May 2009 Archives

Slate has amassed a collection of editorial cartoons commenting on the state of the newspaper industry. Most lament the demise of newspapers, especially the cost to democracy. View the Slate editorial cartoons. -- May 29, 2009

Ben Sheffner at Slate discusses the potential legal liabilities of the Illinois meeting of newspaper executives, which included representatives from the New York Times, Gannett, McClatchy, the Associated Press and others.  The purpose of the meeting, called "Models to Monetize Content," was clearly the publications' attempts to survive the perils of the industry. But Sheffner discusses how such a meeting, and the subsequent installation of pay walls or subscriptions requirements, could seem to violate antitrust law. Read the Slate article -- May 29, 2009

In light of yesterday's meeting of newspaper executives, the purpose of which was to see how to monetize online content, Zachary M. Seward of the Nieman Journalism Lab notes overlooked arguments against instituting pay walls. He highlights the perils of trying, and ultimately failing, to implement a successful paywell system. He also argues that pay walls are better at protecting the printed editions than generating income. Read the Nieman Journalism post. -- May 29, 2009.

The New York Times has taken to a new level homepage takeover ads, a rather common technique of placing a paid message on top of the Web site.  The Times recently ran an Intel ad that incorporated the newspaper itself.  The experiment is an attempt to make online ads more engaging. And while the effect of these ads is not yet fully known, "brands are clearly excited about the notion of blending marketing messages with respected editorial content." Read the Forbes article. -- May 29, 2009.

Tom Brokaw anchored NBC's "Nightly News" for 21 years.  He traveled the world, covered 9/11, interviewed heads of state and followed Ronald Reagan's political career  from beginning to end.  His legacy, he said Wednesday, will probably involve none of that.

Brokaw told an audience at the Los Angeles Public Library that his "single greatest contribution" will probably be his bestselling book, "The Greatest Generation."  He talked about how on the flight to Los Angeles, two flight attendants gave him handwritten notes telling him how much the book had meant to him, how it had made them see their fathers in an entirely different way.

Eleven years after publication of the book, which profiled the Americans who fought In World War II, Brokaw says "The Greatest Generation" still evokes reactions like that two or three times a week, sometimes every day.

Gawker Media has added another vertical to its lists of blogs, the likes of which include the media gossip Gawker and gadget-friendly Gizmodo. The newest addition, however, is unique among the offerings because it is a sponspored blog. BloodCopy, the new blog, is an HBO project, completely funded and written by the cable channel to promote its vampire series, True Blood. Gawker's site will feature crossposts from BloodCopy just like the rest of its verticals. Gawker's vice president of sales and marketing, Chris Batty, has stated that the site hopes that such sponsored ads become the major funding for their efforts in the future. Read the Nieman Journalism Lab post. -- May 27, 2009.

David Kaplan of PaidContent shares his advice for newly hired Jennifer Preston, the New York Times' social media editor. Kaplan notes that many of the ways that newspapers are currently using social media, especially Twitter, are working. Thus, he cautions Preston against trying to "fix what isn't broken" or establish too tight a clamp on what editors and journalists can express in these forums. After all, he contends, people aren't interested in interacting with a faceless institution, but with other human beings. And that's what all that twittering presently offers. Read the PaidContent.org post. -- May 27, 2009.

The New York Times has hired its first ever social media editor. Officially, Jennifer Preston will work to expand "the use of social media networks and publishing platforms to improve New York Times journalism and deliver it to readers." Recently, though, Times journalists have leaked unauthorized information via their Twitterfeeds, leaving some to wonder whether Preston's main job isn't to monitor and regulate the use of Twitter and other social media. Perhaps a list of rules regarding social media will be forthcoming. Read the Editors Weblog post. -- May 27, 2009.

