The Blogging Journalist

244-Year Old Hartford Courant Endorses Obama

"In its 244-year history, The Courant has endorsed only one Democratic candidate for president, Bill Clinton. Today we endorse a second Democrat, Sen. Barack Obama, with the hope that if elected, he governs from the middle as Mr. Clinton did," the Hartford, Connecticut, USA-based publication told its readers in an October 26, 2008, editorial.

The publication said, "Mr. Obama must resist serving only his party's interests and instead serve the greater interests of a worried nation."

The Courant called Mr. Obama "inspiring" and "unifying" and said "He would make the nation proud."

Technorati Tags: The Hartford Courant,Obama Endorsement

Obama Leads McCain in Newspaper Endorsements 174 to 69

Editor & Publisher, which has done a great job keeping up with newspapers endorsing Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama and Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain during the current American general election season, noted in an October 26, 2008, post:

The Obama lead in editorial endorsements this year turned into a landslide, even a rout today, as dozens of additional papers backed him, compared to the relative handful for McCain.

E & P Editor Greg Mitchell said to date "Obama still leads by almost 3-1 in all editorial endorsements. Updated with the latest from today his lead stands at 174 to 69."

To read more, please see "UPDATED WEEKEND ENDORSEMENTS: A Landslide for Obama -- Check Out Latest Moves Here -- More GOP-Leaning Papers Make Switch. 

Technorati Tags: Obama Newspaper Endorsements,McCain Newspaper Endorsements

The Chicago Tribune Makes History By Endorsing Obama

It is historic for the Chicago Tribune, one of my hometown newspapers, to endorse a Democratic candidate for  President of the United States. Before endorsing Barack Obama, today, October 17, 2008, the paper had never done so in its 161-year history.

"This endorsement makes some history for the Chicago Tribune," the publication said in an editorial headlined "Tribune endorsement: Barack Obama for president. ". This is the first time the newspaper has endorsed the Democratic Party's nominee for president."

The paper chose the right moment to do so.

Meanwhile, the Tribune Company-owned Los Angeles Times has also endorsed Mr. Obama. See "Barack Obama for president."

According to Kevin Roderick at LA Observed, "For the first time since backing Richard Nixon in 1972, the Los Angeles Times editorial board has publicly endorsed a candidate for president. It's also the first time ever that the paper endorsed a Democrat for the White House."

Technorati Tags: Chicago Tribune's Obama Endorsement

Obama Picks Up 12 More Endorsements

Twelve major newspapers in the United States backed endorsed Democratic Presidential Candidate Barack Obama on October 11 and 12, 2008, according to Editor & Publisher, which is tracking endorsements and notes that Republican Presidential Candidate John McCain didn't pick up any endorsements today, a far as it could tell. 

Papers that endorsed Mr. Obama on October 12, 2008, are, according to Editor & Publisher:

In Ohio, The Blade in Toledo and the Dayton Daily News; the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, St. Louis Post-Dispatch, The Tennessean of Nashville, the Wisconsin State Journal. the Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, and in California the Fresno Bee, Sacramento Bee, Contra Costa Times, The Herald of Monterrey, and The Sun of San Bernardino (which had picked Bush over Kerry).Editor & Publisher said "So far Obama leads [in endorsements] by a 21-9 margin with at least 300 to go.

The Blogging Journalist Provides Links to the Editorials:

(1) Editorial: Obama has potential to be a great president -- Monterrey County Herald, Monterrey, California

(2) Our nation needs Barack Obama -- The Sun, San Bernardino, California

(3) Times recommends voters select Barack Obama -- Contra Costa Times, Walnut Creek, California

(4) IN UNCERTAIN TIMES, AMERICA MUST LOOK AHEAD, NOT BACK AT FAILED LEADERSHIP -- Sacramento Bee, Sacramento, California

(5) Obama for president: Democrat offers best vision for these troubled times -- Fresno Bee, Fresno, California

(6) Nation clearly needs change; Obama is better-suited -- Asheville (N.C.) Citizen-Times, Asheville, North Carolina

