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• Poynter's Times Publishing Co. sells Governing magazine to company big on Scientology

  St. Petersburg Times | The Hollywood Reporter
  e.Republic was chosen from among six bidders for the magazine. Several of the principals of the California media company are members of the Church of Scientology, and the St. Petersburg Times has been running stories critical of the church. "It's a business [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 5:15pm EST

• Publisher apologizes for screaming at college football coach for not playing his son enough

  Times West Virginian
  Times West Virginian publisher Andrew Kniceley (left) used his newspaper to apologize for yelling at a football coach because his son played only three plays in a game. "I regret any embarrassment or discomfort that I have caused FSU [Fairmont State University], my newspaper [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 4:15pm EST

• What alternative media need to do to survive

  The Kojo Nnamdi
  Listen to Thursday's WAMU discussion of the state of alternative media. The guests: Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism; former Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff; Richard Karpel of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; and Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:46pm EST

• Brill's Journalism Online pitch has changed over time

  Nieman Journalism Lab
  One of the tweaks that Zachary Seward has noticed: Steve Brill used to use the term "wall" to describe subscription content, but he's now abandoned that language. "We're not putting up any kind of a paywall," hes been saying. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 3:25pm EST

• How do you review a medical-marijuana dispensary? Pretty much the way you would a restaurant

  Westword
  That's the approach William Breathes takes. He describes the decor ("like that hippie kid's hangout in high school -- complete with a boom box and thrift-store furniture"); the service ("employees didn't seem particularly interested in ... even helping me"); and what he ordered ("I'd settled on a [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:46pm EST

• Onion staffers find themselves writing headlines for everything they see

  NPR.org
  "I've even talked to writers who've told me that it's an obsession," says editor Joe Randazzo. "Nearly everything that they see, think or do gets instantly reframed into this kind of headline." Re the staff's political leanings: "I would not say that we are a group of Republicans, but I [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 2:11pm EST

• Report: WP website staffers lose jobs as newsrooms merge

  Washington City Paper
  Erik Wemple reports several WashingtonPost.com editorial staffers as well as some non-editorial workers are among those who've gotten the ax as the website merges with the main Post newsroom. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 1:15pm EST

• "Good news" online biz mag gets funding from government sources, quasi-public agencies

  Tampa Bay Business Journal
  83 Degrees, which launched this week, is getting money from the Tampa Downtown Partnership, Pinellas County Economic Development, and city leaders in Tampa, Largo and Clearwater. A critic of the venture has already launched a parody site. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 1:06pm EST

• Niles: "There's no Walt Disney managing today's legacy news businesses"

  Online Journalism Review
  That's too bad, says Robert Niles, because "Walt's management style empowered the company to cultivate fresh ideas," while news business management has smothered creativity. "As a newspaper online producer in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I'm quite familiar with the 'No, because...' speech, especially on projects [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 12:04pm EST

• Granta gives a boost to Chicago newsstands, bookstores

  Chicago Tribune
  Chicago-Main Newsstand in Evanston has sold 140 copies of Granta 108: Chicago. The only other time the newsstand sold any issue that topped 100 copies was when Newsweek put out a special edition after Barack Obama won the presidential election. "It's unusual for a literary magazine [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:44am EST

• John King: "I believe in steering conversations, not shaping them"

  MarketWatch
  "That makes us different -- doesn't make one right and one wrong," says John King, after being asked how his show will contrast with the one Lou Dobbs hosted. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:37am EST

• Chicago mayor blames media for Oprah's departure

  Chicago Sun-Times
  Richard Daley says gripes in the media about the city of Chicago shutting down part of Michigan Avenue for Oprah Winfrey's season kickoff may have been too much for the talk show queen. "You keep kicking people, and people will leave. Simple as that." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 11:07am EST

• Atlantic, Economist covers strikingly similar, but...

