Mediagazer: Guardian hires first digital strategy director to grow online business (Robert Andrews/paidContent)

8:50 AM ET, October 16, 2012

Top News:

Rebekah Brooks's News International severance deal worth ‘about £7m’ — Payoff package for the former News International executive is far in excess of the £1.7m speculated on after her departure — Rebekah Brooks received a payoff worth about £7m after resigning …

Discussion: Telegraph, Financial Times, Business Insider and Deadline.com

The Independent:

Cameron, Brooks and the emails kept from Leveson — Private emails between David Cameron and the former News International chief executive Rebekah Brooks have been withheld from the Leveson Inquiry after the Prime Minister sought personal legal advice, The Independent can reveal.

Discussion: Guardian, @davecameroon, @nifs, Financial Times and The Daily Beast

Eliza Kern / GigaOM:

Switching consumers to digital books is hard enough — get ready for magazines — When it comes to bringing magazines to the Kindle or iPad, some of the trickiest competitors aren't fellow digital platforms — it's the actual print products themselves. Paper magazines are still pretty good, Amazon told publishers on Monday.

Discussion: MinOnline and magazine.org

Robert Andrews / paidContent:

Guardian hires first digital strategy director to grow online business — Guardian News & Media has appointed its first ever digital strategy director to knuckle down on finding workable online business models, two years after its nearest equivalent post-holder left the role.

Discussion: BuzzMachine, Guardian, @sifter and @emilybell

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

Jimmy Savile scandal: David Cameron urged to set up independent inquiry — David Cameron is under pressure to set up an independent Leveson-style inquiry into the Jimmy Savile sex abuse scandal to investigate what happened not just at the BBC but also at the hospitals and schools …

Guardian:
Jimmy Savile scandal: BBC director general to appear in front of MPs

Discussion: Telegraph and Guardian

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Reuters' Early Report Of Protesters At Libya Attack Raises Questions — NEW YORK — On Sept. 12, Reuters reported that there were protesters present when the U.S. consulate in Benghazi was attacked and described the assailants as “part of a mob blaming America for a film they said insulted the Prophet Mohammad.”

Discussion: Poynter, FP Passport, CNN and Mother Jones

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Moderator Candy Crowley's follow-up questions at Tuesday's debate are already upsetting both campaigns — The Obama and Romney campaigns signed an agreement that at Tuesday's debate, “The moderator will not ask follow-up questions or comment on either the questions asked by the audience …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, The Page, The Week, Politico, The Daily Caller, Politico, Time and The Huffington Post

Micah L. Sifry / TechPresident: Who Controls the Presidential Debates? Journalists or the Campaigns?

Kashmir Hill / Forbes:

Why The Internet Cool Kids Think Gawker Outing Reddit's Violentacrez Is The ‘Best Story About The Web’ This Year — On Friday, Gawker published a piece that the Internet Cool Kids had been waiting for. In it, Adrian Chen unmasked one of the volunteer moderators of Reddit, a site for sharing news …

Discussion: Techdirt, PSFK, Softpedia News and Guardian

AllThingsD:

News Corp. Partners With Bank to Aid in Sale of IGN Entertainment Sites — News Corp. is working with investment bank Allen & Co. on an auction to sell its network of videogame and entertainment Web sites, known as IGN Entertainment, after the company's initial sale efforts failed to produce a deal …

Chris Welch / The Verge:

FCC will allow encryption of basic cable, offers measures to protect open access — The days of plugging a TV into the wall and getting cable are coming to an end. After a lengthy review process, the FCC has granted cable operators permission to encrypt their most basic cable programming.

Discussion: Boxee Blog, Deadline.com, VentureBeat, Engadget, Cable Television News and Light Reading

Sarah Lacy / PandoDaily:

Circa wants to save journalism by killing articles — what's wrong and right about that — There's a lot to like and a lot to hate about Circa, the new company by Cheezburger Network and reality TV star Ben Huh and SocialThing and SimpleGeo co-founder Matt Galligan. It launches today and is on “a mission to fix journalism.”

Discussion: BuzzFeed, DigidaveDigidave, App Advice, TechCrunch and The FJP

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:
Circa wants to rethink the way we consume the news on a sub-atomic level

Discussion: Circa Blog, GeekWire, @benpopper, The Verge, Betabeat, @craigsilverman, The Next Web, @jeffjarvis and @rafat

Ernesto / TorrentFreak:

File-Sharers Buy 30% More Music Than Non-P2P Peers — The major music labels have a clear stance on online piracy, as the following quote from the RIAA illustrates. — “While downloading one song may not feel that serious of a crime, the accumulative impact of millions of songs downloaded illegally …

Discussion: Pocket-lint, BGR and The Next Web

Ryan Lawler / TechCrunch:

Microsoft To Compete Against Spotify With Xbox Music, Available Soon On Xbox, Windows 8, And Windows Phone Devices — Microsoft will soon become the next player to enter the streaming music business, with a service that will see it competing against the likes of Spotify and Rdio.

Discussion: Pocket-lint, Kindle Review, idigitaltimes.com, Wired, AllThingsD, GigaOM, CNET and 9to5Mac

Anna Heim / The Next Web:

Why The New York Times, the Financial Times and El País are eyeing Latin America — The New York Times is planning to launch an online Portuguese-language edition for Brazil in 2013, its parent company announced. Once it goes live, the site will publish 30 to 40 articles a day …

Discussion: Capital New York, The New York Times Company, paidContent and Mashable!