van Tiggelen appointed editor of The Monthly. Influential current affairs magazine The Monthly has chosen a new editor to take the reins from the departing Ben Naparstek, appointing journalist John van Tiggelen to the role. In what amounts to a trade between Fairfax and The Monthly, van Tiggelen will move across from feature insert Good Weekend — the publication Naparstek was tapped last month to take over as editor.

Publisher Morry Schwartz said this morning that van Tiggelen was one of this country’s leading longform journalists, beating 70 other applicants for the job. “Under his watch, I’m confident that The Monthly will continue to go from strength to strength as Australia’s premier magazine for fine writing and in-depth stories,” Schwartz said in a statement.

Van Tiggelen, a contributor to The Monthly, said the chance to run the magazine was an “irresistible opportunity”. It’s a job that has some clout. Schwartz, recently told The Power Index that the influence of The Monthly far outweighed its circulation, which sits at about 30,000 with 120,000 readers. — Tom Cowie of The Power Index (read the full story here)

Front page of the day. New York’s Daily News today leads large with the disturbing story of US marines urinating on the bodies of dead Taliban in Afghanistan:

The Department of Corrections. The UK Daily Mail fell for the ol’ Austria looks like Japan trick …

News Corp tells of tabloid’s prison bribe

“News Corp for the first time publicly detailed bribery by a journalist at its now-defunct News of the World, telling a court that a former editor agreed to pay a prison guard to get a story about a child killer.” — Bloomberg

Leveson inquiry: Daily Mail ‘Britain’s worst enemy’

“While giving evidence at the Leveson inquiry, Richard Desmond, owner of the Daily Express and Daily Star, tried to play down the mistakes made by his newspapers over their coverage of missing child Madeleine McCann.” — The Guardian

Daily Star editor denies paper has anti-Islamic agenda

“Daily Star editor Dawn Neesom has denied that the tabloid has an anti-Islamic agenda, insisting that it is “balanced” in its coverage.” — journalism.co.uk

AFR: ‘no decision’ on CFO Magazine closure

“The Australian Financial Review Group has denied rumours that the future of finance title CFO Magazine is in doubt.” — mUmBRELLA

Facebook co-founder to buy New Republic?

“Despite part-owner Martin Peretz recently saying his opinion magazine is not for sale, a reported suitor of The New Republic is very intriguing: Facebook co-founder Chris Hughes.” — The Atlantic Wire