(7) OUR ENDORSEMENT: Now is the time for Obama -- Wisconsin State Journal, Madison, Wisconsin

(8) 'Tennessean' Endorsement: Obama the best candidate for president -- Tennessean, Nashville, Tennessee

(9) The Post-Dispatch Endorses Barack Obama for President -- St. Louis Post-Dispatch, St. Louis, Missouri

(10) It's Obama: We need a president who will break with the past -- Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

(11) 2 good men; Obama right leader for today -- Dayton Daily News, Dayton, Ohio

(12) Forward with Obama -- The Toledo Blade, Toledo, Ohio

Note: This post can also be found at The Diplomatic Times Review and The Curious Spectator, my other blogs.

Technorati Tags: Obama Newspaper Endorsements

Google Plans to Make More Old Newspapers Available

According to the Official Google Blog, today, Google is "launching an initiative to make more old newspapers accessible and searchable online by partnering with newspaper publishers to digitize millions of pages of news archives." See "Bringing history online, one newspaper at a time

Google notes that, "Around the globe, we estimate that there are billions of news pages containing every story ever written. And it's our goal to help readers find all of them, from the smallest local weekly paper up to the largest national daily." "The problem is that most of these newspapers are not available online," the announcement says. "We want to change that." I look forward to being able to search these publications.

Baltimore Sun to Launch a Free Tabloid

Free-daily.com, which covers "the emerging free-daily newspaper industry," reports that "The Tribune Co., which has successful free dailies in Chicago and New York, plans to launch another one in Baltimore on April 14." [2008]. See "Baltimore Sun will launch RedEye-like tab."

The blog said, "The Tribune's Baltimore Sun will publish a free daily called b (that's right, the title is a single lowercase letter) that will target young adults like the company's successful RedEye does in Chicago. In fact, it plans to use copy from RedEye."

I'm a regular reader of Red Eye. It gives a fairly decent summary local news. The articles are short, breezy and gossipy.

NOTE: Links added to the quoted paragraphs from free-daily.com to give readers perspective and background information.

Technorati Tags: Free-daily.com,Baltimore Sun,Tribune Company,Red Eye,The Blogging Journalist

Can Newspapers Adjust to New Times?

Greensboro, North Carolina, USA, blogger Sarah Beth Jones' contends in her final column in the Greensboro News & Record, her local paper:

We are in the midst of a monumental clash: new media versus old. On the local level, this is playing out particularly in the struggle between traditional print news, our very own News & Record, and the proliferation of free, online news sources from blogs to The New York Times online. The question being asked across the board is: Will local daily newspapers remain relevant much longer?

Jones' raises an important question, and attempts to answer it. If you want to read her opinion, and the opinion of others she interviewed, see her February 20, 2008, News & Record column headlined "Sarah Jones: Newspapers adjusting to new times."

You can also read it at her blog under the headline "Newspapers adjusting to new times."

Technorati Tags: Sarah Beth Jones,News & Record of Greensboro,Daily Newspaperrs,The Blogging Journalist

The SF Weekly, Bay Guardian Dispute

SF Weekly,  published by Village Voice Media, and the San Francisco Bay Guardian, both based in San Francisco, California, USA, are engaged in newspaper war that's currently being played out in court in an antitrust suit the Guardian's Bruce Brugmann filed against Village Voice Media three years ago. It's mostly over advertising.

For background, See the Links below:

Bay Guardian vs SF Weekly - jury selection begins today -- Metroblogging San Francisco

Judge Hears Opening Statements in Bay Guardian/VVM Trial -- Association of Alternative Newsweeklies (AAN)

Guardian lawsuit: Opening statements -- San Francisco Bay Guardian

New Twist in Bay Guardian vs. SF Weekly Lawsuit -- BeyondChron

The Truth About Bruce Brugmann -- SF Weekly

Guardian trial heats up -- San Francisco Bay Guardian

The Longest Day, Revisited -- SF Weekly, The Snitch

Gee, the SF Weekly is bored -- San Francisco Bay Guardian

Technorati Tags: San Framcisco Bay Guardian,Bruce Brugmann,SF Weekly,Mike Lacey,The Blogging Journalist

Lucas Grindley: Sam Zell is Becoming My 'New Hero'

Lucas Grindley, operations manager at The Herald-Tribune in Sarasota, Florida,says on his personal blog that his"new hero in the world is becoming billionaire Sam Zell, who is using a speaking tour of the Tribune Co. to explain the virtues of letting employees take the wheel instead of corporate know-it-all's."

