As expected Rupert Murdoch has got his man. The Sun King announcing this morning that former board member and senior executive Chase Carey would be returning to the fold from July 1. But not to replace in full the roles that his friend, Peter Chernin performed so well for Murdoch.

Carey, who has been running Direct TV since it was sold by Murdoch to John Malone in 2006 to get the cable TV mogul off the News share register, returns as Deputy Chairman and President and Chief Operating Officer. So he gets one more higher ranking title than Mr Chernin.

But in fact Mr Chernin has proved to be irreplaceable as President and Chief Operating Office of all of Rupert Murdoch’s News Corp empire. In that role he oversaw all the company’s day to day operations (and made sure he tidied up after Rupert’s adventures). That included making sure the US TV, film and cable businesses ran well.

Mr Carey is, to quote the News Corp statement: ” Reporting to Mr. Murdoch, he (Mr Carey) will have oversight of News Corporation’s global operations and will be based in New York.” That means the US businesses will be under the watchful eye of Rupert Murdoch. He will oversee the Wall Street Journal, the Cable businesses, include Fox News, Fox TV, Fox’s local TV businesses and 20th Century Fox.

Mr Chernin oversaw all those, plus papers and every other part of the business. The reorganisation Mr Murdoch announced earlier in the year in the US non-newspaper based around the TV, movie and cable businesses, remains in place and those surviving executives will report to Mr Murdoch. So Mr Carey has better titles, but less power inside News.

A look at the news organisational chart has him taking an unfilled role on the board as Deputy Chairman, which would put him over directors Lachlan and James Murdoch. But both are part of the ownership group and will get shares when Dad goes, so they wouldn’t care all that much. But James Murdoch gets a new boss from what’s in the statement (Unless some side deal has been omitted). Being made head of all News’ global operations would nominally put him over James Murdoch who is chairman and chief executive of News Corp Europe and Asia. Is that really going to happen? Will James Murdoch allow it?

Carey, previously had 15 years with News, rising through the ranks with Mr Chernin to become two of Murdoch’s most talented and capable executives. He made Direct TV into the best run broadcast business in the US both while he was at news and when he went with it to Liberty (John Malone’s company). That’s why it has withstood the US crunch better than any other media group. James Murdoch though has proved to be a skillful executive at BSky B in London, which dominates the UK media as well. Could the Carey-James Murdoch relationship be a key in who ends up succeeding Rupert? — Glenn Dyer

Berlusconi: Murdoch is out to get me. Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has been at the centre of a media storm pressuring him to explain his relationship with teenage Noemi Letizia. Berlusconi said on Italian state television on Wednesday that he was being targeted by foreign newspapers and media magnate Rupert Murdoch. He told Rai Uno that “foreign newspapers which are critical are inspired by certain Italian dailies which are owned by someone opposed to the Mediaset group,” he said. When asked by the television interviewer if he was referring specifically to Murdoch, who is Berlusconi’s business rival in Italy, the premier replied: “Exactly.” — Sydney Morning Herald

Chaser angers TV viewers with Make A Wish joke. The Chaser plunged to what one viewer described as the lowest moment in Australian TV last night, making dying children the butt of a joke. The ABC was inundated with callers outraged by the “Make a Realistic Wish Foundation” skit in which Andrew Hansen and Chris Taylor ask actors playing hospital bed-ridden children what they wish for. When one little girl asked to meet Hollywood actor Zac Efron, she was handed a stick instead, with Taylor asking “why go to any trouble when they’re going to die any way”. — news.com.au

6% of Huffington Post’s front page stories contain original reporting from the site. To determine whether Huffington Post could conceivably replace the role of a newspaper, I set out to see whether the site is making a significant contribution to original reporting. Given that there are thousands of writers across multiple sections on the site, I decided to only focus on all the headlines on its front page as of 8pm Tuesday. There were a total of 77 headlines on the front page of the Huffington Post when I conducted the survey. Of those, four headlines simply linked to news outlets offsite. There were five HuffPo stories that contained original reporting. There were 55 HuffPo stories that simply expressed opinion and/or summarized content from other outlets.The remaining 13 stories were reprinted wire copy. — Bloggasm

Jailed Azerbaijani newspaper editor wins Amnesty International award. A newspaper editor from Azerbaijan who has been beaten up, threatened, and jailed for eight and a half years on dubious charges after criticising his government last night received a special prize at the Amnesty International Media Awards. Eynulla Fatullayev was arrested in April 2007, following years of harassment by the authorities, and was given a two-and-a-half-year sentence for libel. In October 2007, he was convicted on further charges including terrorism and his prison term was increased by six years. — Guardian

Will Craigslist’s new stance on adult ads save alt-weeklies? Last year Craigslist, which lists 18 employees on its “about us” page, made somewhere between $20 and $80 million dollars. So why is its CEO, Jim Buckmaster, so p.o.’d about s-x ads in alt-weeklies? Because these bottom-feeding free publications are making an erotic comeback in the classifieds biz. At some weeklies, something unexpected is happening. SF Weekly ran 160 adult ads the week before Craigslist’s new standards dropped; last week, it had 910. — Washington City Paper

Evening Standard circulation expected to slump 20%. The London Evening Standard is expected to post a circulation decline of more than 20% in May, when final Audit Bureau of Circulations figures for national newspapers are disclosed this Friday (5 June). However, the Alexander Lebedev-controlled newspaper is expected to contest the value of the figure. It will claim that its overall distribution — which includes full paid-for sales, bulks and the copies it has started handing out in key London locations — has gone up, from 263,292 in April to 266,481 in May. — Brand Republic