Mediagazer: Penguin and Random House in merger talks (Laura Hazard Owen/paidContent)

3:30 PM ET, October 25, 2012

Top News:

The Editors / Media Decoder:

Sulzberger Expresses Support for Mark Thompson, Incoming Chief Executive — Mark Thompson, the incoming chief executive of The New York Times Company, who has been under scrutiny this week in connection with a burgeoning scandal at the BBC, received enthusiastic support Thursday from Arthur Sulzberger Jr. …

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Savile fallout: former BBC chief ‘expects to be grilled’ for New York Times post — Mark Thompson says that, amid Jimmy Savile inquiries, paper's consideration of whether he is right for CEO role ‘is correct’ — Mark Thompson, the incoming chief executive of the New York Times, said it was …

Discussion: The Public Editor's Journal, The Wrap, Media Decoder, The Journalism Foundation, New York Times, The Huffington Post, Reuters and Bloomberg

Washington Post: BBC sex-abuse scandal echoes across the Atlantic

Joe Murphy / London Evening Standard: Jimmy Savile: BBC tempers flare as scandal deepens

James Chapman / Daily Mail:
BBC tried to ‘gag’ minister over Savile scandal hours before he appeared on Question Time

Discussion: Guardian and fleet street fox

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Digital subscriptions up 11 percent at New York Times company, but revenue slips — Digital subscriptions to The New York Times rose 11 percent over the second quarter, to 592,000, the company announced in its third-quarter earnings report Thursday. That breaks down to 566,000 subscribers …

Discussion: MediaPost, Guardian, CNNMoney.com, Business Insider, @edmundlee, NetNewsCheck Latest, paidContent, The Wrap, Media Decoder and The Huffington Post

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

NY Times Co. Explains Its ‘Shockingly Weak’ Ad Results — For years, The New York Times Co. has been fighting a losing battle to replace its dwindling print advertising revenues with digital ones. So when an analyst singles out the results from a quarter as “shockingly weak,” you know that's pretty bad.

Discussion: The New York Times Company, Guardian, FishbowlNY, Mashable! and NewsBusters.org blogs

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Readers Pay More for New York Times, Advertisers Pay Less — Give the New York Times credit for consistency: All year long, it has been recording a declining ad business and a growing consumer business, and that's what it reported again today. — The Times says ad sales dropped 8.9 percent last quarter …

Discussion: New York Magazine, mnilive.com, @thematthewkeys and NYConvergence.com

Lauren Indvik / Mashable!:

Marissa Mayer Makes First Yahoo Acquisition: Stamped — Yahoo has acquired the company behind one-year-old mobile recommendations app Stamped, its first since ex-Google exec Marissa Mayer became CEO of the company in July, Mashable has learned. — The acquisition was purely for talent …

Discussion: Yodel Anecdotal, Betabeat, CNET, Business Insider, @marissamayer, The Next Web, AllThingsD, TechCrunch, GigaOM, ZDNet and WebProNews

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Penguin and Random House in merger talks — On Thursday, the Financial Times reported that Random House and Penguin's parent companies, Pearson and Bertelsmann, are in talks about merging the two publishers. (The FT is also owned by Pearson.) Now Pearson has released a statement confirming the report:

Discussion: Media Decoder, The Wrap, Deadline.com, PublishersWeekly.com, Financial Times, Media & Entertainment, Guardian and GalleyCat

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Circulation and advertising revenues down at McClatchy — Advertising and circulation revenue were down at the McClatchy Co. in the third quarter of this year. Five of the company's newspapers — including The Sacramento Bee and the Fort Worth Star-Telegram — introduced a digital-subscription paywall called Plus in September.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, McClatchy and Broadcasting & Cable

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Keith Olbermann Casts A Wide Net In Job Search — Think Keith Olbermann has burned his last bridge in the television business? He doesn't think so. — Seven months after he got dismissed by Current TV, the temperamental host is aggressively job-shopping, and he's not being too picky about it.

Discussion: New York Magazine, TVNewser and Mediaite

Brian Solomon / Forbes:

The Inside Story Of Polygon, The Verge's New Gaming Sister-Site — Nearly one year ago, the world of online media scratched its collective head as the sports blogging network SB Nation launched a new, decidedly non-sports site called The Verge. While it may have seemed like an odd leap at the time …

Discussion: Poynter, Polygon, The Verge, SBNation.com, AllThingsD and paidContent

Charlie Warzel / Adweek:
Vox Media Goes After Crowded Gamer Market

Discussion: PandoDaily

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

CNN Retracts Story About Hormonal Women Voters — In a matter of hours, CNN published and removed a story about how hormones influence women voters, one that made claims about how women tend to lean liberal when ovulating because they “feel sexier.” The story was based on an unpublished …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, WTHI-TV, Washington Post, TVNewser, The Wrap and Mother Jones

Jim Kelly / Vanity Fair:

The “Shock” of the News Magazine Death: Tina Brown, Robert Hughes, and the Dwindling Cult of Authority — On the day that Barry Diller and Tina Brown announced the death of Newsweek the print magazine, a memorial service for Bob Hughes took place at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

Ryan Chittum / CJR:
Newsweek and the (relative) health of print mags

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

AllThingsD:

Jack Dorsey Still Has Pull at Twitter. Just Ask the Vine Guys. — Earlier this month Twitter bought Vine, a three-man video-sharing startup that has yet to launch. Twitter may build its own video hosting system, so it's possible Vine may play a role in that effort one day.

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

Newsbeast Responds to Donald Trump's Media Stunt with Media Stunt — Donald Trump officiated the week's biggest eye-rolling contest on Wednesday, when he made his “very big announcement” about President Obama, a ploy for attention grab that inspired The Daily Beast slash Newsweek to launch a ploy of their own: a Donald Trump boycott.

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Daily Beast and Reuters