Mediagazer: Nashville-based media company SouthComm acquires Creative Loafing Atlanta and Washington City Paper (Eric Celeste/Creative Loafing Atlanta)

3:45 PM ET, July 3, 2012

Top News:

Executive at Advance's NJ.com Denies Staffing Up to Supplant Newspapers — “I'M HIRING! NJ.COM — New Jersey's biggest digital news operation — is expanding,” wrote the executive, Lamar Graham, in a Facebook post that was reprinted by JimRomensko.com and has since been taken down from Facebook.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: Newhouses say they aren't ‘sneaking up’ on New Jersey

Eric Celeste / Creative Loafing Atlanta:

Nashville-based media company SouthComm acquires Creative Loafing Atlanta and Washington City Paper — Creative Loafing Atlanta has been purchased by SouthComm Inc., a Nashville-based media company. The sale also includes CL's sister publication Washington City Paper in D.C. Once the transition …

Discussion: Poynter

Steve Myers / Poynter:

New York Times interviewing finalists for public editor job — The New York Times has narrowed its pool of candidates for the public editor position and hopes to make an announcement by the end of July, said Glenn Kramon, assistant managing editor for enterprise.

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Guardian

Josef Adalian / Vulture:

The Newsroom Takes a Ratings Hit — HBO has already renewed The Newsroom for a second season, but that's no reason to stop obsessively tracking the show's ratings, just like they do in the real world of cable news. And while we'll try to not get too dramatic over week-to-week fluctuations …

Discussion: TVLine

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Fastest growing segment of piracy? Live TV — A chart from the report “The six business models for copyright infringement.” Click to expand. — A new Google study entitled “The six business models for copyright infringement,” just released with the UK's PRS (Performing Right Society) …

Discussion: Multichannel and NetNewsCheck Latest

Paula Froelich / The Daily Beast:

Rupert Murdoch Attacks Scientology Because It Once Courted His Son Lachlan — On Sunday Rupert Murdoch, arguably the most powerful man in media, stunned media watchers when he inserted himself into the Tom Cruise-Katie Holmes divorce fray by attacking Cruise's beloved religion.

Discussion: The Wrap, Forbes Real Time, Capital New York and The Inquisitr

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

‘Daily News’ loses another veteran reporter — The Daily News is losing one of its heavy-hitters: Alison Gendar, who over 13 years at the paper has covered everything from public schools to One Police Plaza to national courts and politics, is leaving the News to take a position …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

One Week In, New York Times' Chinese Social Media Accounts Shut Down, Site Still Up — So much for that experiment in freedom of speech. Last week, the New York Times launched an online Chinese edition of its newsspaper — and with it a social media presence in the country.

Discussion: Nieman Journalism Lab, MediaShift and Mashable!

Anna Tarkov / Poynter:

GateHouse to end outsourcing relationship with Journatic — The Tribune Company has gotten most of the media's attention lately for working with Journatic. They've even launched an internal investigation into the content provider. But as Brian Timpone told us, Journatic works with many more news companies.

Discussion: Chicago Tribune and Zombie Journalism

Jim Romenesko:

Chicago Tribune reviews unauthorized paid speech by Clarence Page — ProPublica revealed Monday afternoon that Chicago Tribune syndicated columnist and editorial board member Clarence Page was paid $20,000 and travel expenses to appear at a June 23 rally in Paris in support of the Mujahadin-e Khalq …

Discussion: WBEZ and ProPublica

Joshua Haddow / Vice:

Confessions of a Tabloid Terrorist — You might remember Graham Johnson (pictured above). In the past, we've called him up to discuss the child gangs turning the streets of Liverpool into a variety of hell populated with burning cars, IEDs, and cheap guns.

Jim Romenesko:

Parents of AP intern Armando Montano seek answers about his death — The parents of Associated Press intern Armando Montano — both teachers at Colorado College — are in Mexico City, trying to get information about the death of their only child. “The AP has been spectacular in helping us negotiate the Mexican bureaucracy.

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

After Petition Drive, Seventeen Magazine Commits to ‘Show Girls as They Really Are’ — Seventeen magazine, which in recent months has been inundated by pleas from teenage girls to publish photographs of models that don't look touched up, announced that it would change how it presents models in its pages.

Discussion: Adweek