Mediagazer: Financial Times raises cover price to £2.50 (Mark Sweney/Guardian)

5:10 PM ET, January 4, 2012

Top News:

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

The Case of the Unfortunate Underscore: How Twitter Verified the Fake Wendi Over the Real Wendi — I went all Encyclopedia Brown yesterday after I and many others had been led astray by an account — @wendi_deng — that Twitter had verified with its famous blue check mark over the holiday weekend …

Discussion: MediaFile, Erik Wemple, Gawker, St. Petersburg Times, FP Passport, Business Insider, Gothamist, The Daily Caller, GigaOM and The Huffington Post, more at Techmeme »

Matt Burns / TechCrunch:

It's Official: Yahoo Announces PayPal President Scott Thompson As Its New CEO — The search is over. Yahoo just named Scott Thompson as its new Chief Executive Officer, effective January 9, 2012. It's been four long months for Yahoo after ousting Carol Bartz in September.

Jeff Bercovici / Mixed Media:
New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson: 'We'll Be Back to Innovation'

Discussion: Gawker, Forbes, AllThingsD, AdAge and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

Tight Race Catches TV Anchors by Surprise — From their respective television studios in Midtown Manhattan on Tuesday, the liberal MSNBC anchor Rachel Maddow and the conservative Fox News commentator Karl Rove looked to Iowa and saw the same thing: a Republican race that was “tight as a tick.”

Discussion: Washington Post, Media Decoder, Chickaboomer, TVNewser, ABCNEWS, The Caucus and The Huffington Post

David Zurawik / The Baltimore Sun:
CNN the TV place to be for coverage of amazing, super-tight Iowa race

Discussion: Erik Wemple, NPR, Sacramento Bee, Iowa Caucuses and Poynter

Dylan Byers / The Politico:
Current: Olbermann declined offer to anchor Iowa coverage

Discussion: FishbowlDC, Mediaite, The Huffington Post, Big Journalism, TVNewser and paidContent

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Should CBS also disclose its ties to Romney's Bain Capital? — Last week MSNBC and NBC News starting disclosing that its parent company, NBCU is a partner in the Weather Channel with Bain Capital, of which Mitt Romney is a partner. Now Fortune reports CBS News, at least Radio, might want to start disclosing this:

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

Filkin report: Police should record all contact with press — Report into the relationship between the police and the press recommends records kept of all contact and warns police against reporters flirting and using alcohol to get information — Metropolitan police commissioner Bernard Hogan-Howe …

Discussion: Guardian, Poynter and @dansabbagh

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Met police warned over drinking with journalists — Report warns of risks of ‘flirty reporters’ and calls for an end to traditional chats between police and reporters in pubs — Metropolitan police officers have been ordered to avoid “flirting” with and accepting alcohol from journalists.

Discussion: Guardian, Press Gazette, @athomson6 and @benfenton

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Newspaper Guild Sends Letter to Sulzberger Packed with 560 Signatures — On December 23, the Newspaper Guild of New York posted an open letter criticizing Arthur Sulzberger Jr. for freezing pensions — while giving departed CEO Janet Robinson hers early — and for not budging in negotiations.

Azi Paybarah / Capital New York:

Mort Zuckerman changes editors, again: Kevin Convey's out, former News Corp. guy Colin Myler is in — Daily News. — After a year and a half, the Daily News has named a new editor-in-chief to replace Kevin Convey. It's Colin Myler, according to an email I've obtained …

Discussion: Poynter, Capital New York, The Politico, The Huffington Post, Jon Slattery, Gawker, FishbowlNY, The Wrap, The New York Observer and Media Decoder

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York: At ‘Daily News,’ a culture of using ‘permalancers’ gets shaken up

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

WSJ Cleared Over Europe Sales Fixing, Now Finger Points At ABC — The Audit Bureau of Circulation in the UK will not take action against Wall Street Journal (NSDQ: NWS) Europe for a circulation-boosting programme associated with the resignation of WSJ's Europe publisher and EMEA managing director Andrew Langhoff recently.

Discussion: Guardian, Talking Biz News, Reuters, Journalism.co.uk and Poynter

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:
ABC's ‘thorough review’ into Wall Street Journal sales scandal is a whitewash

Discussion: Media Decoder, abc.org.uk and Press Gazette

Andrew Laughlin / Digital Spy:

Apple in running for Premier League TV rights, says report — Apple is interested in joining the billion pound battle to win the next round of bidding for Premier League TV rights, as part of plans to boost its Apple TV service. — Charles Sale over at The Daily Mail claims that the US company …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Pocket-lint, Electronista, 9to5Mac, MacRumors and Softpedia News

Robert Andrews / paidContent:
Premier League Rights: Google And Apple Unlikely To Bid

Discussion: Telegraph and FT Tech Hub

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

On Yacht, Murdoch Catches the Twitter Wave — Some people sunbathe and drink daiquiris on their Caribbean vacations. Rupert Murdoch, the chairman and chief executive of the News Corporation, joined Twitter. — On Dec. 31 the media mogul, on board his 184-foot yacht, Rosehearty …

Discussion: Mixed Media, Media News, Softpedia News, The Atlantic Wire, Vanity Fair, Guardian, Telegraph and Business Insider

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Disney and Comcast Link Up for Another 10 Years — Comcast has re-upped its distribution deal with Disney, which means the country's largest cable company will continue to pipe programming from ABC, ESPN and other channels into its subscribers' homes for another 10 years.

Discussion: Media Money …, Adweek, Broadcasting & Cable, rbr.com, Media Decoder, Multichannel, Company Town, @dgelles, paidContent, The Wrap, @pkafka, @pkafka and GigaOM, more at Techmeme »

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Stephen Lawrence's parents thank Daily Mail for ‘going out on a limb’ — Newspaper's ‘Murderers’ headline in 1997 put the case at heart of public consciousness, say David Cameron and Ed Miliband — The parents of Stephen Lawrence have praised the Daily Mail for “going out on a limb” …

Discussion: Daily Mail, Press Gazette and Editor's Blog