  Columbia Journalism Review
  "I actually hadn't seen the Economist cover when we designed this, so I wasn't even aware that they had arrived at the same design solution," says Atlantic art director Jason Treat. Graphic design historian Steven Heller tells Greg Marx that the similarity may be embarrassing, [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 10:39am EST

• GQ for iPhone is "a smart first step towards re-imagining the magazine for digital"

  MinOnline
  Steve Smith says the digital version of December's GQ isn't exactly the "App of the Year," "but Conde Nast's launch of the GQ 'Man of the Year' issue in an iPhone version brims with intriguing ideas about how to handle deeper magazine content on mobile platforms large and small." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 9:34am EST

• Fayetteville editor used military affairs lawyer's opinion to protest ban on Palin coverage

  Fayetteville Observer
  Observer executive editor Mike Arnholt told the Army on Thursday that not allowing coverage of Sarah Palin's book promotion at Fort Bragg would set an unacceptable precedent. He was backed up by lawyer Matthew Freedus, who wrote: "As a general rule, military bases are not public forums. But [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:50am EST

• High school stops publication of paper over honor-students-gone-wild stories

  Chicago Tribune
  Administrators at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill. spiked today's edition of The Statesman because of stories on drinking and smoking by honor students, teen pregnancy, and shoplifting. The Student Press Law Center's director says: "It is irresponsible to withhold this information so they can protect their [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 8:18am EST

• Harbinger cuts its New York Times stake again

  Reuters
  Harbinger Capital Partners now owns 14.64% of the Times Co's publicly traded shares. In September, the hedge fund reported a 16.38% stake.
  > NYT's Chicago Report debuts today | Read it
  > Will NYT go easy on HBO because of documentary? [...]
  
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  Posted: November 20, 2009, 7:49am EST

• WSJ criticized for calling black judicial nominee "the White House Butler"

  Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
  Madison attorney Jon Axelrod tells the Wall Street Journal in a letter that "it is totally inappropriate to demean [former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler Jr.] because of his race by comparing him to a butler, an occupation unfortunately stereotyped as predominantly African [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:26pm EST

• AP reaches goal of cutting annual payroll costs by 10%

  Associated Press
  It does that by laying off 90 newsroom employees -- about 2% of the workforce. || Gawker's been getting information from AP tipsters.
  > AP reporters who found Palin book share $500 prize [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 6:41pm EST

• How the decline of the news media will affect higher education

  Chronicle of Higher Education
  Sanford Ungar, Neil Henry, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Garrick Utley and others share their thoughts with the Chronicle. || Nicholas Lemann, Michael Schudson/Len Downie, and Carlin Romano also have pieces in the Chronicle's special issue on the future of journalism. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:44pm EST

• US Army to keep media from covering Palin's Fort Bragg appearance

  Associated Press
  The Army says it fears Sarah Palin's book promotion on Monday will turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama, and that keeping the media away will prevent that. || UPDATE: After news orgs file complain, the Army says the media will have limited access. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 4:21pm EST

• Jon Stewart "has gone from optional to indispensable"

  Newsweek
  Brian Williams says of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart": "How did we live without it?" [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 3:52pm EST

• News orgs conflicted on how to identify Rahm Emanuel on second reference

  NPR.org
  Oddly, several news organizations refer to the president's chief of staff on a second reference as "Rahm Emanuel," writes Alicia Shepard. "NPR has just decided to make that a policy after correspondent Nina Totenberg referred to Emanuel three times by his first name only on-air. ...If it [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 3:25pm EST

• "Investigative reporters are the wildcat oil prospectors of journalism"

  ProPublica
  "We sink a lot of wells, and it's sometimes a surprise when we hit a gusher," writes Stephen Engelberg. "It's why cash-strapped news organizations are backing away from [investigative reporting]. No one can say how a story will end. And no one can really predict what it will accomplish." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 2:31pm EST

• Layoffs begin at BW, media columnist Fine departs

  Talking Biz News | NYTimes.com
  Chris Roush reports BusinessWeek senior writer Stephen Baker, Technology & You columnist Steve Wildstrom, personal finance editor Lauren Young and engagement editor Shirley Brady are among those leaving. (Stephanie Clifford: About 100 of BW's 400 employees cut.) Media columnist Jon Fine [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 2:23pm EST