The European Union is launching a new Web site aimed at a forum for discussion that transcends  language barriers. The new site, funded by 3 million euros from the European Commission and run by 10 journalists, will translate content from among 250 titles that cover news in and around Europe. The site will begin publishing in 10 languages, but expects to cover all 23 of the EU's official languages in the next five years. In response to those who questioned the motives of the venture, EU communications commissioner Margot Wallstrom stated, "It has nothing to do with whether we like what the media writes or not." She said that the goal is simply to "prolong the life" of quality journalism. Read the EU Observer article. -- May 27, 2009

In Japan and parts of Europe, advertisers have long used QR codes to create an interactive experience from their printed ads. These QR codes are like barcodes--they appear in print and can link cell phones to specific Web sites. The technology could help advertisers determine what appeals to which consumers, and may even help newspapers make more money off of their printed product. Read the PBS MediaShift post. -- May 26, 2009

Vivian Schiller, CEO and President of NPR, argues in an interview that newspapers' best bet is to continue to offer their content for free. She says that there are only a few kinds of content that people have proved willing to pay for online--real-time financial news, some fantasy sports and pornography. As the former head of NYTimes.com, Schiller discusses her advocacy to end TimesSelect. While the service gained the newspaper $10 million annually, it seemed unlikely to grow, and therefore would not prove a useful tool to sustain the newsroom. Read the Huffington Post post, or watch the video: 

 -- May 26, 2009

The editors of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette and the Post Register in Idaho both attribute their extraordinary print subscription numbers to the fact that they only offer free web content to their subscribers. All others have to pay to access their articles online. Their success may be why 28% of newspapers say they are considering instituting online fees, according to a recent AP survey. As Journalism Online CEO Steven Brill put it, "Online fees will give people one less reason to stop subscribing to the [printed] newspaper." Read the Huffington Post article. -- May 26, 2009. 

A Spanish court has ruled that newspapers have intellectual property rights over their content. Over two years ago, the editors of 55 newspapers sued a press-clipping service Documentacion de Medios for including their stories as part of the service. Henceforth, any group seeking to use newspapers' material in a similar way will have to get prior consent from the editors. Read the Editors Weblog article. -- May 26, 2009.

WASHINGTON -- Speakers at a conference of broadcasters here last week described new revenue sources that may make the difference between profit and loss for U.S. broadcasters.  

And there was bad news for streaming media on line -- which turns out to be good news for radio stations.

From a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing on the future of journalism to a new tax cut for newspapers signed into law by the governor of Washington state, policymakers nationwide are responding to the crisis facing the news business.

“It's … a time of real hardship for the field of journalism ….. But it's also true that your ultimate success as an industry is essential to the success of our democracy,” President Obama told members of the White House Correspondents’ Association.

Thanks to a grant from Carnegie Corporation, the USC Annenberg School for Communication’s Center on Communication Leadership and Policy (CCLP) is launching a major new research project to document current and past government engagement in the news industry and assess new policy proposals.

Another year, another graduation. But, of course, this is not just another year. For the graduates themselves, it is one of the most important times of their lives. For many of them, their parents and millions of ordinary Americans, it is a very, very tough time.

My graduation was last Friday — not as a student, but as a teacher at the University of Southern California. For me it was a great year because I had great students.

Rory Maher on PaidContent has another suggestion for how Google, who is reportedly working with newspapers to improve their websites, might help the publications. He suggests that newspaper Web sites have trouble with search opitimization. As an example, he cites how the New York Times ran a cover story on a bombing plot in the Bronx, but a search of "Bronx bombing plot" listed many small blogs and TV sites before the Times. He suggests that Google could help these sites boost their numbers by better adapting to search features. Read the PaidContent.Org post. -- May 22, 2009.

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, shares his views on newspaper business models and how Google can help the publications make money. For instance, though he views the transition from for-profit to non-profit organization is difficult, Schmidt argues that, "news gathering and the profitability model was always an uncomfortable relationship." He also notes that Google is working with the Washington Post and other newspapers to improve their websites and increase their monetization. Read the Editors Weblog post. -- May 22, 2009.

