Sources  in the know are murmuring about the possibility that James Murdoch will step out of the picture at News Corp. During his appearance on the earnings conference call last week, Rupert Murdoch said COO Chase Carey was his right-hand man, seeding the idea that Murdoch is not next in line to the top. News Corp. denies this. Arrests related to the phone hacking scandal continue and a letter has surfaced indicating that those in charge knew hacking was happening. [via Reuters]

InStyle has launched a mobile pop-up store for iPhone and Android users. [via Mashable]

The Huffington Post re-introduces Stylist.com. But AOL is still having issues.

Speaking of The Huffington Post, they’ve got a big update on Capital New York, a New York-centric site that’s got new reporters and funding.

And PRWeek is looking for a new news editor.

Click through for more news you can use about changes in the media.

Read more

Rupert Murdoch sat in on News Corp.‘s earnings call the other day and, according to Reuters (h/t FishbowlNY), he said he had “full confidence” in Chase Carey — rather than son James — to take the reigns should the need arise.

Also this week, The New York Times launched Beta620, a testing site for digital offerings from Times developers. Oooh… There’s a crossword app on there now.

And former Engadget EIC Joshua Topolsky will write an exclusive weekly column for The Washington Post as part of a partnership between The Verge, an upcoming tech news site where Topolsky is now EIC, and the Post. Other reporters will also contribute tech stories to the newspaper.

After the jump, we have more of the latest media news and moves.

Read more

Photo: Getty

News Corp. has ended its bid to acquire 61 percent of British Sky Broadcasting, one more by-product of the phone-hacking scandal that has besieged the media company, with a statement from COO Chase Carey admitting that “it is too difficult to progress.” But even with this news, the company is facing increased pressures from all sides.

Read more

Photo: Andrew Winning, Reuters

As News Corp.’s problems related to the phone-hacking scandal deepen, the company continues to take steps to try and control the PR disaster that has ensued.

Besides shutting down the still-popular 168-year-old News of the World, News Corp. is trying to stall the takeover of BSkyB to try and ride out the storm, which has now battered both companies’ stock price. A YouGov poll quoted in The Wall Street Journal says only nine percent of people think the deal should proceed while 70 percent think it should not.

And AdWeek looks at Rupert Murdoch associate and News Corp. exec Chase Carey, who has a reputation as a “cleaner,” as a possible successor to Murdoch. (Another AdWeek writer suggests selling the entire company.)

In other words, if shutting down News of the World was meant to be a crisis comms move, it has failed because of the broad and awful scope of the allegations.

Read more

Fox News Founder and Chairman Roger Ailes has shot back at PR executive Matthew Freud, husband of Rupert Murdoch‘s daughter Elisabeth, after Freud said in a New York Times profile piece highlighting Ailes’ accomplishments at Fox News that he is “ashamed and sickened by Roger Ailes‘s horrendous and sustained disregard of the journalistic standards…”

Of course, that set off a mini-firestorm in the media world, with allegations that Murdoch’s family is trying to push Ailes out of News Corp. and that his job could be in jeopardy. Both Elisabeth Murdoch and James Murdoch have since reached out to Ailes, according to the LA Times.

Ailes joked that Freud, who is a descendant of Sigmund Freud, “needs to see a psychiatrist.”

Interestingly, some of the most “pro-Freud” commentary on the matter comes from The Daily Beast, a publication which Freud once counted as a client. Freud also represents Fox News competitor CNN.

Based on the LA Times story — which contains strong support for Ailes from News Corp. deputy chairman Chase Carey — and a conversation PRNewser had with a source close to the matter, it is evident that clearly some Murdoch family members want Ailes out, but rumors of his job not being secure are greatly exaggerated.

Our source told us that because Fox News has “real clout,” the Murdoch kids “are intimidated by that” and “want [Ailes] out because of his success.” Now, the “loyal opposition has a voice,” and “this is all about positioning to Rupert as opposed to Ailes.”

The “feud” also involves one of PR’s most powerful agencies, Rubenstein, who represents News Corporation, Rupert Murdoch personally, as well as the News Corp.-owned New York Post.

With the opening shot fired, and the rebuttal now in place, we’ll be keeping an eye on who makes the next move.

Earlier this week, we reported that News Corporation chief marketer Gary Ginsberg, who also has a crisis communications background, will be leaving the company. In the last two weeks, News Corporation’s CEO, Rupert Murdoch, has been involved in several “PR gaffes.”

Last Monday, in an interview with Sky News Australia, Murdoch said Fox News anchor Glenn Beck, “was right” when he called Pres. Obama a racist.

Then, last Thursday News Corp. COO Chase Carey was asked what he thought about Murdoch’s comments on pulling Wall Street Journal content from Google’s index. Carey laughed and said, “I haven’t spoken with him since then.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement of the boss’s plan.

Then earlier this week, Murdoch called New York Gov. David Patterson “…a very nice, honest man who’s blind and can’t read braille and doesn’t really know what’s going on. It’s not a joke, it’s a tragedy we’re facing at the moment.” He later issued an apology to the governor.

Just this morning, Murdoch was caught off guard by a reporter from Media Matters. All of this got us wondering: are Murdoch’s PR gaffes tied to the departure of his top PR man, Ginsberg, or is it just coincidence?

A source close to the matter tells PRNewser they can’t imagine them being related, since Ginsberg hasn’t yet left and there has been no transition. However, the source did say, “It’s a contrast to how the Fox News [PR] people are in terms of interviews because they monitor every interview and they are very cautious on every point. It seems on the News Corp. side they lost sight of that. I don’t mean that in a negative way at all to the Fox News people. They are very on top of it and they are very careful.”

We discussed the topic on today’s mediabistro Morning Media Menu podcast, among other media news. You can listen to all the past podcasts archived at mediabistro.com or download episodes for free on iTunes.

• News Corp. COO and deputy chairman Chase Carey, on the Fox News/White House fight, speaking at Broadcasting & Cable‘s OnScreen Media Summit in Manhattan this morning. [Via TVNewser]