A newly discovered email complicates James Murdoch's contention that he was not aware of the extent of so-called phone-hacking at News of the World. In the June 2008 email, former News of the World editor Colin Myler asked for a quick meeting with Murdoch to discuss a lawsuit brought by football player Gordon Taylor for phone-hacking. "Unfortunately it is as bad as we feared," Myler wrote. He forwarded Murdoch messages from lawyers Tom Crone and Julian Pike, including one in which Pike said Taylor wanted "to demonstrate that what happened to him is/was rife throughout the organisation" and demanded a big settlement to keep quiet. Murdoch says of the email: "Given the timing of my response, just over two minutes after Mr. Myler had sent his email to me, and the fact that I typically received emails on my BlackBerry on weekends, I am confident that I did not review the full email chain at the time or afterwards, nor do I recall a conversation with Mr. Myler over that weekend." (more...)

The New Yorker
Ken Auletta writes about birth and death in a year-end review. Steve Jobs will live on through the changes he spurred in a number of industries. As for Rupert Murdoch: "With the continuing drip-drip of new revelations, with a board shamed by accusations that it is a mere rubber stamp, it’s almost a certainty that Rupert Murdoch’s dream of keeping News Corp. a family-run enterprise is dead." || Related: News International lawyers confirm that critic in parliament was put under surveillance (Guardian)

Stories being talked about today:

• The Wall Street Journal's Robert Thomson says competitors have been "absolutely conflicted" in their coverage of the U.K. phone-hacking scandal. He proposes a "Perversity Prize" for the news outlet that does the worst job covering a competitor. (Forbes.com)
• Bloomberg News responds, point by point, to Ben Bernanke's letter alleging "egregious errors" with reporting on the Fed's lending program to banks. The Wall Street Journal's David Wessel sides with the Fed. (Bloomberg News, The Wall Street Journal)
• That person gushing about a product on the morning news may be paid to do so, even though you and the anchor don't know about it. (The Washington Post)

Correction: The original version of this post misidentified David Wessel.

New overnight:

• Another person has been arrested as part of the phone hacking investigation; it's unclear whether he's a journalist. (Guardian)
• The city of Berkeley, Calif., will ask news organizations to re-examine their use of helicopter coverage; protracted Occupy protests and other events have extended air time and neighborhood noise. (San Francisco Chronicle)

In case you missed it Tuesday:

• The Chicago Sun-Times will begin charging for access to its stories online (The Huffington Post)
• San Diego Union-Tribune's new owners have appointed a new president and COO (San Diego City Beat)
• Federal judge imposes $2.5 million judgment against Oregon blogger in defamation lawsuit, rules that shield law doesn't apply to her because she doesn't work for a media outlet (Seattle Weekly)

Several stories that will brighten or inform your Tuesday afternoon:

• After being criticized for inaccessibility to media, Romney agrees to appear on "Fox News Sunday." (The Huffington Post)
• Another British journalist defends phone-hacking, but this one works for the Guardian, not News of the World. (Guardian)
• The Atlantic tweeted an ad. For a Kobo e-reader. (The Washington Post)
• Readers don't buy the optimistic take on Lee Enterprise's bankruptcy. (JimRomenesko.com)
• The end of the world "would be a great time for really good service journalism," according to people at NewsFoo. (If you don't know what that is, you weren't invited.) (The New York Times)
• News from the first edition of The Washington Post, 134 years ago: "An old bachelor died of the combined effects of cat-bite with his own folly." (The Washington Post)
• Jon Stewart learns about conflict photography from Ben Lowy. (The Daily Show)

Evening reading:

• Scott Klein describes how ProPublica reworked its site for smartphones (Key term: "Responsive design.")
• Alexis Madrigal and Howard Owens weigh in on Clay Shirky's latest essay on the news business.

The Associated Press | Yahoo News | Press Gazette
"Phone hacking is a perfectly acceptable tool given the sacrifices we make, if all we are trying to do is get to the truth," Paul McMullan told a British parliamentary committee looking into practices of the British press. He defended the journalists who eavesdropped on Milly Dowler's voice mail messages, saying "our intentions were honourable" and that the police were incompetent. The Guardian's Nick Davies said News of the World journalists deleted Dowler's voice mails, not private investigator Glenn Mulcaire. "I don't think this is an industry which is interested or capable of self-regulation," Davies said. || Related: The Guardian's live blog of the day's testimony | Why the Guardian’s Nick Davies paid child prostitutes for information (Poynter.org)