Mediagazer: Hacking settlement judge Vos:"a carefully conceived plan to delete emails was put into effect at the behest of senior management [of NGN]." (Ben Fenton/@benfenton)

12:45 PM ET, January 19, 2012

Top News:

Darrell Etherington / GigaOM:

Apple unveils iBooks Author, a Mac app for easy interactive e-book authoring — Apple's Roger Rosner, VP of productivity software, showed off Apple's new iBooks Author on Thursday at Apple's special media event in NYC. iBooks Author is a Mac app that provides tools to help anyone publish …

Discussion: AllThingsD, TechCrunch, The FJP, 9to5Mac, Epicenter and CNET, more at Techmeme »

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: Global News, TechCrunch, paidContent, CNET, ZDNet, Pocket-lint and Softpedia News, more at Techmeme »

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:
The day the bookshelf shook: Four lessons for news orgs from today's Apple iBooks announcements

Discussion: Business Insider and VentureBeat, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: Softpedia News

Reuters:

Victims say News Corp has admitted hacking cover-up — (Reuters) - 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: Deadline.com, Guardian and ThinkProgress

Ben Fenton / @benfenton:

Hacking settlement judge Vos:"a carefully conceived plan to delete emails was put into effect at the behest of senior management [of NGN]."

Press Gazette:

37 phone-hacking settlements confirmed at High Court — Nineteen more civil damages claims brought over the News of the World phone-hacking scandal have been settled, the High Court heard today. — Actor Jude Law, former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott and Labour MP Chris Bryant …

Discussion: rbr.com, Broadcasting & Cable, Poynter, Guardian, The Wrap, NetNewsCheck Latest, @dansabbagh and The Wire

@tomsymonds:

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

Discussion: @tomsymonds

Andrew Pugh / Press Gazette: NoW illegally intercepted emails of Harold Shipman's son

Neville Thurlbeck:
News International's Crisis of Trust - The Staff

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

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

Discussion: paidContent and @michaelwolffnyc

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: Broadcasting & Cable, TVNewser, Mediaite, The Wrap, Drudge Report, Washington Post, Gawker, Politico, National Review, Big Journalism, Associated Press, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, The Politico, The Huffington Post, Mother Jones and Guardian

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

Discussion: St. Petersburg Times, The Politico, The Huffington Post and Future of Journalism

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 …

Discussion: MediaPost, Editors Weblog, eMedia Vitals, Tubefilter, 10,000 Words and WebProNews

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

Discussion: Gawker and Forbes

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: eBookNewser, TeleRead and Fast Company, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: Crikey

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 …

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

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

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