ProPublica is launching a citizen-journalism venture, asking ordinary people to pick a small part of the stimulus bill and track its progress: "Diving headfirst into databases and wrangling answers out of government officials will get us only so far. Basic information about road and bridge reconstruction projects -- like the identity of sub-contractors -- requires feet on the ground, and a lot of them." The project is designed to combine all of the information provided by citizens to answer the question: Is the stimulus working? Read the ProPublica post. -- May 22, 2009

Muck Rack, a service that aggregates the Twitter feeds of journalists, has added several new features in its recent redesigns that significantly improve the site. First, new users can organize those tweets into broad beats, ranging from technology to arts journalism. This allows people to focus on the more interesting content. Second, Muck Rack has added a list of trending topics, so viewers can tell at a glance what the world's journalists are tweeting about. Read the Nieman Journalism Lab review. -- May 22, 2009.

Politico, ABC,and Google are partnering to offer mulitmedia coverage of local political events, beginning with a debate between the candidates for governor in Virginia. ABC will broadcast the event live, and beforehand viewers will have a chance to submit video questions and text comments. The questions will be chosen using Google Moderator, which lets users rate the questions. The most popular questions will go to the candidates. Read the journalism.co.uk post. -- May 22, 2009.

If a newly proposed bill passes, New York's shield law, which protects journalists from disclosing confidential sources in state court, would be extended to include journalist bloggers. The bill was proposed by State Sen. Thomas Duane and Assemblywoman Linda Rosenthal. The proposal would protect journalist bloggers who write for “a Web site or Web page that contains an online journal containing news, comments and offers hyperlinks provided by the writer.” Read the New York Times article. -- May 20, 2009

Talking Points Memo, the eight-year-old political blog, has hired its first vice president of sales, who will lead its in-house advertising efforts. Diane Rinaldo, formerly director of political advertising at Yahoo, holds the new position. Until her hire, TPM relied solely on advertising services like Blogads. In March and April, Rinaldo reports, TPM sold more advertisments than it did for all of 2008 (this refers only to in-house sales, rather than total advertising revenue). Read the NiemanLab post. -- May 20, 2009.

The decline in advertising, coupled with a decline in viewership, has hurt local TV news almost as much as newspapers. The Philadelpha Inquirer reports that, in response to this trend, local TV channels are attempting to gain advertising from companies and products that do not normally buy many spots. This means that local advertisements, from Empire Carpeting to the Snuggie, are more likely to show up in places they didn't before. Read the Philadelphia Inquirer article. -- May 20, 2009.

The Financial Times is building two studios that will allow its correspondents to produce video and audio content for the Web site. FT.com will charge non-subscribers to watch the videos, if they exceed 10 videos a month. The site already produces 170 videos per month. FT.com has over 11 million unique viewers per month, and over 100,000 subscribers. Read the Media Week article. -- May 20, 2009

The Federal Trade Commission announced that it will host a hearing on Sept. 15 to discuss the struggle for new business models for journalism. Though an agenda has not yet been released, the FTC says that witnesses will include a host of interested parties -- from journalists to privacy experts to consumer advocates. The purpose is to investigate how the failing news industry, and any potential solutions, may have an impact on competition and the consumer. Read the FTC announcement. -- May 20, 2009

Bill Mitchell at Poytner Online reviews the Kindle, which he sees as a "supplement to print and online as opposed to a substitute for either." The demographics for the Kindle, he argues, appear to skew older, which may be bad news for newspapers hoping that the device will save their industry. He notes some problems with the format and function of the Kindle, but in general has a positive review. Read the Poynter Online post. -- May 20, 2009.

In the UK, Google is arguing that laws should be relaxed to allow newspapers to consolidate. In papers submitted to the Office of Fair Trade, the search engine suggests that revising the existing barriers to merging would allow local and regional newspapers to compete with Google itself as well as other internet sites. Google's comment comes as the OFT is reviewing the newspaper merger framework. Read the Times article. -- May 19, 2009

This summer, the Federal Trade Comission is expected to release new guidelines for bloggers and the way they handle sponsored posts. Specifically, the guidelines will dictate that bloggers disclose when they're voicing opinions that aren't their own, or are writing about a product they received for free. The rules are not binding, and may leave some wiggle room, but are an attempt to provide the same level of transparency and accountability in social media as exists in traditional media. Read the Business Week post. -- May 19, 2009.

