Mediagazer: Three Iranian journalists arrested in fresh crackdown (Saeed Kamali Dehghan/Guardian)

9:15 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: Poynter and NetNewsCheck Latest

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 and Guardian

Dan Sabbagh / Guardian:

Phone hacking settlements: full list of who got what — Ashley Cole, Jude Law and Sadie Frost among those to receive a declared total of £645,000 from the News of the World publisher — Eighteen phone-hacking settlements were announced at the high court on Thursday morning.

Discussion: Press Gazette and @michaelwolffnyc

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

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’ — 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: The Huffington Post, Tubefilter, MediaPost, mediabistro.com, 10,000 Words, WebProNews, FishbowlNY, The Jane Dough, TVNewser and New York Times, Thanks:beet_tv

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

Discussion: Gawker

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: Drudge Report, Politico, Washington Post, National Review, Big Journalism, Associated Press, 2012.talkingpointsmemo.com, Gawker, The Politico, TVNewser, 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: The Politico, Associated Press and Future of Journalism

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

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 The Huffington Post, 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

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

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

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

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.

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

Chris Ariens / TVNewser:

Anatomy of an Error: The Bain of CNBC's Existence — After poring over some government documents, CNBC's Eamon Javers reported that Bain & Company, Mitt Romney's former firm, was one of the consulting companies that took part in the auto bailout. Javers' CNBC.com report Thursday seemed …

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