Mediagazer: The Washington Post Co. reports higher earnings (Steven Mufson/Washington Post)

3:00 PM ET, November 2, 2012

Top News:

Hamish McKenzie / PandoDaily:

Foxy Nate Silver and why old-media hedgehogs could soon be old news — Nate Silver - statistician, analyst, blogger, author, and Xanax for liberals - is a one-man startup, and his brand is on the line. Aside from the candidates themselves, perhaps no man stands to lose more from this election.

Discussion: Salon, HBR.org and The Awl

Josh Marshall / Talking Points Memo:

Sorry, Margaret, You Need to Get Out More — Times public editor Margaret Sullivan has a post up taking Nate Silver to task for daring Joe Scarborough to a bet over who would win the election. Basically, she says making a bet like this diminishes the Times and he shouldn't have done it.

Discussion: The Awl, @felixsalmon, Brad DeLong and @moorehn

Margaret Sullivan / The Public Editor's Journal:
Under Attack, Nate Silver Picks the Wrong Defense

Steven Mufson / Washington Post:

The Washington Post Co. reports higher earnings — The Washington Post Co. reported sharply higher earnings in the third quarter of this year, bolstered by cable television profits, political and summer Olympic Game advertising on its local television broadcast stations, and a one-time accounting benefit.

Discussion: Broadcasting & Cable, AdAge and Politico

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

TV earnings up, print earnings down at Washington Post — Third quarter revenue at the Washington Post Company overall was flat compared to the same period last year, as broadcast television and cable businesses rose, but circulation and ad revenue fell at its newspapers.

Pew Research Center:

Journalist Alan Murray Named President of Pew Research Center — Washington (Nov. 2) — Veteran journalist Alan Murray, currently deputy managing editor and executive editor, online, for The Wall Street Journal, has been named President of the Pew Research Center, succeeding public opinion expert Andrew Kohut …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, Politico and FishbowlNY

Capital New York:

Who will be the next editor of ‘The Wall Street Journal’? Not Alan Murray — Alan Murray. Screencap via vimeo. — Alan Murray, deputy managing editor and online executive editor of The Wall Street Journal, is leaving the paper. — He announced the move on Twitter just as his new employer …

Drew Olanoff / TechCrunch:

Twitter Releases Numbers Related To Hurricane Sandy: More Than 20M Tweets Sent During Its Peak — As you know, the devastation of Hurricane Sandy has hit millions. Many turned to Twitter to discuss what they were going through. Today, the company shared some interesting facts and numbers having …

Discussion: Home Media Magazine, Forbes and CNET

Anna Codrea-Rado / CJR:
It's about the info, not the outlet

Discussion: The Next Web, Betabeat and Softpedia News

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Pew: ‘MSNBC was more negative in its treatment of Romney than Fox was of Obama’ — Between the last week of August and the third week of October, 38 percent of campaign coverage studied by Pew's Project for Excellence in Journalism was “what is typically called horserace coverage …

Discussion: Journalism.org and Mashable!

Mark Walsh / MediaPost:

Social Media Harsh On Presidential Candidates — Social media isn't getting behind either Barack Obama or Mitt Romney. In fact, it's downright negative about both presidential candidates, according to a study by the Pew Research Center's Project for Excellence in Journalism.

Discussion: Forbes, Journalism.org and CNET

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

BitTorrent Pirate Ordered to Pay $1.5 Million Damages For Sharing 10 Movies — Since early 2010, hundreds of thousands of people in the U.S. have been sued for downloading and sharing copyrighted content on BitTorrent. — Nearly all of these cases end up dismissed or settled …

Discussion: Forbes, Techdirt, Softpedia News, Pocket-lint and CNET

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Why Time Magazine Used Instagram To Cover Hurricane Sandy — If there was still any debate about whether serious photojournalism can take place in the context of camera phones and cutesy retro filters, it's over now. — To document the effects of Hurricane Sandy on the northeast …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, The Next Web, The Verge, Folio and Poynter

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Quartz Exceeds First-Month Expectations — Atlantic Media Company launched the business news site Quartz in late September, aimed at the world's financial elite with a mobile-first approach. The content designed in an app-like setting ideally performs well enough on smartphone and tablet platforms …

Julie Moos / Poynter:

New York Times to restore paywall after 5 days of free access — The New York Times will restore its paywall later today, after providing five days of free access as a public service during Hurricane Sandy. — A note on the Times' website reads: … Once the paywall is restored, non-subscribers can read only 10 articles.

Discussion: The Huffington Post

Alex Ben Block / Hollywood Reporter:

George Lucas Will Use Disney $4 Billion to Fund Education — Spokesperson for Lucasfilm tells THR the majority of the sale price will go toward educational philanthropy. — By the end of the year, the $4.05 billion sale of Lucasfilm to Disney should be finalized.

Discussion: Top Digital Journal News, Forbes, /Film, Geekologie, Vanity Fair, Mashable!, Digital Spy and Softpedia News

Associated Press:

News media play big role in figuring out election winners long before vote count ends — Amy E. Conn, File/Associated Press - FILE - This Nov. 19, 2000 file photo shows counters and observers continuing a hand recount of Broward County ballots at the Broward Emergency Operation Center in Plantation …

PressGazette:

Nick Davies: Leveson is being bullied by ‘spoilt’ Fleet Street — Guardian journalist Nick Davies believes Fleet Street is trying to “bully” Lord Justice Leveson and predicts a “dogfight” between the press and Government when his report is published later this month.

Discussion: Hacking inquiry

Anthony Crupi / Adweek:

Storm may have cost media industry half a billion dollars — Already looking rocky at the start of the fourth quarter, the media economy this week was dealt a staggering blow by Hurricane Sandy. — In disrupting local TV and radio broadcasts and putting a halt to all New York media buying …

Michael Learmonth / AdAge:

Sandy Brings Back Prime Time for Original Wireless Network: Radio — Amid Continuing Blackout, Medium Is the Only Game in Town — Batteries are drained, internet connections long-gone. For the nearly 5 million households muddling through a fourth day without power in the wake of Hurricane Sandy …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Journalist Attempts To Silence Criticism Of Her Ethics By Brandishing The Club Of UK Defamation Laws — Defamation is only supposed to apply to cases where there's a factually false statement made about someone. It shouldn't apply to cases where the facts are accurate, or the statements are opinions.

John Cook / Gawker:

Roger Ailes Offered Bush Administration “Off the Record Help” in Private Note — Fat a**hole and Fox News president Roger Ailes just re-upped to run his network through the 2016 election, and he continues to maintain the grotesque fiction that he operates an independent news outlet …

Discussion: The Wrap, Mediaite and The Huffington Post