If you want to read why, see "Zell: Top-down management creates Web sites that 'suck.'"

By the way, The Herald-Tribune Media Group is part of New York Times Company.

Note: Links were added to the Grindley quote above for the benefit of TBJ readers, especially international readers.

Technorati Tags: Lucas Grindley,Sam Zell,Tribune Co.,The Herald Tribune,The New York Times Co.

International Herald Tribune Gets New Publisher

Stephen Dunbar-Johnson, who has been at the New York Times Company.-owned International Herald Tribune (IHT) for 10 years, is IHT's new publisher. He replaces publisher Michael Golden, who announced January 18, 2008, that he was leaving the Paris, France-based newspaper and returning to New York.

Golden, vice chairman of The New York Times Co., had been publisher since November 2003.

I've read the IHT for years, beginning when it was co-owned by The Times and The Washington Post.

If you wanted to read more about the change, see "IHT names new publisher."

Technorati Tags: International Herald Tribune

Sunset Nears for Some at Sun-Times Media Properties

CHICAGO--Chicago Tribune media writer Phil Rosenthal noted in an informative, January 18, 2008, column that:

On the eve of the deadline for older Chicago Sun-Times writers and editors to accept or reject buyouts ahead of announced layoffs, the men who shared the jobs of co-editor and co-publisher at its newly merged sister, the SouthtownStar, announced their positions are being eliminated.

"That Frank Shuftan and Michael Waters are leaving the SouthtownStar is the latest reminder of how  deeply parent Sun-Times Media Group must cut to meet its goal of slashing $50 million in operating costs. The cuts are coming from across all its businesses and departments in a bid to return to profitability in what are tough times for all traditional media.

It didn't help that convicted former media baron Conrad Black took millions out of the company, which even paid his attorney's feels during his 2007 trial in Chicago. As Wikipedia notes, Black was convicted "July 13, 2007 on multiple counts of fraud and sentenced December 10, 2007 to serve 78 months in federal prison and pay a U.S. $125,000 fine."

If you want want to read Rosenthal's entire article, see "Co-editors' exit sign of tough times."

Note: Links are not in Rosenthal's column. They were added for the benefit of TBJ readers.

Technorati Tags: Sun-Times Media Group,Chicago Sun-Times,Southtown Star,Chicago Tribune,Phil Rosenthal

Miami Herald Decides Not to Outsource Editing

"The McClatchy Co., which announced in December it would experiment with outsourcing some production of The Miami Herald's Broward Neighbors sections to an India firm, has canceled that project," the Miami Herald reported January 14, 2008. See "Herald will not outsource editorial functions."

Herald Executive Editor Anders Gyllenhaal told his staff memo in a January 14, 3008 memo:

We've decided this would not be an appropriate use of this service so it won't be tested, nor will other newsroom and editing design like it. The more we looked at the prospects of editing and layout from outside the newsroom, the more it was clear these skills involving news judgment and experience are not likely to work well from afar.

The Herald will continue outsourcing "the production of some advertising sections and monitoring of website comments."

I commented on the Herald's outsourcing plans in a January 15, 2008, post headlined "The Miami Herald's Plan to Outsource Copy Editing." This was before I learned that McClatchy had changed its mind about outsourcing some Herald editorial functions.

Thanks to Romenesko for the tip about the Herald coming to its senses.

Technorati Tags: Miami Herald Outsourcing,Anders Gyllenhaal,McClatchy

The Miami Herald's Plan to Outsource Copy Editing

Bob Norman at The Daily Pulp takes a look the Miami Herald's plan to, as the Associated Press reported on December 27, 2007, outsource "copyediting of a weekly community news section and some advertising production work to India." Says Norman:

Good thing, as far as the news side goes, the Herald is only outsourcing copy editor jobs. I mean, all they do is check grammar so that can't be so ... okay, news deskers, simmer down that blood already, I'm just  kidding. Copy editors, of course, bring a richness to any newspaper that can't be replaced. The best ones consistently bring new ideas to coverage and find errors that some guy sitting in some warehouse in India can't do."

