Mediagazer: ABC to air interview tonight with Gingrich's ex-wife, but why? (Al Tompkins/Poynter)

8:00 AM ET, January 19, 2012

Top News:

Josh Halliday / Guardian:

Phone hacking: News International settles with victims - live — News of the World publisher is close to settling many of the high-profile cases brought against it, say victims' lawyers — 12.00pm: A statement on behalf of Dennis MacShane MP is now being read before court.

Discussion: Press Gazette and Deadline.com

Reuters:

Victims say News Corp has admitted hacking coverup — The British newspaper arm of Rupert Murdoch's News Corp has acknowledged to victims that executives covered up the scale of illegal activity by destroying evidence and lying to investigators, victims' lawyers said on Thursday.

Discussion: Guardian

@tomsymonds:

Jude Law statement read out: phone hacked repeatedly - including on US soil at JFK airport #phonehacking

Frances Martel / Mediaite:

Drudge Throws Political World Into Chaos With Exclusive On Gingrich Ex Interview — Earlier this evening, the Drudge Report teased an exclusive with the single most vague headline in modern journalism history: “Network Holds Bombshell Campaign Interview.” Accompanied with the legendary …

Discussion: 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, Drudge Report, Washington Post, National Review, Associated Press, Gawker, The Politico, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, The Wrap, Guardian and Mother Jones

Al Tompkins / Poynter:

ABC to air interview tonight with Gingrich's ex-wife, but why? — There comes a time when withholding information is more damaging than releasing it. ABC News faced such a time Wednesday when word leaked out that Brian Ross had what the Drudge Report hinted was an explosive interview …

Discussion: Associated Press and The Politico

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:

In Face Of Protests, Congressmen Begin To Abandon SOPA Ship — In case you haven't noticed, a lot of sites like Reddit and Wikipedia are blacked out today in protest. Google blacked out its logo and is running a huge advertising campaign (including on TechCrunch) to get Internet users to sign petitions and oppose the bills.

TJ Raphael / Folio:
SOPA and Magazine Media

Discussion: White House.gov Blog, BBC and Slate, more at Techmeme »

Arianna Huffington / @ariannahuff:
There's one Wikipedia page that isn't blacked out today: #SOPA http://t.co/8KYmwFA2

Discussion: paidContent:UK

Michael Hastings / Rolling Stone:

Julian Assange: The Rolling Stone Interview — Under house arrest in England, the WikiLeaks founder opens up about his battle with the ‘Times,’ his stint in solitary and the future of journalism — It's a few days before Christmas, and Julian Assange has just finished moving to a new hide-out deep in the English countryside.

Discussion: Poynter

Jack Shafer / Reuters:

WikiLeaks' 16th minute — This piece originally appeared in Reuters Magazine, a special edition publication ahead of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. — In late October, a deflated Julian Assange called a press conference in London to announce he may have to mothball WikiLeaks.

Liz Gannes / AllThingsD:

The New York Times Bits Blog Gets a Billboard — Competition in the technoblogoverse just got a little fiercer! The New York Times Bits technology blog now has its very own billboard on Highway 101. — Specifically, the billboard is on 101 southbound in South San Francisco, just north of SFO.

Discussion: Forbes

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

No More New Penguin Digital Audiobooks For Libraries, Either — Hoping to skirt Penguin's library e-book restrictions by checking out a hot new title as a digital audiobook instead? Sorry, that strategy will no longer work as Penguin changed its library policies again today.

Discussion: The Digital Shift, TeleRead and INFOdocket

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Huffington Post Set to Launch Live Web TV ‘Network’ — Arianna Huffington has made no secret of her ambition to build a news organization that can rival The New York Times in reach and prestige. But right now, she has her sights set on a different target: CNN.

Discussion: paidContent, Tubefilter, MediaPost, mediabistro.com, WebProNews, 10,000 Words, FishbowlNY, TVNewser, The Jane Dough and The New York Observer, Thanks:beet_tv

Max Colchester / Wall Street Journal:
Le Huffington Post to Launch in France

Discussion: Gawker

Eric Pfanner / New York Times:
Strauss-Kahn's Wife to Edit Huffington Post in France

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Laura Kusisto / Wall Street Journal:

Chinese Media Aiming High in City — Four major Chinese media companies are expanding their presence in New York City as they lay the groundwork to begin competing on a global stage. — Xinhua, one of the Chinese government's main news outlets and propaganda arms, last year moved …

Discussion: Future of Journalism

paidContent:

Why Amazon's Plagiarism Problem Is More Than A Public Relations Issue — Plagiarized editions for sale in Amazon's Kindle store show how the company is still adapting to the world of original content creation. At the same time, the stolen books may also present a test of the retailer's ability …

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:
A GarageBand for ebooks: Simplifying publishing could mean a flood of new content

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Crikey, MediaShift, Techland, GigaOM, AllThingsD and TeleRead

Maurice Chammah / The Huffington Post:

Journalism in Egypt: A Very Quick Guide — January 25th 2012, the first anniversary of the Egyptian uprisings that brought down Mubarak, is approaching quickly. When it comes, the news will arrive fast and fragmented from Tahrir, as it has every time big numbers return to the square.

Steve Myers / Poynter:

About 7,300 reporters and editors are among the 1 percent — According to a Times graphic in Sunday's newspaper, 7,282 reporters and editors are in the rarefied circle of the 1 percent. (The interactive version doesn't appear to include this category.) To be included in the graphic …

Discussion: Guardian

Saeed Kamali Dehghan / Guardian:

Three Iranian journalists arrested in fresh crackdown — Marzieh Rasouli, Parastoo Dokouhaki and Sahamoddin Bourghani had worked for reformist media outlets — At least three prominent journalists have been arrested in Iran in a fresh crackdown on press freedom ahead of the country's parliamentary elections in March.

Discussion: Global Voices

Craig Silverman / Poynter:

How CNBC corrected its incorrect correction about Bain & Company — Last Thursday, CNBC Washington correspondent Eamon Javers published a report stating Bain & Company (of Mitt Romney fame) was consulted by Obama administration officials working on the auto bailout.

Discussion: CNBC and TVNewser

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:
Anatomy of an Error: The Bain of CNBC's Existence

Discussion: Multichannel, AdAge, Media Matters for America and Talking Biz News

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Leveson inquiry hears regional newspaper editors face tough ad market — Advertising in local papers has almost halved in five years, says editor of South Wales Evening Post — Advertising in regional newspapers has almost halved over the past five years, the editor of the South Wales Evening Post has told the Leveson inquiry.

Discussion: Press Gazette, Jon Slattery, The Independent and Press Gazette