Mediagazer: Hi Roger. It's Me, Joe: The Fox Mole (Joe Muto/Gawker)

1:40 PM ET, April 12, 2012

Top News:

Joe Muto / Gawker:

Hi Roger. It's Me, Joe: The Fox Mole — Hi. My name is Joe Muto. I was the Fox Mole. — Two hours ago I was called into a meeting with Dianne Brandi, the Fox News Executive Vice President of Legal and Business Affairs and suspended indefinitely... with pay, oddly enough. — They nailed me.

Erin Carlson / Hollywood Reporter:

Roger Ailes Slams Gawker as Fox News Mole Reveals Himself, is Fired (Video) — The network found and suspended the rogue employee who had filed anonymous posts at Gawker that ripped the organization, while FNC chief Roger Ailes discredits the site in a conversation with THR.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, New York Magazine, TVNewser, Gothamist, Inside Cable News, Mediaite, BuzzFeed, Gawker, The Raw Story and The Huffington Post

David Carr / Media Decoder:

Fox Quickly Hunts Down Mole (My, That Didn't Take Long) — On Wednesday night, Roger Ailes, the head of Fox News, seemed to be having a lovely time at The Hollywood Reporter's party at the Four Seasons in Manhattan for the “35 Media Movers Who Matter Most.” — And why wouldn't he?

Discussion: The Awl, TVNewser and Chickaboomer

Frances Martel / Mediaite:

Fox News Responds To Gawker Mole: 'Joe Muto Is Fired Effective April 12′ — The Gawker “Fox News Mole” saga has unraveled itself at breakneck speeds today and continues to do so, as earlier tonight Joe Muto, formerly an associate producer at The O'Reilly Factor, wrote on Gawker that he had been indefinitely suspended with pay.

Discussion: Gawker, Forbes, FishbowlLA, Ricochet Conversations Feed, Boing Boing and News on News

Jack Shafer:
Fox mole hunting

Discussion: Mediaite, ABCNEWS, Erik Wemple, Gawker, @carr2n, The Daily Caller, New York Magazine, TVNewser and Mediaite

David Streitfeld / New York Times:

Cut in E-Book Pricing by Amazon Is Set to Shake Rivals — The government's decision to pursue major publishers on antitrust charges has put the Internet retailer Amazon in a powerful position: the nation's largest bookseller may now get to decide how much an e-book will cost …

Declan McCullagh / CNET:

DOJ is likely to lose e-book antitrust suit targeting Apple — Antitrust experts say feds have “far better case” for price fixing against publishers, three of which have settled, than they do against Apple. — Follow @declanm — Attorney General Eric Holder yesterday said the lawsuit …

Discussion: Publishers Weekly, Ricochet Conversations Feed, 9to5Mac, afr.com, Business Insider, MacStories, The Authors Guild Blog, SlashGear, AllThingsD, Wall Street Journal, Multichannel, App Advice and Technology Liberation Front

Tim Carmody / Wired:
Jeff Bezos Should Send Eric Holder a Christmas Card

Discussion: business.time.com, CJR, CNET and Techland

Tim Carmody / Wired:
DOJ Announces Terms of Settlement With 3 Publishers in E-Book Lawsuit

Discussion: VatorNews, Publishers Lunch, Mike Cane's xBlog, Kindle Review, The Digital Reader, Digital Book World, ZDNet, SlashGear, GigaOM and The United States Department …

Brian Farnham / Patch Blog:

This isn't goodbye... As you heard on today's All-Company call, after four years as Editor-in-Chief of Patch, I'm moving on. My last day is May 4. I'm leaving for an assortment of reasons, but I'm glad to be able to say that none of them is negative. I love Patch, and I plan on staying …

Discussion: Betabeat, AllThingsD, WebProNews, Journalism.co.uk, VentureBeat, Street Fight, @jayrosen_nyu, @romenesko, JIMROMENESKO.COM and FishbowlNY

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
Patch Editor In Chief Brian Farnham Is Leaving AOL

Discussion: MediaFile, The Wrap and Business Insider

Scott Conroy / Real Clear Politics:

Gingrich Unloads on Fox News in Private Meeting — DOVER, Del. — During a meeting with 18 Delaware Tea Party leaders here on Wednesday, Newt Gingrich lambasted Fox News Channel, accusing the cable network of having been in the tank for Mitt Romney from the beginning of the Republican presidential fight.