• About 30,000 Kindle users subscribe to WSJ

  paidContent.org
  Staci Kramer figures the annual revenue from Kindle subscriptions is about $4.5 million, with the Wall Street Journal getting less than half that after Amazon.com takes its cut. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 2:13pm EST

• Journal Inquirer sues Hartford Courant for plagiarism

  Manchester, Conn. Journal Inquirer
  The Journal Inquirer's story on the lawsuit says "the Courant is accused of using its competitor's work to make up for the work formerly done by the Courant's own reporting staff, which was cut in half in the last two years." The lawsuit calls the Courant's [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:40pm EST

• Listen to Jarvis, Brill and Wolff discuss Murdoch vs. Google

  On Point Radio
  Jeff Jarvis, Michael Wolff, and Steven Brill were guests on this morning's "On Point with Tom Ashbrook." (Brill once again refused to name any news organizations that have signed up with Journalism Online.) Listen to it. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 12:23pm EST

• Claim: Corporate greed, mismanagement brought down gay newspaper chain

  Bay Windows
  The editors of New England's largest gay/lesbian newspaper say that when the gay community is "viewed as a marketing demographic rather than a movement, the result should not be surprising. The death of [Washington Blade parent] Window Media was self-inflicted." || City Paper: Washington Blade plans to [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:36am EST

• GWU journalists also had to get Kennedy quotes OK'd

  Wall Street Journal
  In an Oct. 13 e-mail to student reporters, a George Washington law school PR official wrote that "the Supreme Court's Public Information Office has asked to approve any quotes you use from the justice's speech." WRGW news director Jesse Regis tells Jess Bravin he had no choice [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 11:08am EST

• Ohio papers to publish first joint reporting project

  Editor & Publisher
  Their investigation into public employee pensions will run Nov. 29, reports Joe Strupp. Seven papers are involved. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 10:36am EST

• Protesters want Newsday editor fired over "Mallard Fillmore" cartoon

  Maynard Institute
  The 20 demonstrators are angry that this "Mallard Fillmore" cartoon ran just a week after the one-year anniversary of the death of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:58am EST

• NYPD organized-crime unit investigates newspaper deliverers

  Wall Street Journal
  The police department and Manhattan District Attorney's office are investigating whether the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers' Union has again forged ties with organized crime. A grand jury indicted the union in 1992 on a corruption charge. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 9:23am EST

• Creative Loafing's Tampa paper sells editorial content for charity

  TampaBay.com
  The items for sale include the cover image, a local band profile and photo shoot, the chance to write a music review of your choice and a chance to add your questions to an interview that the alt-weekly's political editor will conduct with a politician. Eric Deggans asks: [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:57am EST

• Mudd questions the need for a network evening newscast

  Daily Press (Newport News)
  "Most Americans probably already know pretty much what's happened by the time they get home at night, with radio and the Internet and iPods," says retired TV newsman Roger Mudd. "So at 6:30 p.m., they don't want to sit in front of television for a half [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:41am EST

• Fox News uses old footage to show "huge crowds" for Palin book tour

  SwampPolitics.com
  Fox News host Gregg Jarrett told viewers that Sarah Palin is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand new book." He then showed old file footage of Palin rallies from the 2008 presidential campaign. Mark Silva hears this will result in "serious disciplinary action." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:29am EST

• Sheriff halts press conference over spat with Fort Myers News-Press

  Fort Myers News-Press
  "I have the right to pick and choose who I want to speak to," Sheriff Mike Scott said as he walked away, "and don't you forget it." He refuses to grant face-to-face or phone interviews with the News-Press because of its coverage of various sheriff's office issues. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 8:07am EST

• Williams: Cronkite would get less attention in today's news environment

  Arizona Republic | cronkite.asu.edu
  Brian Williams, who received the 2009 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism at Arizona State University, said if the late CBS anchor had come along today, he would have gotten less attention. "I think there's too much noise. There's too much to cut [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:55am EST

