Mediagazer: Murdoch's £100m plan to settle hacking cases before they get to court (The Independent)

2:00 PM ET, December 29, 2011

Top News:

Evan McMorris-Santoro / TPM:

Romney: I'm Going To Fix The Budget By Bringing Ads To Sesame Street — Here's a tangible, fundamental change to the American cultural landscape that will come with a Mitt Romney presidency. Under President Romney, Sesame Street will be brought to you by more than “The Letter Q.”

Discussion: Wonkette

Alex Weprin / TVNewser:

ID's ‘On the Case’ Hires Letterman Extortionist, Former CBS News Producer Joe Halderman — TVNewser has learned that Investigation Discovery's “On the Case with Paula Zahn” has hired Joe Halderman, the CBS News producer who attempted to blackmail David Letterman in 2009.

Discussion: Mediaite, Gawker and NY Daily News

Andrea Morabito / Broadcasting & Cable:

New CNN Morning Show to Launch Jan. 2 — Soledad O'Brien will anchor first days from Iowa Caucuses — CNN will debut its new morning show team of Soledad O'Brien, Ashleigh Banfield and Zoraida Sambolin on Jan. 2, the day before the Iowa Caucuses, the network said Wednesday

Discussion: TVNewser and The Huffington Post

Brian Stelter / Media Decoder:

Cable Channels Set to Begin Election Year Coverage — America's trifecta of cable news channels, Fox News, MSNBC and CNN, are just about ready to show off their election year staffs. — Each channel plans to cover the one-night Iowa caucus for a stretch of several days …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter and The Huffington Post

The Independent:

Murdoch's £100m plan to settle hacking cases before they get to court — Rupert Murdoch's News International is thought to have prepared a legal fund of £100m to settle civil litigation actions brought by victims of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal ahead of a High Court showdown in the new year.

Alexandra Topping / Guardian:

Leveson inquiry should address media sexism, women's groups demand — Press accused of perpetuating violence against women through sexual objectification and damaging representation — Lord Justice Leveson should widen his investigation into the practices and ethics of the British press …

Adam Clark Estes / The Atlantic Wire:

At Least a Few Local Journalists Just Experienced an End of Year Miracle — News emerged Tuesday night that the new owners of the New York Times Regional Media Group would mostly likely be laying off a number of employees on Thursday. This Atlantic Wire tipster made the cut.

Dylan Byers / Politico:
Times' grumbles grow

Discussion: Erik Wemple

Leena Rao / TechCrunch:

Amazon: We Sold Over 4 Million Kindle Devices This Month; Gifting Of E-Books Up 175 Percent — Amazon has just released new data regarding its Kindle sales for the holiday season. According to the e-commerce giant, Amazon customers purchased millions of Kindle Fires and millions of Kindle e-readers.

Discussion: paidContent, VentureBeat, CNET, AllThingsD, Jacket Copy, mediabistro.com and Pocket-lint, more at Techmeme »

Derrick Harris / GigaOM:

Could SOPA fly if big media put skin in the game? — The biggest web-related legal controversy over the past few months — if not the entire year — has been the Stop Online Piracy Act, or SOPA. The bill's shortcomings have been covered to death (including by GigaOM here and here) …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

Elana Zak / 10,000 Words:
Confused by SOPA? Five Multimedia Explainers

Discussion: Prison Planet.com, Thanks:elanazak

M Ilyas Khan / BBC:

Pakistan journalists ‘threatened by security’ personnel — Pakistani journalists protested outside parliament after the killing of Saleem Shahzad earlier this year — Two senior Pakistani journalists say they have received threatening messages after raising questions over the military's role in their respective television shows.

Jim Romenesko:

Rossi: Kinsley review cut ‘Page One’ box office in half — The History Channel is airing “Page One: Inside the New York Times” at 6 p.m. ET on New Year's Eve. (It can also be streamed on Netflix.) Filmmaker Andrew Rossi answers a few of my questions about the documentary and Michael Kinsley's negative review.

Alana / Nielsen Wire:

Nielsen's Tops of 2011: Digital — As 2011 comes to a close, Nielsen reviewed the top online destinations, social media sites, and smartphone devices. Google was the most-visited U.S. Web brand, while Facebook held its lead among social networks and blogs.

Discussion: Softpedia News, GeekWire, Fast Company, CNET, WebProNews, VentureBeat, NetNewsCheck Latest, PC Magazine, The Next Web and MediaPost, more at Techmeme »

Ingrid Lunden / paidContent:

Linear TV Consumption Is Growing, But Is Ad Spend? — When you consider the internet, on-demand services, games consoles, mobiles, apps and [fill in your personal favorite here], we have more ways than ever before to watch TV content whenever and however we want.

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

The Times E-Mails Millions by Mistake to Say Subscriptions Were Canceled — Home-delivery subscribers to The New York Times and others received a mass e-mail notice on Wednesday erroneously saying that their delivery had been cancelled. — The e-mail, which the Times's spokeswoman Danielle Rhoades Ha …