The Oz scores another top recruit. The Australian has nabbed another high profile journalist with a storied Fairfax pedigree. The newspaper’s business section — which carried off the unprecedented triple defection of former-AFR deputy editor Brett Clegg, reporter wife Annabel Hepworth and Victorian hound Damon Kitney in May (as revealed by Crikey) — is now poised to announce the appointment of Tracy Lee, former AFR Companies Editor, to cover corporate shenanigans. Lee has been cooling her heels at a hedge fund after leaving The Fin after six years last September with a vaunted contact list. But News insiders say her excellent coverage of the AWB scandal in 2006 hasn’t been forgotten, with some still stunned that Oz gossip columnist Caroline Overington emerged with a Walkley for her reports while Lee missed out.

Australian editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell told Crikey this morning he would be able to confirm Lee’s appointment “soon”, perhaps in time for the annual reporting season deluge. — Andrew Crook

Ellis’ legal battle comes to an end. Asian based freelance journalist Eric Ellis has withdrawn a legal action he had launched against the intellectual magazine, The Monthly. This brings to an end the extraordinary dispute that followed the magazine spiking a story it had commissioned from Ellis late last year. As previously reported Ellis had sought $20,000 in an action before the Victorian Civil and Administrative Appeals Tribunal. Last week, he was granted leave to withdraw the action. Previously, the dispute had been the subject of excruciating email correspondence published, with the consent of both sides, here. It seems the affair is finally over.  (Declaration: I have an article in the current issue of The Monthly). — Margaret Simons

The death knock — from the other side

“My nine-year-old nephew Jamie Bray died in a tragic accident last week, getting caught in a rope swing in his garden, breaking his neck in the fall and ending up hung by the rope. Since then I have had to deal with the press…” — Chris Wheal

Seven signs Graham Richardson

“Channel Seven has signed former Labor Party numbers man Graham Richardson. Richardson will be a political analyst for Seven across the network’s news and public affairs programmes”. — TV Tonight

Is the book dead? Amazon sells more digital novels

“In what could be a watershed for the publishing industry, Amazon said sales of digital books have outstripped US sales of hardbacks on its website for the first time.” — The Guardian

The iPad’s DIY magazine

“A Flipboard is created when the app automatically gathers social-networking updates from your Facebook and Twitter accounts and displays them on attractively formatted individual pages.” — Wall Street Journal

Dark flaw in 3D’s bright future

“3D may be the bright shining future of the movie business, but at the moment it just isn’t bright enough.” — The Wrap