• Report: Deal to sell Hollywood Reporter, other Nielsen titles may be done by Friday

  TheWrap.com
  Sharon Waxman reports the Hollywood Reporter and other publications are close to being sold to James Finkelstein, whose family's News Communications Inc. owns the "Who's Who" series. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 19, 2009, 7:26am EST

• Washington Times tells readers that more changes are coming

  TPM LiveWire
  Publisher Jonathan Slevin also asks readers to "read certain newspaper and blog reports about this organization with a discerning eye. Many of our competitors enthusiastically repeat rumors, myths and misinformation." He doesn't correct or cite any errors in those reports. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:34pm EST

• Wired e-reader application to be available mid-2010

  Wall Street Journal | All Things D
  Conde Nast and Adobe Systems are building a digital version of Wired magazine for electronic reading devices, reports Russell Adams. The publisher will eventually release versions for all of its titles. || More from Peter Kafka. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 5:55pm EST

• Post-Dispatch editor: I may have overreacted when I reported a vulgar comment to a school

  STLtoday.com
  St. Louis Post-Dispatch social media editor Kurt Greenbaum says before calling a school to report that one of its computers was used to post a vulgar comment, "I should have walked the idea around the newsroom a little more." PLUS: More lessons learned from the incident, which resulted [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 5:22pm EST

• Additional items for November 18, 2009

  > Sun-Times promotes baseball writer DeLuca to sports editor
  > WP: Blade's importance to our area can't be overstated
  > What "Morning Joe" serves up isn't as hot these days
  > It wasn't Riverfront Times that lost the torso pics case
  > CNN's Rollins calls [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 5:03pm EST

• Citizen journalism site Allvoices to pay for some stories

  Editor & Publisher
  Allvoices will pay up to $250 per story to journalists selected to participate in its "Provoices" program. If the story generates a lot of traffic, the writer could be eligible for more money. Former Boston Globe correspondent and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynda Gorov will [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 4:32pm EST

• Newspapers getting into sports betting "an off-the-wall idea, but I wouldn't mind it"

  Forbes.com
  "I don't think Poynter would try it," says Rick Edmonds, "but it might make sense for the [New York] Daily News." (Its owner, Mort Zuckerman, has pitched the idea.) || What Edmonds will tell the FTC next month: "I'll be talking about the bankruptcies newspapers face and explain [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 4:18pm EST

• If Justice Kennedy really wanted to help newspapers...

  Romenesko Letters
  "He'd actually advocate transparency in the federal judiciary that would increase the tiny number of reporters who subsist on the trickle of news allowed by the judges," writes John Maggs. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 4:01pm EST

• December GQ app now added to iTunes store

  New York Daily News | WSJ.com
  The $2.99 app was released Wednesday. "We're excited to see GQ on devices that have been synonymous with envelope pushing and creative innovation, says GQ editor-in-chief Jim Nelson. || Earlier: It's "a breakthrough in the magazine giant's embrace of digital publishing." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:58pm EST

• Photographer violated contract by reselling Palin photo to Newsweek

  Daily Finance
  Runner's World tells Jeff Bercovici that Brian Adams's contract contains a clause stipulating that his photos of Sarah Palin in gym shorts would be under embargo until August 2010. "That leaves the questions of whether anyone at Newsweek knew that Adams was not contractually free [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:32pm EST

• eBay founder to launch Honolulu-based news service

  PeerNews.com
  Pierre Omidyar's online operation will produce original, in-depth reporting and analysis of local issues in Hawaii. He's aiming for an early 2010 launch. || Howard Weaver, who is advising Omidyar and partner Randy Ching, writes about the venture.
  > Hawaii is a test bed, in part; if [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 2:05pm EST

• CNN's Crowley sets record straight on her weight loss

  Los Angeles Times
  CNN Candy Crowley ("before" photo at left) tells James Rainey that she didn't have surgery, as has been rumored in the blogosphere; instead, she's been dieting, swimming and working out. A change she thinks has made the biggest difference: Transcendental Meditation. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 1:48pm EST

