Media Brief

I'm the BBC's media correspondent and this is my brief selection of what's going on.

The Guardian says the owners of the Daily Mirror and the Daily Mail discussed merging their regional newspaper groups this summer. The regional papers would have been controlled by Trinity Mirror. In return, it would have offered cash and some of its shares to Daily Mail and General Trust. Negotiations came to a halt but one source says the "door is still open".

The Sun reports that footballer Rio Ferdinand has blamed the BBC's "Fifa bribes" Panorama programme for helping scupper England's bid to host the 2018 World Cup. The Sun says he made the comment on Twitter.

In the Guardian Simon Jenkins defends the "reptiles of British journalism" over the failure of England's World Cup bid. "Even a cursory glance at the allegations from the Sunday Times and the BBC's Panorama would have warned Downing Street and the Palace that these were not fit people for Britain's leaders to be seen glad-handing".

BBC Radio 3 is to throw its entire schedule over to the works of Mozart, playing every work he wrote - and nothing else. The 12-day marathon follows the success of its six days of Beethoven and ten days devoted to Bach reports the Telegraph.

One million books will be given away free in the UK and Ireland next year for the inaugural World Book Night, reports the BBC. Volunteers will hand out 48 copies each of their favourite book from a 25-strong list. A further 40,000 will be distributed by organisers.

The Guardian reports that the BBC has confirmed that Jana Bennett is leaving her job as director of BBC Vision to join BBC Worldwide. She's to become its president, worldwide networks and global iPlayer.

The BBC's newspaper review says the loss of England's World Cup 2018 bid goes down very badly with many papers, with a lot of attention focused on the somewhat contrasting reasons for Russia being in the news.

Links in full

• Guardian | Mirror and Mail owners pondered merger deal
• Sun | Fifa: Media killed England World Cup bid
• Guardian | In this World Cup sewer, we reptiles of British journalism hold our heads high
• Telegraph | Forget the 12 days of Christmas and enjoy the 12 days of Mozart
• BBC | One million books to be given away
• Guardian | Jana Bennett's move to BBC Worldwide confirmed
• BBC | Newspaper review

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