Mediagazer: Brooks' links to Clifford payment cast doubt on her hacking denials (Cahal Milmo/The Independent)

Brooks' links to Clifford payment cast doubt on her hacking denials — Rebekah Brooks personally negotiated a £680,000 out-of-court settlement with the publicity guru Max Clifford which led to his withdrawing a potentially explosive phone-hacking claim against the News of the World, News International (NI) revealed last night.

Sarah Marshall / Journalism.co.uk:

James Murdoch: Brooks did ‘not seek authorisation’ for Clifford settlement — A letter from James Murdoch, among documents published by the culture, media and sport committee, states he did not authorise a £400,000 payment to Max Clifford to settle a phone-hacking claim

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Thomas Catan / Wall Street Journal:

Justice Department Confirms E-Book Probe — WASHINGTON—The U.S. Justice Department confirmed Wednesday that it is conducting an antitrust investigation into the pricing of electronic books, the latest antitrust watchdog to probe whether there was improper collusion by publishers and Apple Inc. to prevent discounting.

Discussion: paidContent, The Verge, CNET News, The New York Observer, Shelly Palmer Digital Living, MacRumors and Tech Trader Daily, more at Techmeme »

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

Thurlbeck rounds on NoW executives in new evidence — Former News of the World chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck has told MPs about a culture of “suppression” and “paralysis” at the News of the World which he says had “catastrophic consequences” for the paper.

MediaShift:

Nobel Prize Winner on How New Media is Democratizing Science News — MediaShift's science journalism coverage is sponsored by the Columbia Journalism School, which offers an innovative specialized M.A. for experienced journalists who want to cover science, business, arts or politics in a sophisticated, nuanced manner.

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

James Murdoch's lawyers confirm Tom Watson was put under surveillance — News Corp lawyers say three NI staff were involved in setting up monitoring, but it is not appropriate to name them — James Murdoch's lawyers have confirmed that Labour MP Tom Watson was put under surveillance for a week in 2009 …

Know Your Mobile:

Exclusive: Amazon Kindle Fire coming to UK in January — Know Your Mobile has been told Amazon's Android-powered Kindle Fire tablet will be getting a UK release date in January — Amazon will be bringing the Kindle Fire to the UK, a source close to the launch has informed us.

Discussion: Bookseller news, mocoNews, Softpedia News and Electronista

Discussion: AllThingsD

Tom Stites / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Taking stock of the state of web journalism — Editor's note: Tom Stites had a long career in newspapers, editing Pulitzer-winning projects and working at top newspapers like The New York Times, the Chicago Tribune, and the Philadelphia Inquirer. In recent years, he's shifted his emphasis …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Georg Szalai / Hollywood Reporter:

Yahoo Building New York Studio … NEW YORK About 5,000 square feet in an office building at the corner of Manhattan's 40th Street and Avenue of the Americas will become the city's next major studio space by mid-March. — But the company that is looking to transform …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, NYConvergence.com, CNET News and Medacity

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Broadcasters call for action over signal interference — Five international broadcasters have issued a joint statement in response to ‘an increase in deliberate interference’ of their signals in the past year — A group of international broadcasters, including the BBC …

Discussion: Media News

Cory Bergman / Lost Remote:

Why news sites should add Facebook's new ‘Subscribe’ button — Facebook exec Joanna Shields just revealed at a conference that the social network is poised to roll out a “Subscribe” button that will allow users to subscribe to other users' updates. Think of it as a Twitter “follow” button for Facebook, embeddable on any site.

Discussion: The Next Web, Business Insider, PC Magazine, ZDNet, AllThingsD, Future of Journalism and WebProNews

Melissa Bell / Washington Post:

Drone journalism? The idea could fly in the U.S. — This January, the FAA will be proposing new rules on the use of drones in American airspace — a possibility some see as positively Orwellian, but others, including some journalists, see as an opportunity.

BBC:

Phone-hacking scandal: Former journalist not a suspect — A number of people have been arrested as part of the investigation into phone hacking — A former News of the World journalist who was questioned last week in the police inquiry into phone hacking has been ruled out as a suspect.

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The AP brings a quasi-competitor into the fold — In 2008, eight Ohio newspapers, upset with what they saw as high prices charged by the Associated Press, rebelled against the wire to form their own statewide news-sharing service, the Ohio News Organization.

Discussion: Editors Weblog

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

If we are all journalists, should we all be protected? — The bloggers vs. journalists debate may seem like something that's of interest only to media-industry insiders, but it has very real implications for society when it comes to protecting freedom of information, as the case of blogger Crystal Cox has highlighted this week.

Discussion: Media News, CNET News, The Daily Weekly, Forbes, MarketingVox News & Trends and Seattle Weekly

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

Verizon And RedBox Planning Major Partnership For Early 2012 Launch — Yesterday, it was reported that Verizon was planning a Netflix competitor and in talks with various content producers to provide the streams and downloads. TechCrunch has obtained additional information on this story …

Discussion: Fortune, Engadget and FT Tech Hub, more at Techmeme »

Dorian Benkoil / MediaShift:

Tear Down the Wall Between Business and Editorial! — For too long, reporters and editors have been unaware, even hostile to the business sides of their organizations. Those attitudes have helped push the news industry into its current dire state. — And that's why I say: Tear down the wall between business and editorial.

Discussion: B2B Memes

Bloomberg:

Bloomberg News Responds to Bernanke Criticism — Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke said in a letter to four senior lawmakers today that recent news articles about the central bank's emergency lending programs contained “egregious errors.” — While Bernanke's letter …

Discussion: Online NewsHour, Economix and News on News

Discussion: The Huffington Post and FT Alphaville