Mediagazer: CNN Looks to Digital Acquisitions to Gain on Fox (Edmund Lee/Bloomberg)

9:45 AM ET, December 20, 2011

Top News:

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Leveson inquiry: Piers Morgan gives evidence - live — • Seven claims against News Group Newspapers settled — • Piers Morgan to give evidence by video link to Leveson — • NoW TV editor ‘quit after being asked to write untrue story’ — • Reporter claimed for mileage but he couldn't drive

BBC:

Piers Morgan to appear before Leveson media ethics inquiry — Piers Morgan has denied ever hacking phones or order anyone else to — Former Daily Mirror and News of the World (NoW) editor Piers Morgan is set to appear at the Leveson Inquiry into media ethics later.

Media Guardian / @mediaguardian:

News International confirms it has settled seven phone-hacking claims, including Ulrika Jonsson, Paul Dadge and James Hewitt. More soon ...

Erik Larson / Bloomberg:

News Corp., Gascoigne Close to Settling Phone-Hacking Lawsuit — Dec. 20 (Bloomberg) — News Corp.'s U.K. publishing unit is close to settling a lawsuit by former England soccer player Paul Gascoigne over the interception of his voice-mail messages by the now-defunct News of the World tabloid.

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Times Co. Negotiating to Sell Regional Newspapers — Updated The New York Times Company, which last week announced that its chief executive would depart at the end of the year, is close to selling its regional newspapers to the Halifax Media Group, the company announced Monday.

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Sale of New York Times regional newspapers a sign of increased dealmaking in industry — The New York Times Co.'s clutch of 16 midsized and small newspapers was a relic of the prosperous pre-digital days of the 1980s and 1990s. Back then, the very comfortable margins at these properties …

Discussion: Mixed Media

Ken Doctor / Newsonomics:
New New York Times Plan: (Digital) World Domination

Discussion: GigaOM, Reuters and Poynter

Edmund Lee / @edmundlee: Heads up on @nytimes selling regional media group to Halifax. The unit is headed up by Michael Golden, Sulzbergers cousin and COO

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Record number of journalists killed on ‘dangerous assignments’ — A report by the Committee to Protect Journalists finds that at least 43 journalists were killed this year ‘ in direct relation to their work’, with 16 of those on ‘dangerous assignments’ — British-born photographer Tim Hetherington …

Joel Simon / Committee to Protect Journalists:
Journalists killed: Inside the numbers

Discussion: Guardian

Nadira Isayeva / Guardian: Khadzhimurad Kamalov: a death foreseen

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:

More NYT Buyouts: Diana B. Henriques, Eric Dash, Bob Harris, and The Reporter Who Didn't Get One — IN MID-OCTOBER, a memo was sent out to all New York Times editorial staffers, from recently-installed Times executive editor Jill Abramson, managing editor Dean Baquet …

Discussion: Capital New York and Future of Journalism

Ira Stoll / The Future of Capitalism:

The Times Shell Game — The New York Observer's Foster Kamer has a dispatch about how the New York Times has “bought out” several of its veteran employees, while retaining them as “contractors” to do the same jobs they were doing before. It quotes an email from Times staffer-turned-contractor Diana B. Henriques:

Foster Kamer / The New York Observer:
Goodbye, Gray Lady: New York Times Legends Take Buyouts, Internal Tributes Follow in Suit

Discussion: Capital New York

Paul Lamkin / Pocket-lint:

Netflix signs up BBC for UK launch — Auntie on board for streaming fun — Netflix has snapped up a digital licensing agreement with BBC Worldwide ahead of its arrival in the United Kingdom and Ireland, meaning access to the wealth of Beeb goodies. — The deal means shows such as Spooks …

Discussion: paidContent:UK, Guardian, Softpedia News and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Kim Zetter / Threat Level:

Forensic Examiner Found No Match of Cables on Manning's Laptop to WikiLeaks' — FT. MEADE, Maryland — A day after a government forensic expert testified that he'd found thousands of diplomatic cables on the Army computer of suspected WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning, he was forced …

Discussion: Future of Journalism and Electronista

Kim Zetter / Threat Level:
Jolt in WikiLeaks Case: Feds Found Manning-Assange Chat Logs on Laptop

Discussion: PBS

Washington Post:
Soldier's gender identity issues raised in WikiLeaks case

Discussion: The Week, Guardian and Threat Level

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:

Newspapers in Europe cover death of Vaclav Havel, not Kim Jong-Il — The deaths of North Korean dictator Kim Jong-Il and Václav Havel, the playwright and former Czechloslovakian president, were both announced on Sunday. But depending on where in the world you woke up this morning …

Discussion: Inside

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:
On Word of Kim's Death, a Varied Response on Cable News

Discussion: The Boston Globe, Poynter, New York Times and The Lede

Edmund Lee / Bloomberg:

CNN Looks to Digital Acquisitions to Gain on Fox — Time Warner Inc. (TWX)'s CNN, the pioneer news network that's fallen behind newcomers Fox News and MSNBC, is looking to acquisitions as part of an effort to regain ground by pushing more programming to tablets and smartphones.

Thanks:beet_tv

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Millennium Media Says Kindle Fire Impressions Growing 19 Percent Each Day — We still don't have any exact figures from Amazon (NSDQ: AMZN) for how many Kindle Fire tablets it has sold, but the latest figures out from mobile ad network Millennial Media are the latest to suggest that it is selling very well …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, TechCrunch, GigaOM and Softpedia News, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

30 Under 30: Media — There was a time when you would have had to turn over a lot of stones to find 30 obvious rising stars in the media industry — 30 people who will clearly, without a doubt be running newsrooms, networks and ad agencies in 10 years time.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

Cable News Finally Realizing That SOPA And PROTECT IP Are Bad News — Well, well, well. We've noted in the past that while the serious concerns about SOPA and PROTECT IP (PIPA) have been all over the web and newspapers, they've mostly been mostly been absent from cable news …

Discussion: WebProNews