Mediagazer: News Corp. ‘Startling’ E-Mails Trigger New U.K. Computer Search (Erik Larson/Bloomberg)

2:55 PM ET, January 19, 2012

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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: Forbes, paidContent, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, The FJP, AllThingsD, Pocket-lint, Softpedia News, CNET and Epicenter, 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: CNET, TechCrunch, Forbes, Global News, paidContent, GigaOM, ZDNet, Pocket-lint and Softpedia News, more at Techmeme »

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

Discussion: CNET, The Huffington Post and Softpedia News

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

Discussion: VentureBeat and Business Insider, more at Techmeme »

Reuters:

News Corp pays out over hacking claims, said to admit coverup — (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: Guardian, ThinkProgress and Deadline.com

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: Guardian, Media & Entertainment, Guardian, rbr.com, Multichannel, Poynter, The Wrap, @dansabbagh, NetNewsCheck Latest and The Wire

@tomsymonds:

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

Discussion: @tomsymonds

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]."

Erik Larson / Bloomberg: News Corp. ‘Startling’ E-Mails Trigger New U.K. Computer Search

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

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

How Media Shaped Romney's ‘Inevitable’ Narrative — CHARLESTON, S.C. — Mitt Romney won the Iowa Caucus by eight votes over Rick Santorum, according to reports by every news organization on Jan. 4. Now two weeks later, there's a different story: Santorum is ahead of Romney by 34 votes …

Nikki Finke / Deadline.com:

EXCLUSIVE: Hollywood Moguls Stopping Obama Donations Because Of President's Piracy Stand: “Not Give A Dime Anymore” — EXCLUSIVE: Internet sites on their SOPA-Strike may be conducting a blackout but Hollywood studios are conducting a boycott. I've learned that Hollywood studio chiefs individually …

Discussion: Hollywood Reporter, CNET, CNN, John Battelle's Search Blog, Techdirt, White House.gov Blog, ReadWriteWeb, Free Press, The Informer and LA Observed

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, Drudge Report, TVNewser, Washington Post, Mediaite, The Wrap, National Review, Politico, Gawker, 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: The Politico, The Huffington Post, St. Petersburg Times 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, Tubefilter, Wall Street Journal and 10,000 Words

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: PC Magazine, eBookNewser, TeleRead and Fast Company

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

Discussion: Crikey

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: Forbes, NetNewsCheck Latest, Folio, FishbowlNY and Talking Biz News

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 …

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.

Discussion: Poynter