Mediagazer: Key Senior Executive at the Times Company Will Retire (Christine Haughney/Media Decoder)

12:40 PM ET, November 6, 2012

Top News:

Jeff Sonderman / Poynter:

News orgs innovate with election coverage — Tuesday night will be the most interactive election night ever. — Millions of Americans won't just be watching results come in, they'll be participating in new ways thanks to news organizations doing just about everything they can think of to enhance live coverage tonight.

Discussion: Forbes, Lost Remote, New York Times, Digits and NetNewsCheck Latest

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

New York Times will drop its paywall for the third time — The New York Times will drop its paywall for the third time since it was introduced in March 2011, allowing free access this week for Election Day coverage. — The paper first dropped its paywall in August 2011 as New York prepared for Hurricane Irene.

Discussion: New York Magazine and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Lisa Richwine / Reuters:

Major TV News Networks Agree To Shield Early Exit Poll Data On Election Day — LOS ANGELES, Nov 5 (Reuters) - U.S. television networks face a new challenge in covering this year's excruciatingly close presidential election: prevent closely guarded exit poll results from leaking onto Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms.

Discussion: Poynter and The Huffington Post

Brian Stelter / New York Times:
Facing an Election Night Clamor

Discussion: New York Times, The Huffington Post, JIMROMENESKO.COM, New York Magazine, Media Decoder, FishbowlNY, TVNewser, Los Angeles Times, SocialTimes, Chickaboomer, Prof Chris Daly's Blog and BuzzFeed

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:
Murdoch's Anti-Obama Twitter Drive: Christie, Petraeus and More

Discussion: Los Angeles Times

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

Key Senior Executive at the Times Company Will Retire — A senior executive of The New York Times Company responsible for the company's key business results is retiring, and the company is eliminating the position entirely. — Scott Heekin-Canedy, president and general manager, will retire by year's end.

Discussion: The Wrap, @edmundlee, @edmundlee, @pkafka and @edmundlee

Katherine Fung / Huffington Post:

Tentative New York Times Contract Will Preserve Pension Plan, Health Care For Guild Members — The tentative deal between New York Times employees and management will satisfy many of the union's biggest demands, according to the Newspaper Guild of New York.

Discussion: mediabistro.com

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Christmas Coming Early For AOL Shareholders With $445M Dividend — Mark your calendar, AOL shareholders: Dec. 14 is your lucky day. — On that date, almost exactly three years to the day after the internet giant spun out from Time Warner, AOL will pay out a one-time dividend of $5.15 per share, or $445 million total.

Discussion: AdAge, FishbowlNY, Poynter and Reuters

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

How video will provide a third act for AOL — AOL has been down forever but it's still far from out. After towering as an internet giant a decade ago and then crawling along as a zombie spin-off since 2009, the muddled media giant is ready for a third act.

Discussion: The Next Web

Jeff Roberts / @jeffjohnroberts:
http://Patch.com to be profitable by Q4 2013 — AOL execs on earnings call

Discussion: AllThingsD and Street Fight

Foo Yun Chee / Reuters:

Exclusive: Amazon to win out over Apple in e-book price tussle — (Reuters) - European Union regulators are to accept an offer by Apple and four publishers to end an antitrust probe into their e-book prices, two sources said, handing Amazon victory in a bid to sell online books cheaper than its rivals, sources said.

Discussion: paidContent, CNET, The Verge, MacRumors, Mashable!, 9to5Mac, Engadget and Mercury News

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

Marissa Mayer Will “Talk About Where She Is Taking Yahoo” in First Media Interview Since Becoming CEO — Marissa Mayer — the typically press-loving Silicon Valley exec who has avoided much media interaction since she took over as CEO of Yahoo — will be doing her first sit-down interview …

Jamie Condliffe / Gizmodo:
Samsung Teams Up With Yahoo For Interactive TV Service

Discussion: Engadget

Joe Flint / Los Angeles Times:

Cablevision and NBCUniversal sign distribution deal — Cablevision signed a new distribution deal with NBC, home of “The Voice.” (NBC) — Cablevision Systems Corp. has signed a long-term distribution deal to carry broadcast and cable networks owned by Comcast's NBCUniversal unit.

Don Jeffrey / Bloomberg:

Pandora Media Sues Ascap Seeking Lower Songwriter Fees — Pandora Media Inc. (P), the biggest Internet radio service, sued the organization representing songwriters and composers to seek lower license fees for playing their songs. — Pandora, which is also lobbying the U.S. Congress …

Discussion: The Verge

Variety:

Amazon eyes original comedy series ‘Browsers’ — Netco close to greenlight for project originally developed at CBS — In a sign that Amazon is getting serious about fielding original programming, the Internet giant is said to be close to greenlighting a musical comedy series dubbed “Browsers.”

Discussion: CNET, The Verge, Gizmodo and The Next Web

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Former BBC Boss Expresses ‘Shock and Sadness’ About Abuse Scandal — LONDON - Former BBC director general Mark Thompson late Monday reiterated that during his tenure he was not aware of any wrongdoing by former Top of the Pops host Jimmy Savile at the U.K. public broadcaster.

Mackenzie Weinger / Politico:
NYT leads coverage on incoming CEO

Discussion: Capital New York, Guardian, New York Times and Poynter

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 …