I agree with Norman on this. I worked with copy editors years ago who caught errors I didn't know were errors. These editors were widely read, kept up with national trends, community events, challenged us on the spelling of names and sometimes demanded to see quotes to ensure correct context. One, a fellow who didn't even finish high school, sometimes knew when a quote wasn't correct.

Above all, they were masters at taking a badly written article and reshaping it, or telling us how to make it better.  You can't outsource that to India and get the right result, but I guess you can try.

If you want to read Norman's entire post, please see "The Miami Herald-India Outsourcing Post."

Technorati Tags: Bob Norman,Miami Herald Outsourcing

Cincinnati Post, Kentucky Post Set to Close December 31

"The E.W. Scripps Company-owned Cincinnati Post and the Kentucky Post will cease publication on December 31, 2007. According to the Associated Press,  "E.W. Scripps Co. two years ago closed The Birmingham (Ala.) Post-Herald and has said it will close the Albuquerque Tribune if it can't be sold.

To read more, see "Post, Cincinnati Prepare for End of Era. Also see The Cincinnati Post's " The Post to say farewell Dec. 31: Owner Scripps cites market pressures, changes in announcing newspaper's end after 126 years.

Technorati Tags: The Cincinnati Post, The Kentucky Post, E.W. Scripts Company

Reminiscing About 'Lou Grant'

Associated Press writer Frazier Moore reminisces about "Lou Grant," which he contends "is worth noting for how vividly it captured a singular era in journalism while somehow preserving that long-ago time in 114 episodes in remarkably relevant fashion. (Though not widely available, it can be seen in 10 million homes served by cable's American Life network, airing Wednesday nights.)

"Lou Grant" arrived in the blazing afterglow of Watergate coverage by newspaper rock stars Woodward and Bernstein, and the 1976 movie version of their book, "All the President's Men," where Robert Redford and Dustin Hoffman played them," he notes, adding:

"The bracing message of that era: Two dogged reporters (and a newspaper that backed them up) could change the world -- and earn the public's adoration." I worked as a journalist at the time and rarely missed an episode of the show." I would watch now if my cable network--ComCast--carried it in the Chicago area. Although I blog now, I still want newspapers to survive but without the old format and know-it-all philosophy.

If you're interested in reminiscing, see "Operating in the age when ink and paper were enough.

Technorati Tags: Lou Grant, Newspapers, Associated Press

The SFN Blog

The World Association of Newspapers, which "groups 76 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 102 nations, 10 news agencies, and 10 regional press organisations," publishes an informative blog called SFN (Shaping the Future of the Newspaper). It's quite bold and aggressive in its design.

Technorati Tags: World Association of Newspapers, SFN Blog

BusinessWeek Offers 'A Cautionary Tale for Old Media'

CHICAGO, USA -- An article in the issue of BusinessWeek dated November 5, 2007, says  that "On Jan. 19, 1990, Robert D. Ingle, then executive editor of the San Jose Mercury News [in San Jose, California, USA] wrote a remarkably prescient memo to his bosses at the newspaper chain Knight Ridder. Typing at night in his breakfast nook on an Apple II PC, he envisioned that a global information network would emerge, giving rise to all manner of online communities," according to the article. "And he proposed an online service, Mercury Center, aimed, his memo said, at "extending the life and preserving the franchise of the newspaper."

BusinessWeek notes that, "This was nearly four years before programmers created the first Web browser and long before Google (GOOG ) and social networking exploded onto the scene, yet Ingle seemed to anticipate much of what would come. He laid out strategies for the entire chain: Give information to readers however they wanted it, integrate the print and online operations, and dream up new forms of advertising. "I saw the Internet as a great opportunity, but also as a great threat," says Ingle, who retired in 2000."

