Mediagazer: Executive Producer of ‘Today’ Says Ouster of Ann Curry Was His Call (Bill Carter/Media Decoder)

7:25 PM ET, September 26, 2012

Top News:

Bill Carter / Media Decoder:

Executive Producer of ‘Today’ Says Ouster of Ann Curry Was His Call — Commenting publicly for the first time about the decision to remove Ann Curry from the “Today” show's co-anchor position after only a year on the job, Jim Bell, the show's executive producer, said Wednesday that it “was absolutely my call.”

Discussion: Deadline.com, Media & Entertainment, Hollywood Reporter, Mediaite, New York Magazine, Poynter, TVNewser, @brianstelter, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post, Jezebel and NY Daily News

Jim Romenesko:

Will Bryan College force student editor to resign? — On Tuesday, two hours after I posted the story about Bryan College student editor Alex Green publishing a story on his own after it was killed by the school president, I got a call from the young journalist. Nervous and apologetic, he asked if I could remove the post.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, College Media Matters and @jeffjarvis

Jim Romenesko:

Bryan College: Ordering student newspaper to kill story about prof's arrest ‘may have been a mistake’ — Bryan College sent this statement from President Dr. Stephen Livesay about his decision to order the student newspaper to kill its story about a professor arrested for attempted child exploitation.

William Turvill / PressGazette:

The accused: At least 46 journalists arrested by UK police in the last 16 months — The arrest of an unnamed Sun employee last week means at least 46 journalists have now been arrested as part of Metropolitan Police operations Weeting, Elveden and Tuleta and Scottish police investigation Rubicon.

Discussion: Guardian, Globe and Mail and Vanity Fair

BBC:
Phone-hacking: Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson in 2013 trial

Discussion: Media Decoder

Bill Mickey / Folio:

M. Scott Havens Tapped as President of The Atlantic — The Atlantic has named M. Scott Havens as president effective today. The move puts a dedicated executive into the top spot for the brand and allows Justin Smith, who has held the dual role of president of Atlantic Media Company and The Atlantic …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and MediaPost

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

Rupert Murdoch backs down in war with ‘parasite’ Google — Rupert Murdoch has been forced to back down in his war with Google, amid fears that his newspapers are losing their influence because they do not appear in the search engine's rankings. — In the past, Rupert Murdoch has lambasted Google …

Discussion: Guardian, paidContent, TechCrunch, Media Week, @jayrosen_nyu and WebProNews

Alexander Abad-Santos / The Atlantic Wire:

Women Editors-in-Chief Make $15,000 Less Than Men — The only thing equal is the job title. Even though there are stories of editors like Anna Wintour and Janice Min pocketing seven-figure salaries, Folio magazine's annual compensation survey found that on average, male editors-in-chief …

Discussion: Folio

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Quartz's practice of ‘linking out’ renews attention to aggregation debate — CJR's Hazel Sheffield took a look at the new publication Quartz and didn't like a few things: links take you away from the site, there's no commenting, infographics aren't interactive and It didn't have enough original content when she looked at it.

Discussion: MIT, CJR and Journalism.co.uk

Cahal Milmo / The Independent:

American court orders BBC to hand over Yasser Arafat documentary footage — The BBC has been ordered by an American court to surrender unused footage filmed for a documentary about former Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat to American victims of suicide bombings in Israel.

Discussion: Truthdig

The Smoking Gun:

Book Publisher Goes To Court To Recoup Hefty Advances From Prominent Writers — Buster — A New York publisher this week filed lawsuits against several prominent writers who failed to deliver books for which they received hefty contractual advances, records show.

Discussion: Deadline.com, New York Magazine, GalleyCat, Boing Boing and Publishers Lunch

Al Jazeera English:

Press TV correspondent killed in Damascus — Maya Nasser, a correspondent for Iran's Press TV network, has been killed by a sniper while reporting on air in Damascus, according to the network. Hossein Mortada, who serves as Damascus bureau chief for both the English-language Press TV …

Discussion: Guardian, Mediaite, The Huffington Post and TVNewser

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:

Italy Becomes Latest Jewel in Huffington Post's Crown — PARIS — Silvio Berlusconi, the former prime minister of Italy who left office last year in the depths of the economic crisis, resurfaced this week in a new place: the Italian-language Web site of The Huffington Post.