Mediagazer: Variety bought by Deadline owner Penske Media, Third Point (Ben Fritz/Los Angeles Times)

4:15 PM ET, October 9, 2012

Top News:

‘The anger is getting worse’ at New York Times — New York Times science correspondent Donald G. McNeil Jr. tells Romenesko readers that between 375 and 400 Times staffers participated in today's walkout. “Plus there were 23 out at the Washington bureau,” he writes.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Chickaboomer and The Newspaper Guild

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

At today's ‘New York Times’ staff walkout — Unionized New York Times staffers have been locked in a nasty contract battle with company management for the past 18 months now. — How much longer before the two sides reach an agreement? — “There's no reason it can't be settled by Friday …

Discussion: The New York Observer, Media Decoder and WWD Media Headlines

Ben Fritz / Los Angeles Times:

Variety bought by Deadline owner Penske Media, Third Point — The Hollywood trade paper Variety has been acquired by Penske Media Corp. and its financial backer, private equity firm Third Point, for about $25 million, in a power shift for the world of show business and a transformation of the industry's most famous news brand.

Guardian:

Jimmy Savile: Panorama to conduct investigation into sex abuse allegations — The BBC's Panorama is preparing an investigation into Jimmy Savile, as the broadcaster deals with the fallout around its controversial decision to drop an earlier Newsnight report on the late Jim'll Fix It star.

Discussion: Guardian

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Jimmy Savile: Lord Patten says behaviour can not be excused — The chairman of the BBC Trust said allegations of sexual abuse by Sir Jimmy Savile could not be excused as behaviour from a time when “attitudes were different”, and gave his backing to inquiries by police and the corporation.

Discussion: @timescrime, Guardian and @lucymanning

Michael Holden / Reuters: BBC star may have abused girls over four decades

Paul Bradshaw / Online Journalism Blog:

Stop attacking ‘web-first’ as if the world is going to stand still — This week feels very much like 2009. That year I published a post titled ‘How the web changed the economics of news’, a brief overview of some of the economic factors impacting on publishing which has recently experienced …

Discussion: Editor & Publisher ®, nujnewmedia.org.uk, NetNewsCheck Latest, GigaOM, @jayrosen_nyu, @jeffjarvis and @johncthompson

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

NBC News Shakes Up Management Team, New EP at ‘Rock Center’ — NBC News has shaken up its leadership team, promoting DC bureau chief Antoine Sanfuentes (left) to senior VP of NBC News, promoting David Verdi to senior VP of newsgathering, upping Ken Strickland to DC bureau chief and naming Alex Wallace (center) EP of “Rock Center.”

Discussion: Media Decoder, Broadcasting & Cable and TVSpy

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Borrell predicts digital revenue will rise 30% next year at small, mid-size newspapers — Gordon Borrell, newspaper reporter turned digital advertising analyst, has been tough on his old profession through the years. After holding their own in the first wave of digital growth from 2002 to 2006 …

Discussion: CJR

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Jack Welch Quits Columnist Gigs Over Tweet Blowback. Too Bad He Wasn't Fired. — In the end, Fortune and Reuters didn't have to grapple with whether to fire Jack Welch for spreading conspiracy theories on Twitter. Welch did them a favor and fired himself.

Discussion: Fortune, Politico, The Wrap, FishbowlNY, Reuters, AdAge, Poynter and Media Decoder

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Founder Tim Westergren Says Some Musicians Earn Up To $3 Million A Year From Pandora — Pandora founder Tim Westergren denied claims that musicians earn peanuts from streaming services and said lower royalty rates would bolster innovation today at SF MusicTech.

Discussion: GigaOM, Pandora and The Next Web

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

NPR Appoints Executive from ‘Morning Edition’ to Oversee All News Coverage — NPR on Tuesday promoted Madhulika Sikka, the executive producer of “Morning Edition” for the last six years, to a position overseeing all news coverage for the organization. — Ms. Sikka will be executive editor …

Discussion: FishbowlDC

Katherine Rushton / Telegraph:

Fear of compulsory job losses at struggling Guardian group — The publisher of the Guardian and Observer newspapers looks set to make compulsory job cuts after too few staff came forward for its voluntary redundancy package. Guardian News & Media (GNM) has said it needs to cut up to 100 …

Discussion: Guardian