Ingle's ideas were never fully embraced. BusinessWeek suggests that, among other things, he was no diplomat when it came to trying to get others to embrace his ideas. To read more, see  "A Cautionary Tale for Old Media."

By the way, I approached the article as just another bit of history in the evolution of newspapers in the United States.

Technorati tags: BusinessWeek, San Jose Mercury News, Knight Ridder, Robert D. Ingle

PolitiFact.Com and The Fact Checker

CHICAGO, USA -- "Bloggers have performed an invaluable function since their emergence in the media world a few years ago," Ed Laskey noted in a September 19, 2007, post at American Thinker headlined "WaPo following in the footsteps of bloggers (updated)."

Laskey said, "Whether it is uncovering the forgery of the RatherGate documents, the fauxtography that is propaganda in the service of terrorists, revealing and publicizing the odious practice of earmarks, the bias that has corrupted the media-the quest for truth is what has driven the best of the bloggers."

"Now," he added, "the Washington Post joins the campaign: today [September 19, 2007] the paper starts a new feature-The FactChecker, which will be focused on examining  the veracity of claims made by politicians."

As is noted at the end of Laskey's post, the St Petersburg [Florida] Times has a similar service at PolitiFact.com. 

Technorati tags: PolitiFact.com. The Fact Checker, St. Petersburg Times, The Washington Post, American Thinker, Ed Laskey

The Chicago Tribune's Redesigned Website

While browsing the Chicago Tribune's redesigned web site, I wondered how long before I would run into content that's behind a wall. It didn't take long. Although I've subscribed to the paper for about 13-years, I've always resisted subscribing to the online edition. I just can't bear to do it, and I don't exactly know why. It's probably because it is behind a wall

Meanwhile, the Tribune's redesign is very friendly in appearance and less institutional looking. There are lots of blogs, which I love reading. So far, I've been able to get to them from a drop down list. However, I got the wall when I clicked on "Latest from the blogs." Blogs don't belong behind a wall.

As for regular content, Sam Zell, the new owner of Tribune company, should tear down the walls separating content from readers. His March 2007 purchase of the company should be viewed as an opportunity to break down all obstacles between the online publication and potential readers.

Technorati tags: Chicago Tribune, Tribune Company, Sam Zell, Tribune Blogs

Recommended: 'Shake-up: Old Media Meets New Realities at the AJC."

Scott Henry at Atlanta, Georgia, USA-based Creative Loafing.com has produced a fascinating analysis on the painful but necessary transformation taking place at the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.  Notes Henry in a July 4, 2007, post:

Movie critic Eleanor Ringel Gillespie. Political writer Tom Baxter. Star investigative reporter Jane Hansen. Pulitzer-winning science reporter Mike Toner. These are some of the marquee bylines that vanished from the paper July 1, when a large-scale buyout, combined with attrition, cleared out somewhere in the neighborhood of 70 reporters and editors from what Wallace says had been a news force of close to 500.

Along the way, at least half the remaining staff had to reapply for their jobs or seek new assignments, a directive that created opportunities for some but caused much angst among longtime reporters worried about getting stuck with a crummy gig. In turn, the lack of information surrounding the staff reshuffling sparked concerns among readers, particularly in the Atlanta arts community, that local coverage would suffer.Henry said,"The newsroom population is only part of the picture. With daily newspaper circulation in a slow-motion plunge across the country, the AJC is struggling to transform itself from a lumbering print-media dinosaur into a nimble multiplatform information provider able to reach customers in print, online, by mobile download – however future generations will get their news."

To read Henry's entire report, please se "Shake-up: Old media meets new realities at the AJC." I highly recommend it.

Technorati tags: CreativeLoafing.com, Scott Herny, Atlanta Journal-Constituion, Tom Baxter. Jane Hansen. Mike Toner

Is The Role of 'Ombudsmen' Changing With The Times?

Washington Post Ombudsman Deborah Howell opines in a May 27, 2007, column that "Ombudsmen, not fully trusted either by journalists or readers, are right in the middle of the daily fray of not just what readers may think is wrong with The Post but also the swelling waves that are changing journalism," she writes in a piece on what transpired last week at the annual Organization of News  Ombudsmen conference.

