Hang Ten: Warburton might wait. The Ten Network has confirmed rival Seven is taking legal action over the poaching of its sales chief, James Warburton. Last week I pointed out the Seven Network believed that Warburton not only had the remainder of his current contract (three months) to go, but there was also a 12-month no-compete clause in his contract, meanwhile he couldn’t start at Ten until halfway through 2012 instead of the planned July 14 start.

Ten and the rest of the media ignored that until it became known that Seven was upset and thinking of legal action to enforce it. This morning Ten issued a statement that read:

“Ten Network Holdings Limited (‘Ten Holdings’) today advised that it had received court documents indicating that Seven Network (Operations) Limited (‘Seven’) had initiated proceedings against James Warburton and Ten Holdings relating to the cessation of Mr Warburton’s employment with Seven, contending the existence of employment and post-employment restraints.”

“Ten considers that it has acted properly and in a way that is consistent with Mr Warburton’s employment obligations and will be defending any proceedings accordingly.

“Ten looks forward to Mr Warburton commencing with Ten as Chief Executive Officer, as previously announced, on 14 July 2011.  As the matter is currently before the courts, Ten will not make any further comment.”

So see you in court. — Glenn Dyer

Journo admits: I made it up. UK journo Richard Peppiatt had had enough. A reporter on the sub-literate, sub-Sun tabloid The Daily Star, he resigned and made public his resignation letter, admitting to fabricating stories contributing to the paper’s anti-Muslim hatemongering, including their bizarre tale that a Northern council was funding “Muslim-only squat style public toilets”. (They were private and they weren’t Muslim-only. Apart from that…)

Peppiatt is also spruiking a sitcom script which may be why he started to receiving threatening text messages from former colleagues. How does he know they’re from the Star? Well the first one read: “You’re now a marked man…” — Guy Rundle

Facebook makes six people billionaires

Facebook made some very wealthy friends this year. In January a $1.5 billion injection brokered by Goldman Sachs valued the still privately held social network at $50 billion — more than double its value in the spring of 2010. Mark Zuckerberg’s fortune exploded 238% over the last year — the largest percentage gainer in the U.S. There are now six individuals who get the bulk of their fortune from Facebook, including Zuckerberg’s cofounders Dustin Moskovitz, Eduardo Saverin and Sean Parker. — Forbes

Facebook dominates the world’s most popular social networks

“Back in June 2009, the globe’s potpourri of social-networking sites was dazzlingly diverse: Google’s Orkut dominated India and Brazil; Central and South America preferred Hi5; Maktoob was king in the Arab world. The Vietnamese liked Zing, the Czechs loved Lidé, South Koreans surfed Cyworld. Fast-forward two years, and Facebook has stolen users away from its rivals at a blistering pace.” — Newsweek

Will classified advertising come back?

“Nowhere else have newspapers suffered as mightily in the last five years as in the meltdown in classified advertising, where nearly $14 billion in highly profitable revenue was vaporized between 2005 and 2010. The classified ad crash, of course, resulted from the worstglobal economic calamity since the 1930s. The real estate market collapsed. Employers stopped hiring. Two of the three domestic automakers plunged into bankruptcy.” — Editor & Publisher

****** ****** receives more than 74,000 intern applications for Social Media position

“On Monday, actor and poet ****** ****** posted a job ad seeking a paid social media intern — generating 95,333 clicks in an hour and more than 74,000 applications.” — Mediabistro

The New York Times called out for unbalanced r-pe coverage.

“Several blogs have erupted in anger over the story of an 11-year-old girl who was g-ng raped in Texas. This girl’s story is appalling on its own. But the focus of bloggers’ disgust and frustration has been directed more towards the media coverage of the r-pe — The New York Times and The Houston Chronicle, in particular, are being called out for only including details and quotes that seem to blame the victim and solicit sympathy for the r-pists. — The Atlantic Wire