get to every last journalist at AP’ — AP's new social media editor, Eric Carvin, 38, got his first computer in grade school. His mom won the IBM PCjr. in one of many sweepstakes contests she regularly entered by mailing in dozens of postcards.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Suzanna Andrews / Vanity Fair:

The Mystery Woman Behind the Murdoch Mess — Rebekah Brooks was running the News of the World at 31, and Rupert Murdoch's entire British newspaper empire at 41. A virtual member of the Murdoch family, close to Prime Ministers Blair, Brown, and Cameron, she relished her power—until the phone-hacking scandal took her down.

Discussion: Business Insider and The Huffington Post

David D. Burstein / Fast Company:

The New York Times's Nick Kristof On Journalism In A Digital World And The Age Of Activism — Nicholas Kristof has been writing for The New York Times for more than a quarter century and has appeared on that paper's op-ed page since 2001, often penning articles about the struggles of people in distant parts of the world.

David Hirschman / Street Fight:

Patch Triples Traffic Year-Over-Year, Claims Growth Across Network ‘Consistent’ — Aol has been taking heat in recent months for its sizable investment in its Patch network of hyperlocal sites. The company, which was built around a play for local banner advertising, reportedly cost …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Future of Journalism and Capital New York