According to Howell, the conference drew 45 ombudsmen from around the world to the Nieman Foundation for Journalism at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA.

If you want to read her version of events, see "For Ombudsmen, an Evolving Mission."

Prominent Blogger Jeff Jarvis comments on Howell's article in "Dancing around a blog." She quotes Jarvis, who was at the ONO conference.

Also see Jarvis' ONO: Rusbridger of the Guardian." He has some interesting stuff in his archives on the role of Ombudsmen.

Employees Reportedly Will Own Majority Stake In Tribune Company

The lead headline on the April 3, 2007, edition of the Chicago Tribune is "Zell Lands Tribune." The article says the paper is going private, and that employees are to get the "majority stake" in the "debt-heavy" company.

 The Zell is Chicago-based billionaire Samuel "Sam" Zell, who made his fortune in real estate. He's included in the "Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans." According to Tribune reporter Michael Oneal:

After an epic corporate drama, Chicago's Tribune Co. will go private in a transaction that puts the 159-year-old media conglomerate in the hands of the city's most iconoclastic entrepreneur. The deal is a high-stakes bet that a pillar of the nation's old-media establishment can propel itself into the digital future.

Add's Oneal: "Late Sunday [April 1, 2007], following a weekend of heated negotiations, Tribune's board accepted a revised $34-a-share proposal from Chicago real estate magnate Sam Zell to buy out the company's public shares in a complex, $8.2 billion transaction structured around an employee stock ownership plan, or ESOP."

For the corporate announcement, please see "Tribune to Go Private for $34 Per Share."

Technorati tags: Chicago Tribune, Tribune Company, Samuel Zell, Zell Lands Tribune, Tribune Employee Stock Ownershp Plan

'...Newspapers Matter In The Community'

"For too long, the newspaper business has looked for a silver bullet to stop circulation declines," contends Bob Glaza, proprietor of  One Reader At A Time. See ""Newspapers: print, online...who cares?"

The Spokane, Washington, USA-based blogger said, "Searching for the Holy Grail - reminder, nobodies ever found it :) Doesn't stop us from looking for it. It ain't there. Fewer people buy the local paper but my hunch is people still read it.  And certainly people still buy things - which is what the ad community really wants. Newspapers and online are not the same but they both demand interaction. Just like a true community."

Glaza said, "Whether its print or online - newspapers matter in the community."

I agree. In addition to the New York Times, I read the Chicago Sun-Times and the Chicago Tribune daily. I read Red Eye, a gossipy, Tribune Company tabloid. Then there is the weekly Hyde Park Herald, my community newspaper, which I buy and read for neighborhood news. If a crime occurred in Hyde Park, home of the University of Chicago, the Herald will let you know.

 I also read the Chicago Reader, primarily for Hot Type, Michael Miner's media column.

In fact, the more I blog about newspapers and blogging journalists the more my interest in reading various newspapers increases. It was a different story a couple of years ago.

By the way, the Hyde Park Herald is also Senator Barack Obama's community newspaper. He lives as few blocks from me.

Daily Nexus: 'News-Press Drama Increases Readership Of Other Sources'

"As the Santa Barbara News-Press controversy continues, many county residents are choosing to get their news through alternative media sources, including Internet blogs," according to Matthew Weisner, staff writer at the Daily Nexus, the student newspaper at the University of California at Santa Barbara, USA.

Weisner notes in a March 6, 2007, article that, "The combination of resignations and firings at the News-Press since July has left the newspaper with less than five news reporters to cover local issues and events."

He said, "With only a skeleton of a local news section in the News-Press each day, Matt Kettmann - senior editor at the Independent - said his publication, online blogs and other print media have seen a steady increase in readership."

To read more, please see "News-Press Drama Increases Readership of Other Sources."

Recommended: Tim Lee's 'The Cathedral And The Blogosphere'

 On March 2, 2007,  Tim Lee over at The Technology Liberation Front blog posted an article headlined "The Cathedral and the Blogosphere." He followed up on March 3, 2007, with "More on the Cathedral and the Blogosphere."

