Mediagazer: Shunning Amazon, Booksellers Resist a Transformation (David Streitfeld/New York Times)

4:00 PM ET, November 5, 2012

Top News:

Michael Wolff / Guardian:

The New York Times adrift hands Margaret Sullivan the tiller — The New York Times' new public editor has made a splash. But her impact is largely a sign of the Old Gray Lady's frailty — The job of public editor at the New York Times - a position instituted at the paper to fortify …

Discussion: Capital New York, CJR, @michaelwolffnyc and @djbentley

Emily Bell / Guardian:
From Storm Sandy to the election, speculation dominates the US media

Discussion: Daily Download

Frédéric Filloux / Monday Note:

The press, Google, its algorithm, their scale — In their fight against Google, traditional media firmly believe the search engine needs them to refine (and monetize) its algorithm. Let's explore the facts. — The European press got itself in a bitter battle against Google.

Discussion: TheMediaBriefing, WebProNews, Forbes and Eamonn Fitzgerald's Rainy Day

David Carr / New York Times:
Publishers Abroad Take on Google

Discussion: Poynter, Forbes, Talking Biz News and Quartz

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:

NYT leads coverage on incoming CEO — The New York Times continues to provide in-depth reporting on the questions facing its incoming chief executive Mark Thompson over his role in the BBC's Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. — In a Nov. 4 piece “As Scandal Flared, BBC's Leaders Missed Red Flags …

Matthew Purdy / New York Times:
As Scandal Flared, BBC's Leaders Missed Red Flags

Discussion: Poynter and New York Magazine

Guardian:
Jimmy Savile scandal: BBC, star's estate and hospitals face 43 lawsuits

Discussion: Telegraph

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

CBS Finally Does A Deal With Hulu, But Only For Older Shows That Are Off The Air — After years of speculation, Hulu has finally done a deal with CBS, bringing shows from the one broadcast holdout into its content library. Beginning in January, CBS content will become available through Hulu Plus.

Discussion: AllThingsD, Forbes, Broadcasting & Cable, Hulu Blog, Home Media Magazine, Radio & Television …, The Wrap, CNET, GigaOM, The Next Web and WebProNews

Michael Wolff / USA Today:

Current TV could help digital media — Current TV, the cable channel started by Al Gore and Joel Hyatt in 2005 with great enthusiasm about how the information age would mobilize the young (that is, the liberal young), last week announced it was for sale. The company said it was looking …

Alex Pareene / The Baffler:

Come On, Feel the Buzz — Last June, Joe Williams, a reporter for the political newspaper and web news site Politico, said on Martin Bashir's MSNBC talk show that presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney appeared comfortable only around white people.

Discussion: @jaredbkeller, @lehmannchris and @xlorentzen

Paul Sawers / The Next Web:

Another one bites the dust: Macmillan drops its printed dictionaries to go online only — Back in March, we reported that Wikipedia and the Internet had finally killed off 244-year-old Encyclopaedia Britannica. While this wasn't massively surprising, and is very much indicative of the way things …

Discussion: One Man & His Blog and Betabeat

Mike Isaac / AllThingsD:

As Instagram Debuts Web Profiles, It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Facebook — Welcome to the new era of Instagram. Brought to you by Facebook. — Instagram launched Web profiles on Monday morning, the first true attempt from the photo-sharing service to provide users with a more complete version …

Discussion: Betabeat, Forbes and NYT Bits

Ben Sisario / Media Decoder:

Former Spin Editor to Run BuzzFeed's Long-Form Coverage — The Web site BuzzFeed gets plenty of attention for its news aggregation, political coverage and pop-culture catnip like “Proof That ‘Gangnam Style’ Is Really Just Illuminati Propaganda” and “7 Photos of Syrian Rebels Hanging Out With Cats.”

Discussion: The New York Observer, FishbowlNY, BuzzFeed, paidContent and @journerdism

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

As Netflix Pops Its Poison Pill, Wall Street Struggles to Find Icahn a Buyer — Last week Carl Icahn took a big stake in Netflix, and announced that he wanted someone to buy the company. Here's the next step: Netflix has adopted a “poison pill” provision, designed to keep Icahn from acquiring any more of the company.

Discussion: Guardian, CNET, Home Media Magazine, Forbes and GeekWire

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

NUJ supports regulation backed by statute — Statement referencing Irish system puts journalist union at loggerheads with most newspaper proprietors and editors — The National Union of Journalists has come out in support of statutory underpinning for UK press regulation …

Julia Angwin / Wall Street Journal:

On Google, a Political Mystery That's All Numbers — Google Inc.'s quest to guess what we want before we want it has produced an unusual side effect: a disparity in the results the company presents about the presidential candidates. — A Wall Street Journal examination found …

Discussion: CNET, The Verge, Search Engine Land, WordStream and Betabeat