Discussion: Mediaite, msnbc.com, Associated Press, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, Chickaboomer and ThinkProgress

Mj Lee / Politico:
Newt Gingrich turns his fire on Fox News

Discussion: Yahoo! News and Mediaite

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Special prosecutor in Trayvon Martin case: ‘The media has helped’ — Florida State Attorney and special prosecutor Angela Corey praised journalists during the news conference in which she announced that George Zimmerman has been charged with murder in the second degree for the February 26th shooting death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:

New Forecast: Media Spending Growing Faster Than GDP — This may not feel like for much of a recovery, but for the media and communications sector, the economic prospects are bright and getting brighter — provided you're in the right parts of it. — Overall communications spending by consumers …

Discussion: MediaFile and Radio & Television …

Pew Internet:

72% of Americans follow local news closely — Nearly three quarters (72%) of adults are quite attached to following local news and information, and local newspapers are by far the source they rely on for much of the local information they need. In fact, local news enthusiasts are substantially …

Stefanie Botelho / Folio:

REPORT: Disappointing First Quarter for the Magazine Industry — Overall pages down 8.2 percent for January to March 2012, per PIB. — The magazine industry has not shaken its advertising slump quite yet. According to the latest report from industry authority Publishers' Information Bureau …

Discussion: minonline.com and AdAge

Hamilton Nolan / Gawker:

Newspaper Fires Reporter for Showing Mild Sense of Enthusiasm — Khristopher J. Brooks is a young reporter who was excited to be hired by the Delaware News-Journal last week. In a playful little gesture, he wrote up a fake “press release” on his own personal Tumblr announcing …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, MyFoxPhilly.com, @yurivictor, @stevebuttry and @mattderienzo

Vikram Dodd / Guardian:

Met ‘showed poor judgment’ over Wallis — Former Scotland Yard press chief Dick Fedorcio criticised in wake of phone-hacking revelations for giving Neil Wallis contract — An independent report has criticised the Metropolitan police for “blurring” professional boundaries and showing …

Discussion: ipcc.gov.uk, BBC, Press Gazette, The Independent and Journalism.co.uk

David Benoit / Deal Journal:

Warren Buffett Building Newspaper Empire? — The Oracle of Omaha seems to see a better fate for U.S. newspaper publishers than the dismal destiny he forecasted for them back in 2009. … By buying up loans in recently bankrupt Lee Enterprises Inc., Warren Buffet's Berkshire Hathaway …

Discussion: Wall Street Journal

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

How the Texas Tribune is making $5K a month from Google microsurveys — A look at how the Texas Tribune and Adweek are using Google microsurveys as an additional revenue stream — Two weeks ago Google announced that it had partnered with a group of US publishers to launch microsurveys.

Discussion: The Next Web and eMedia Vitals

Lucia Moses / Adweek:

Hearst Programs Its Brands for YouTube — Can print publishers hold their own in the unfamiliar world of high-quality TV? Hearst, one of the publishers that have signed on to YouTube's quality content push, will soon provide some answers with its two forthcoming YouTube channels.

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Farewell, App Store? Netizine Turns Magazines Into Social Networks, Runs On HTML5 — As e-book publishers and Apple face an antitrust lawsuit over pricing, magazine publishers are now looking into an alternative solution to the digital pricing dilemma: being able to extricate themselves from Apple's grip entirely.

Discussion: Forbes

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Over 2/3 of U.S. libraries offer e-books; 28% lend e-readers — The majority of U.S. public libraries now offer e-books, but libraries' relationships with book publishers are fraught, says the American Library Association in its 2012 annual report. — “The 2012 State of America's Libraries” …