Mediagazer: Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino to step down (Guardian)

1:40 PM ET, October 3, 2012

Top News:

Mark Sweney / Guardian:

Financial Times sale could raise £1bn — Pearson could offload the Financial Times for as much as £1bn in a “trophy hunt” by potential buyers, after the head of the company's education division was announced as the new chief executive, replacing Dame Marjorie Scardino.

Discussion: @hblodget and @emilybell

Guardian:

Pearson chief executive Marjorie Scardino to step down — Dame Marjorie Scardino, one of the UK's highest-profile female corporate leaders, is to step down as chief executive of Financial Times and Penguin owner Pearson at the end of 2012, and will be replaced by the head of its international education division, John Fallon.

Discussion: paidContent, AdAge and Media Week

Kate Holton / Reuters:

Pearson CEO Scardino's departure could lead to FT sale — LONDON, Oct 3 (Reuters) - Pearson Chief Executive Marjorie Scardino will step down after 16 years, potentially clearing the way for her successor at the global educational and media group to sell the Financial Times newspaper.

Discussion: @eileentso

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Google rebooting content micropayments initiative under Wallet — After retiring its experimental OnePass news payments system this spring, Google is now going ahead with a fuller version of its content micropayments platform under the Google Wallet moniker.

Dylan Byers / Politico:

The Drudge hype falls flat — DENVER, Colo. — One night before the first presidential debate, conservatives Matt Drudge, Sean Hannity, and Tucker Carlson hyped footage of a five-year-old speech by then-Sen. Barack Obama, widely covered at the time, in which the presidential candidate suggested …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Guardian, Politicker, The Daily Caller, Election 2012, @mlcalderone and Business Insider

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

Local TV anchor criticized for her weight: 'I don't take a lot of crap from people' — Wisconsin TV news anchor Jennifer Livingston has gained thousands of supporters by publicly taking on one critic who called her fat. — Last week, the WKBT-TV morning newscast anchor opened an email from Kenneth Krause …

Discussion: Forbes, Yahoo! News, newsfeed.time.com, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Globe and Mail, Guardian, Gawker and WTVR-TV

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Former BBC Radio 1 boss ‘knew about Jimmy Savile sex abuse claims in 1970s’ — The former head of Radio 1 knew in the early 1970s about accusations of sexual abuse involving Sir Jimmy Savile, an ex-press officer for the station has claimed. Rodney Collins said on Wednesday that an ex-Radio 1 controller …

Discussion: PressGazette, Telegraph, Digital Spy, BBC and BBC

Dominic Rushe / Guardian:

Rupert Murdoch faces shareholder revolt at News Corp annual meeting — Shareholders have stepped up their campaign to remove Rupert Murdoch as chairman of News Corporation ahead of the media company's annual meeting this month. Hermes, a British fund manager that controls £24.8bn assets …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Fact-checking will play prominent role in tonight's debate — Along with many other news organizations, The New York Times is marshaling a small army of red pencilers for Wednesday night's debate. Public Editor Margaret Sullivan writes about the preparations:

Discussion: CJR, Washington Post, mediabistro.com, The Public Editor's Journal, The Hill and Free Press

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

U-T San Diego plans 80 layoffs at recently purchased North County Times — U-T San Diego notified the California Employment Development Department Monday it plans to lay off 80 people at the North County Times. “One-third of the total North County Times' staff, including 24 from the newsroom …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest and FishbowlLA

Andrew Wallenstein / Variety:

TV studios too strong for Apple disruption — Syndication biz projected to reach $20 billion — The economics of Hollywood's TV studios have been strengthened so much by new windows that even Apple won't be able to disrupt their business, according to a new research report.

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

BBC working on music equivalent of iPlayer — The BBC is working on a music equivalent of its iPlayer catch-up service, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. — Lana Del Rey has shot to fame through music streaming services such as Spotify — The service, dubbed Playlister …