The first article is in response to Robert Kuttner's post in the January/February 2007 Columbia Journalism Review  headlined "The Race." It's a perspective on the state of newspapers in the United States.  

The second article is his response to "an interesting critique of the argument" he "made yesterday [March 2, 2007] concerning blogs and newspapers."

It's a good discussion. I recommend each of the articles cited above.

Blogger: Online Newspapers Need To Mimic Techmeme

Greg Sterling over at Screen Werks published a March 1, 2007, post headlined "Techmeme and the Newspaper of the Future." According to Sterling:

News readers, blogs and news aggregators provide alternative sources of news and analysis to traditional papers and their online versions. But many users are interested something I’ll call “curated content.” Techmeme [link added]is an example of this: aggregated content selected from hundred of blogs and news sources (and those that elaborate or respond to them) but not the chaos of a newsreader with innumerable feeds.

Sterling said, "online newspapers need to mimic what Techmeme is doing, in addition to generating their own original content. There’s little or no additional cost here to the paper and lots of value-add for the user."

'The Boston Daily Blogger'

BostonNOW,  "a nascent free daily' in Boston Massachusetts, USA, "will compete directly with Metro Boston and indirectly with the [Boston] Globe and the [Boston] Herald," according to Dan Kennedy over at Media Nation.

For details, see Kennedy's March 1, 2007, report headlined "The Boston Daily Blogger."

Recommended: 'Community Journalism Evolves'

Blogger Denise Civiletti, "co-publisher of Times/Review Newspapers, a four-paper group of award-winning newspapers on eastern Long Island, New York,"  says "the troubles newspapers are facing today, from Main Street to Wall Street, are old news."

To read why, see her March 1, 2007, post headlined "Community journalism evolves."

Why Prison Legal News Filed Suit Against A Texas Sheriff

BreaktheChains.info reported February 27, 2007, that "Prison Legal News, a non-profit monthly publication, filed suit" February 26, 2007 "in Dallas federal court against Dallas County [Texas]  Sheriff Lupe Valdez and Deputy Gary Lindsey after the Dallas County Jail banned all newspapers, magazines and other publications from entering the Dallas County Jail."

To read more, please see "Prison Rights Magazine Files Suit Against Dallas County Jail for Violations of First Amendment Rights."

Apple's 'Video Profile On The New-Media Work At The Washington Post'

I stopped by Rob Curley.com tonight and learned that "Apple recently did a video profile on the new-media work at The Washington Post."

I saw the video and was impressed. At first, I thought it was an ad for Apple. But as the video progressed, it was definitely about the The Post's new-media work. Come to think of it, it could be both.

Meanwhile, what struck me is how much the setting looked liked a TV production room rather than a traditional newspaper newsroom.

By the way, Rob Curley works at Washingtonpost.Newsweek Interactive and is vice president of product development. He's in the video.

Are 'Reports Of The Newspaper’s Death 'Greatly Exaggerated'?

"It is impossible to avoid reports about the demise of the newspaper," opines Rosemarie Monaco in the  March 2007 edition of Newspapers & Technology. The "president of Group M Inc., a marketing communications and consulting firm" in Englewood Cliffs New Jersey, USA, also said:

You see them everywhere. The Newspaper Association of America blasts us with statistics about declines in circulation and advertising revenue. Newspapers are laying off thousands of workers. The Associated Press has made a deal with Google for online access to its news stories. Even Arthur Sulzberger Jr., chairman of The New York Times Co., has low expectations (since “clarified”) for the future of print. In a February 2006 interview with Eytan Avriel, a reporter from the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, he said that The New York Times is on a journey and its end will be the day the company decides to stop printing the paper - when it is 100 percent digital.

Monaco said, "With all of these reports, it is only reasonable that inspired prognosticators and enthusiastic writers would feel compelled to predict the death of print. But true seers and visionaries look to the past before plunging too far forward."

I wish Monaco had provide links to support her argument. To read her entire commentary, please see "Reports of the newspaper’s death have been greatly exaggerated."

