Mediagazer: Google partners with top Japanese writers association to let authors know their rights (Jon Russell/The Next Web)

4:50 PM ET, December 18, 2012

Top News:

Mike Brunker / NBC News:

Richard Engel and NBC News team freed from captors in Syria — Richard Engel at the end of a reporting trip in Syria in July of this year. — NBC News' Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and members of his network production team were freed from captors in Syria after a firefight …

Andrew Kaczynski / BuzzFeed:
How NBC News Kept Richard Engel's Disappearance Secret

Discussion: Boing Boing, Chickaboomer, JIMROMENESKO.COM and Minnesota Public Radio

Rhonda Roland Shearer / iMediaEthics:

CJR Reporter Lying, Exploiting a Source? What's happening at Columbia Journalism Review? — Bruce Porter, a retired Columbia University journalism professor and the author of the book-turned-movie Blow, decided in 2011 that he would find Marcy, the then-teen source he betrayed …

Discussion: @craigsilverman

Kara Bloomgarden-Smoke / The New York Observer: Trouble at The Columbia Journalism Review?

Adrienne LaFrance / Denver Post:

Newtown to the media: You're making this nightmare worse — NEWTOWN - “Enough is enough.” That's how one local woman summed up the weird and terrible media spectacle that has overtaken her once sleepy hometown. — As Newtowners gathered in shock to comfort one another after a 20-year-old resident went …

Discussion: Poynter, TVNewser, The Huffington Post, BBC and Washington Post

Paul Bond / Hollywood Reporter:

Reports of Fox News Barring Discussions of Gun Control Are Premature — “It is too soon to talk the politics of gun control,” executive producer for weekends David Clark writes in an email that insiders say has been taken wildly out of context. — Much was being made online on Monday …

Discussion: Politico, The Daily Caller and The Huffington Post

Gabriel Sherman / New York Magazine:
Rupert Murdoch Wants Stricter Gun Laws After Newtown, But Fox News Doesn't Get the Memo

Discussion: Mediaite, The Wrap, NY Daily News, TVNewser, FishbowlNY, Business Insider, CNN, The Huffington Post, Inside Cable News and Sydney Morning Herald

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

Vice Purchases i-D, the British Style Magazine — Vice, the multimedia company known for its in-your-face journalistic style, is expanding into fashion coverage by buying the British style publication i-D magazine. — Vice executives said that fashion was a topic that complemented their existing coverage …

Discussion: FishbowlNY, Guardian, WWD, bizjournals, VICE and The Next Web

Jim Romenesko:

Robin Fields and Eric Umansky Promoted at ProPublica — Robin Fields has been promoted to managing editor at ProPublica, succeeding Stephen Engelberg, who becomes editor-in-chief. He replaces Paul Steiger, who becomes executive chairman. — Umansky and Fields

Lisa O'Carroll / Guardian:

BBC to publish findings on Newsnight's Jimmy Savile report on Wednesday — Corporation readies Pollard report into handling of Newsnight investigation into child abuse by Jim'll Fix It presenter — The BBC is planning to publish on Wednesday the much-anticipated Pollard report into the handling …

Discussion: The Independent, Digital Spy, Telegraph and standard.co.uk

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
BBC and ITV apologise to Lord McAlpine for sex abuse allegations

Discussion: PressGazette

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Fox's bloody t-shirt: Newtown images shows risks of automated advertising — Newspapers are careful about where their ads appear. They make sure, for instance, that flight specials don't appear beside plane crash articles or that Taco Bell coupons aren't printed beside food-poisoning stories.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

WAtoday:

News Ltd hit by $476m loss as mastheads lose value — NEWS CORP'S Australian operation, News Ltd, posted a $476.7 million loss for the financial year ending June 30, after slashing the value of its newspaper mastheads after a double-digit decline in revenues.

Dylan Byers / Politico:

N.Y. Times getting another price hike — The New York Times subscription rate will increase again next month, a spokesperson at the paper tells POLITICO. — As of January 2013, an annual subscription to the Grey Lady will cost $660.40 a year ($12.70 a week) in the greater New York City area and $837.20 …

Discussion: New York Magazine

Jeff Bercovici / Forbes:

Nielsen Buys Arbitron, Radio Ratings Service, In $1.3 Billion Deal — The digital revolution is blurring the lines between different mediums to the point that having one company that monitors TV viewership and another that measures radio audiences doesn't make a whole lot of sense.

Discussion: MediaPost, AdAge, Forbes, AllThingsD, Worldwide, NetNewsCheck Latest, bizjournals, Cable Television News, Radio & Television …, PandoDaily and BtoB Magazine

Jim Romenesko:

From 1694: ‘News too extraordinary to be believed without farther confirmation’ — From JASON FEIFER: I've been poking around NewspaperArchive.com recently, and just came across this great nugget from a 1694 dispatch called Account Of The Publick Tranasctions in Christendom. — Feifer

Discussion: The Awl

Jack Shafer:
Newtown teaches us, once again, to discount early reports

Discussion: HyperVocal, The Daily Caller, BuzzFeed, New York Times and The Public Editor's Journal

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

New Leader for Pearson Unit That Includes Financial Times — John Ridding will take over as chief executive of the FT Group, a subsidiary of Pearson that includes The Financial Times and half of The Economist, the company said Tuesday. Mr. Ridding, who has served as chief executive …