Mediagazer: Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill, Pearson First Textbook Publishing Partners For Apple's iBooks 2 (Jordan Crook/TechCrunch)

10:55 AM ET, January 19, 2012

Top News:

Bits:

Apple Unveils App and Tools for Digital Textbooks — Updated Adding more details as the press conference progresses. — NEW YORK — Apple wants students to bid farewell to the days of lugging around backpacks of heavy textbooks, and to welcome the iPad tablet as their new all-in-one reading device.

Discussion: TechCrunch, Global News, paidContent, CNET, ZDNet and Softpedia News, more at Techmeme »

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:

Houghton Mifflin, McGraw Hill, Pearson First Textbook Publishing Partners For Apple's iBooks 2 — Today at Apple's education event, the company introduced iBooks 2, a textbook platform that effectively transforms $200 textbooks into iPad apps at a much more reasonable price.

more at Techmeme »

Darrell Etherington / GigaOM:
Apple unveils iBooks Author, a Mac app for easy interactive e-book authoring

Discussion: TechCrunch, more at Techmeme »

Joel Gunter / Journalism.co.uk:

News of the World publisher settles 19 phone-hacking claims — Actor Jude Law receives highest disclosed payout - £130,000 plus costs - with others including former deputy prime minister John Prescott and MP Chris Bryant receiving between £30,000 and £50,000

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and @dansabbagh

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: Poynter, NetNewsCheck Latest, Deadline.com and The Wire

@tomsymonds:

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

Discussion: @tomsymonds

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

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:
Phone hacking settlements: full list of who got what

Discussion: @michaelwolffnyc and Press Gazette

Frances Martel / Mediaite:

Drudge Gets Exclusive, But When Will ABC Air Interview With Marianne Gingrich? — 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: TVNewser, Mediaite, Drudge Report, Washington Post, Gawker, Big Journalism, Politico, National Review, Associated Press, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, The Politico, The Wrap, The Huffington Post, Mother Jones and Guardian

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

Discussion: Online NewsHour, Future of Journalism and Associated Press

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

HuffPo Partners With L'Espresso For 'L'Huffington Post Italy' — The Huffington Post Media Group (NYSE: AOL) is partnering with Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso for the launch this year of an Italian edition, paidContent has learned. The partnership, to be announced today …

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:
Huffington Post Set to Launch Live Web TV ‘Network’

Discussion: The Huffington Post, eMedia Vitals, Wall Street Journal, Tubefilter, MediaPost, mediabistro.com, 10,000 Words, WebProNews, New York Times, FishbowlNY, The Jane Dough and TVNewser, Thanks:beet_tv

Haaretz:

Netanyahu denies calling Haaretz and New York Times Israel's ‘main enemies’ — According to statement released by PMO, Jerusalem Post editor Steve Linde's remarks to a conference in Tel Aviv were a misrepresentation of the meeting with Netanyahu. — Get Haaretz on iPhone — Get Haaretz on Android

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

Eric Savitz / Forbes:

Amazon Kindle Fire: More Profitable Than Expected? — The Amazon Kindle Fire might be a more profitable product than you think. — RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler reached that conclusion in a research note this morning, after he assessed the results of a proprietary survey of 216 Kindle Fire owners.

Discussion: Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

paidContent:
Why Amazon's Plagiarism Problem Is More Than A Public Relations Issue

Discussion: Crikey, MediaShift and Nieman Journalism Lab

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Hearst Names First-Ever CTO — Publisher and broadcaster Hearst Corp. has hired its first-ever chief technology officer as it tries to expand its digital footprint. Former Sony executive Philip R. Wiser will start in the new position Feb. 1. — Wiser was CTO of Sony Corp. of Americas from 2004 to 2006 …

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

Staci D. Kramer / paidContent:

Atlantic Tries A Business Site Again; WSJ's Delaney Will Lead Editorial — Nearly two years after Atlantic Media Company suspended plans for a business site, the company is back at it with nothing less that what Justin Smith calls “our most important new launch since The Atlantic Monthly in 1857.”

Discussion: FishbowlNY and Talking Biz News

TJ Raphael / Folio:

SOPA and Magazine Media — How will the new proposal affect the glossy magazine industry? — In an attempt to protect copyrighted material, the U.S. Congress has been mulling a proposal to curb access to websites, search engine results and domain names, among other things …

Discussion: White House.gov Blog, BBC and New York Times

Erick Schonfeld / TechCrunch:
In Face Of Protests, Congressmen Begin To Abandon SOPA Ship

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

Discussion: paidContent:UK

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, OverDrive, TeleRead and INFOdocket