Mediagazer: Photojournalism's Debt to Kodak (Hannah Sheehan/On The Media)

4:55 AM ET, January 20, 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: Apple, Softpedia News, The Vook Blog, 9to5Mac, AllThingsD, Epicenter, Gadget Lab, CNET, TeleRead, MacRumors, Apple, Epicenter, Forbes, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Pocket-lint, paidContent, TechCrunch and The FJP, more at Techmeme »

Bits:

Apple Introduces Tools to (Someday) Supplant Print Textbooks — Updated — Apple wants students to stop lugging around backpacks full of heavy textbooks and to switch to the iPad instead. — On Thursday the company introduced three free pieces of software revolving around education.

Discussion: GigaOM, CNET, Softpedia News, TechCrunch, The Awl, ZDNet, The Huffington Post, Forbes, Global News and Pocket-lint, more at Techmeme »

Dan Wineman / venomous porridge:

The Unprecedented Audacity of the iBooks Author EULA — Apple just released iBooks Author, a free Mac app for creating digital books for the new version of iBooks. I haven't played with it much, but so far it looks like a very good tool. However, a curious thing happens when you go to export your work in iBooks format:

Paul Carr / PandoDaily:
iBooks Author Is Not Going To Hurt Publishers. It Might Even Help Them

Discussion: GigaOM, TeleRead and Jack Shafer

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

Discussion: ReadWriteWeb, Business Insider and VentureBeat

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

Discussion: The Huffington Post and Softpedia News

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 …

Associated Press:

Indictment Charges Megaupload Site With Piracy — McLEAN, Va. — Federal prosecutors in Virginia say they have shut down one of the world's largest Internet file-sharing sites, Megaupload.com, and charged its founder and others with violating piracy laws. — An indictment accuses the company …

Janko Roettgers / GigaOM:

The Mega empire: details of the MegaUpload indictment — The FBI moved Thursday to shut down MegUpload.com and arrest four of its executives including its founder Kim Schmitz. The feds are alleging criminal copyright infringement and racketeering, and the full indictment has already been posted online.

Discussion: Gizmodo, Softpedia News, Guardian, VentureBeat, Pocket-lint, msnbc.com, Fast Company, Forbes, L.A. Times Tech Blog, Home Media Magazine, CNET and @hanezawakirika, more at Techmeme »

Chris Ziegler / The Verge:
Anonymous claims DOJ and record label site takedowns in response to MegaUpload suit

Discussion: rt.com and Gizmodo, more at Techmeme »

Guardian:

How News Group hid phone-hacking scandal — Judge criticises Murdoch empire as it agrees aggravated damages for 37 victims of News of the World — A high court judge said the Murdoch-owned company behind the News of the World had made “an admission of sorts” that it engaged in a deliberate cover …

Discussion: CJR

Press Gazette:
37 phone-hacking settlements confirmed at High Court

Discussion: Guardian, Press Gazette, Adweek, Poynter, @dansabbagh, Broadcasting & Cable, rbr.com, Media & Entertainment, The Wire, Guardian and NetNewsCheck Latest

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

Reuters:
News Corp pays out over hacking claims, said to admit coverup

Discussion: The Independent, Beyond Search, paidContent, Future of Journalism, Guardian, Deadline.com and @benfenton

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

Discussion: New York Magazine and @tomsymonds

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

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk

Jim Romenesko:

Dealing with the Fox News PR machine — “Much as I like Gabe Sherman's work, I disagree with him in this instance,” Times media editor Bruce Headlam told me Tuesday night. “Covering a person or organization doesn't mean you are carrying water for them. If it did, our homepage right …

Discussion: Future of Journalism, Gawker, Inside Cable News and TVNewser

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: Indecision Forever, paidContent, rbr.com, The Huffington Post, CNN, ReadWriteWeb, Techdirt, CNET, The Informer, LA Observed, Free Press and White House.gov Blog

Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:

Online Ad Spend Projected To Soar To Nearly $40B — In a watershed moment for the Web, researchers expect domestic online advertising to finally surpass print adverting in 2012. According to eMarketer, U.S. online ad spending will grow an additional 23.3% to $39.5 billion this year.

Discussion: Future of Journalism, eMarketer, Forbes and mnilive.com

Erik Wemple:

Memo to ABC: Just run Gingrich interview! — The Drudge Report last night blasted out the story that ABC had been sitting on its allegedly explosive interview with Marianne Gingrich. Here are the specifics: … It's a curious decision regardless of how aggressively the network has been reporting on other candidates.

Discussion: CNN, Washington Post, PolitickerNY and Poynter

Chris O'Shea / FishbowlNY:

Daily News and Post Feel Same Way About Upcoming Giants Game — Well, this is embarrassing. As you can see, The New York Daily News and The New York Post are expecting the exact same thing when the Giants visit the 49ers for the NFC Conference Championship game this Sunday night.

Discussion: 10,000 Words and TVNewser

Dylan Byers / The Politico:

PolitiFact's art of interpretation — Hating on PolitiFact has become something of a sport in political media circles, especially since the fact-checking shop (a Tampa Bay Times project) selected its controversial “Lie of the Year.” But this new email exchange posted by one Tom Bruscino …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Big Journalism, Mother Jones and Politifact.com Truth …

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.