• Philly newspapers postpone auction until court rules on credit bidding

  Philadelphia Inquirer
  The auction had been scheduled for today. Philadelphia Newspapers' attorney hopes the appeals court will issues its ruling before the end of December. It's to decide whether senior lenders can use money they're owed to bid for the media firm. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:50pm EST

• A biz/tech consultant on how newspapers can remain viable

  Columbia Journalism Review
  "A doomed strategy would be to wish that it were 1950 again and retreat into denial," says Rod Durst. "A winning strategy would be to embrace the change and figure out how to manage and monetize it by leveraging the existing brand." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:13pm EST

• "Canada is becoming a safe haven for the world's exiled journalists"

  Toronto Star
  "It's not easy monitoring events from 10,000 kilometres away," writes Martin Regg Cohn, "but covering Iran from Toronto is still easier than it was in Tehran when New York Times reporter Nazila Fathi was holed up in her apartment, watched by security agents, her phone and Internet connections compromised." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 12:02pm EST

• Justice Kennedy: I never asked to see Dalton School's newspaper story about my talk

  Wall Street Journal
  Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy says the request came from a new employee who misunderstood his rule for classroom visits: no outside media, but campus reporters are welcome. "My family is all upset, and other people are calling me" about reports that Kennedy barred a student [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 11:45am EST

• NYT's Abramson witnessed an odd religious ceremony, too

  Bible Belt Blogger
  "It's kind of my fault," confesses Frank Lockwood. He was with Times managing editor Jill Abramson in Buenos Aires for a fellowship project when they watched a preacher exorcise a demon from a wild-eyed woman. "Since that day, I've never stepped foot in another [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 10:42am EST

• Medill's Protess says he'll never disclose students' grades or e-mails

  Daily Northwestern
  "To do so would violate federal privacy law," says professor David Protess, discussing prosecutors' subpoena of information about Medill investigative journalism students. "I will also refuse to comply with any demand to turn over unpublished information, because that would set a terrible precedent for other student journalists." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 9:49am EST

• "The Twin Cities can well emerge as a great test bed for the hybrid journalism to come"

  Content Bridges
  That's what former St. Paul Pioneer Press managing editor Ken Doctor says. His suggestion to the area's media: "Before you go to the mattresses, in a war of words and attrition, look to how you can collectively use the new tools of the trade ... to produce more [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 9:15am EST

• LA Weekly's new editor wants the paper to be known for investigative journalism

  Neon Tommy
  "That's why they brought me in," says Drex Heikes. "I call [investigative reporting] 'journalism with a capital J' and that's why I'm here. ... We want good, hard-nosed investigative work." He says an open reporting position attracted 429 applicants, including Pulitzer Prize winners. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 9:03am EST

• Miniter says Moon's mass wedding was "creepy"

  Washington Post
  Former Washington Times editorial page editor Richard Miniter (left) says he "was made to feel there was no choice" but to attend the ceremony if he wanted to keep his job. No one at the paper gave him an explanation when he stopped receiving pay and [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:36am EST

• AP lays off legendary Texas-based photographer Cabluck

  Texas Tribune
  Harry Cabluck spent forty years AP. "He was in the presidential motorcade on that balmy day in November 1963 when John F. Kennedy was shot," writes Elise Hu, "has photographed every president since then, and caught countless backroom moments of George W. Bush's run for the White House." [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 8:04am EST

• AP refuses to say how many employees were fired on Tuesday

  Associated Press | Bloomberg
  AP spokesman Paul Colford wouldn't give numbers to an AP reporter, but the union representing AP employees said 38 Guild-covered journalists had been fired as of Tuesday night. The Guild didn't have a count for how many managers and workers outside the U.S. lost their jobs. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:49am EST

• NYT's Kantor gets seven-figure book deal

  New York Observer
  Jodi Kantor will write about the Obamas. "[Her] book will draw on the three years of reporting she has done since giving up the editorship of The Times Arts & Leisure section," writes Leon Neyfakh. [...]
  
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  Posted: November 18, 2009, 7:35am EST