Mediagazer: Vevo sounds upbeat note on cable channel (Financial Times)

11:30 AM ET, December 20, 2011

Top News:

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Piers Morgan gives evidence — • 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

Discussion: @mediaguardian and BBC

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

News of the World publisher settles seven phone-hacking claims — Claims by Mark Oaten, Ulrika Jonsson, Abi Titmuss, Michelle Milburn, Paul Dadge, James Hewitt and Calum Best settled — News International said it had settled seven privacy claims against News Group Newspapers, the publisher of the now-defunct News of the World.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Erik Larson / Bloomberg: News Corp., Gascoigne Close to Settling Phone-Hacking Lawsuit

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:

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: Future of Journalism

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: Katy Roberts, Jody Alesandro to leave ‘Times’ in buyout scheme

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

Discussion: Capital New York

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

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

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:
Times Co. Negotiating to Sell Regional Newspapers

Discussion: mediabistro.com, Santa Rosa Press-Democrat, WWD, New York Post, Latest from Crain's …, NetNewsCheck Latest, Guardian, Media News, Future of Journalism, Poynter, The New York Times Company, rbr.com, WWD Media Headlines, FishbowlNY, Adweek, @nytjim, paidContent and JIMROMENESKO.COM

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

Discussion: GigaOM, Reuters, St. Petersburg Times, The Wrap, Deal Journal 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

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: Home Media Magazine, paidContent:UK, CNET News, Guardian, Softpedia News and TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Jeff Roberts / paidContent:

Publishing Insider Tipped Law Firms About E-Book Price Fixing Conspiracy — The decision by major publishers to strike a pricing deal with Apple (NSDQ: AAPL) has been the source of speculation and several antitrust investigations. Now, a new court filing suggests someone inside the industry …

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

On Word of Kim's Death, a Varied Response on Cable News — Rarely are the contrasts between CNN, the Fox News Channel and MSNBC as visible as they are on nights like Sunday, when the death of the North Korean dictator Kim Jong-il was reported. — CNN, which is best known for its news credentials …

Discussion: The Atlantic Online, mediabistro.com, TVNewser, The Boston Globe, Poynter, New York Times and The Lede

Dylan Stableford / Yahoo! News:
Newspapers in Europe cover death of Vaclav Havel, not Kim Jong-Il

Discussion: Inside

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Millennial 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: CNET News, NetNewsCheck Latest, GigaOM, TechCrunch, Softpedia News and eBookNewser, more at Techmeme »

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

Financial Times:

Vevo sounds upbeat note on cable channel — The record industry is looking to create its own destination for music videos on television, 30 years after a generation said: “I want my MTV!” Vevo, the online music video venture of Sony Music, Vivendi's Universal Music …

Darren Rovell / @darrenrovell:

Breaking: This year's Super Bowl will be streamed live in the US for the 1st time on http://t.co/xMjEO2b6.

Betsy Rothstein / FishbowlDC:

PBS Nabs Roll Call's Bellantoni for Politics Editor — Christina Bellantoni, a Harvard fellow and Roll Call's Associate Politics Editor, is leaving the publication for PBS to be the new Politics Editor for NewsHour. She will continue writing an occasional column for Roll Call.

Discussion: TVSpy and UnBeige

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, Electronista and Washington Post