The Impact Of Celebrities And Gossip On Traditional Media

Tracy Clark, a reporter with the Penticton Western News in Canada, has a February 25, 2007, post headlined "Media feeds appetite to catch a falling star." It's about the impact of celebrities and gossip on traditional media.

Clark raises many valid points and notes that celebrities and gossip news is on the front pages of newspapers because it "sells papers and fills our insatiable appetite for this type of information."

It especially seems to feed an appetite when celebrities come crashing to the ground. These stars are ordinary after all. When they crash and burn there's another batch anxious to be promoted to celebrityhood. We gladly accommodate them. Ironically, some will become spectacles in the mode of Britney Jean Spears and Anna Nicole Smith.

Deceiving Readers Is 'Clearly A Very Bad Journalism Practice'

"The Greeley (Colorado) Tribune has agreed to end a years-old practice of copying stories from competing newspapers and falsely labeling them as Associated Press dispatches, the newspaper's publisher said Thursday [February 22, 2007," according to a February 24, 2007 report by Kevin Darst at Coloradoan.com

Darst quoted Steve Weaver, "the Tribune's publisher," as saying: "That's clearly a very bad journalism practice."

That's an understatement. To read more, please see "Greeley paper acknowledges ethical lapses."

Uncertainty Continues For Star Tribune, Pioneer Press Employees

Another Casualty over at Fading to Black, a valuable blog that looks "at the downward spiral of the newspaper industry in the 21st century," reported February 23, 2007, that "Uncertainty continues in Minnesota (USA), where Star-Tribune [link added] staff worry about their new owners and Pioneer Press staff wind down the last year of their current contract."

To read more, please see "Star-Tribune employees waiting on pins and needles."

Richard Donkin Takes A Look At 'Newspapers And The Web'

Richard Donkin, proprietor of Donkin Life, published an informative and instructive post on February 22, 2007, headlined "Newspapers and the web.

I like his description of how the Financial Times' website, FT.com, came into being.

Hearst To Test Downloadable Seattle Post- Intelligencer Newspaper

John Weir at Digital Magazines notes in a February 23, 2007 post that the "Hearst Corporation [link added], the magazines to radio US giant, has announced plans to test a downloadable version of its Seattle Post- Intelligencer newspaper."

"Unsurprisingly," Weir said, " (given the newspapers location) it has chosen to use Microsoft software for the pilot project."

To read more, please see "Hearst to test download products"

What's Going On At The Santa Barbara News-Press?

Matt Kettmann at The Santa Barbara (California) Independent published a very informative article February 21, 2007 on the so-called meltdown at Santa Barbara News-Press. The paper's staff is completely demoralized as a result of the past eight months of newsroom carnage, according to The Independent.

To read about it, please see "Will News-Press Owner Wendy McCaw Wake Up?"

InsideMex.com: An English-language Paper For Expats In Mexico

The February 18, 2007, edition of Free New Mexican.Com has a revealing article by the LA Times' Reed Johnson that says:

Though most Americans are aware of the growing "Latinization" of the United States, a parallel  phenomenon is taking place on the other side of the border. Already, at least half a million U.S. expatriates and long-term visitors make their homes in Mexico (plus another half-million Canadians). That number will soar as millions of retired baby boomers stampede south in the coming decades, remaking the cultural landscape in their own image.

Yet one thing this exile community has conspicuously lacked, until now, is an English-language print journal to call its own. A handful of English-language newspapers and magazines from the United States are available here, including The New York Times and the Miami Herald's international edition. But Mexico's oldest, most visible niche English publication, the 53-year-old tabloid-style News, folded four years ago and hasn't fully been replaced.

Reed said, "That situation surprised Aran Shetterly, 36, and his wife, Margot Lee Shetterly, 37, when the couple began scoping out a blueprint for Inside Mexico, the free, English-language monthly newspaper they launched last November."

To read about the Shetterly's publishing venture, please see "Mexico: New journal gives ex-pats the scoop in English.

NOTE: Links were added to Times excerpt for the benefit of Blogging Journalist readers.