Ryan Chittum of the Columbia Journalism Review does the math on the Kindle, and concludes that it is "just another way for papers to lose money." Newspapers available on the Kindle would receive only 30 percent of the revenue from the subscribers -- $4.20 from a $14 subscription fee. Since there are no advertisements on the Kindle, there is no additional revenue stream. The setup means that if all of the New York Times subscribers were to switch to the Kindle, the paper would only make $52 million, enough to fund about a quarter of its newsroom costs. Chittum's conclusion is that there is still a long way to go on the Kindle. Read the Columbia Journalism Review post. -- May 18, 2009

Beth Teitell of the Boston Globe, noting that only a third of Americans would personally miss the printed newspaper, lists the important societal benefits that newsprint provides. "You can shed a tear right now for the iconic ransom note, with letters clipped from newspaper headlines. What's a kidnapper to do?" Teitell queries. She also advises people to invest in umbrellas, and to find an alternative to papermaiche for their child's next school project. Read the Boston Globe article. -- May 18, 2009

Next month, Martha Stewart will begin to charge for online videos from the archives, which are not currently available on the web. Users can purchase the videos and download them to their computer, mobile phone, or iPod. A price has not yet been determined. The Web site will continue to rely mostly on paid advertising as it experiments with charging for online content. Read the Women's Wear Daily post. -- May 18, 2009

The New York Times has more information about David Geffen's intent to purchase the newspaper. The paper reports that Geffen remains interested in purchasing a stake in the paper but, wary of antagonizing the Sulzberger-Ochs family, will remain on the sidelines until an opportunity arises. Geffen's friends maintain that he believes the Times should become a nonprofit, and if he were to purchase the paper he would not run that nonprofit himself. Some, however, are skeptical that Geffen could really function as a passive owner. Read the New York Times story. -- May 18, 2009

Newsweek's new Web site has launched, featuring news aggregation and user-generated content in addition to its original reporting. Some new sections will encourage debate on a selection topic or offer four informational links that might otherwise be lost in the shuffle. Editors will even take the tweets directed at Newsweek and post them on the Web sites like comments. The redesign comes at the weekly is dramatically re-evaluating what the magazine will now look like.  Read the Editors Weblog article -- May 15, 2009.

By the end of June, the New York Times will reportedly decide on a way to charge for its online content. Two proposals are currently being considered. The first, which executive editor Bill Keller described as "tricky," is a meter system, which monitors a user's page or word count, and would charge a reader only after a certain threshold is consumed. The second option is a membership, where people would make a donation to become part of the "New York Times community." Read the Observer article. -- May 15, 2009

Thomas B. Edsall considers what may happen to the New York Times if the company faces insolvency, as some expect in a year or two. Edsall argues that if the Sulzberger-Ochs family is forced to sell the newspaper to the highest bidder, the results could be disastrous for the quality of the respected publication. As an alternative, though, the family could sell its shares of the Times to whomever they wanted, giving their chosen buyer effective control over the newspaper.  Read the Huffington Post post. -- May 15, 2009.

David Geffen's offer to buy a 19% stake in the New York Times never went through, but the speculation as to why Geffen would make the offer, and what he would do with the Times if he had control, continues to be a popular pasttime. Business Week yesterday ran the story that he is likely spurred by a sense of civic duty. Meanwhile, Forbes suggests that the Hollywood billionaire may be looking for a cheap investment, and is motivated by a traditional investor's desire to turn a profit. The Finanical Times concurs, arguing that he's looking for his latest challenge, "and the New York Times might be just the ticket." Newsweek takes a different perspective, more akin to Business Week, when it reports that Geffen wants to protect the paper as a "national treasure," and that if he gained control he would turn the Grey Lady into a nonprofit, similar to the St. Petersburg Times. -- May 14, 2009

The BBC director of future media and technology, Erik Huggers, spoke yesterday at a Broadcasting Press Guild lunch. He argued that newspapers should make their online content look more like it does in print, and emphasized the potential of devices like the Kindle that could mimic the traditional feeling of reading the newspaper. Huggers also discussed the potential of Project Canvas, a venture that would link digital television and the Internet so that viewers can watch online content on the TV screens. He said that the project would bring the best of television and the best of the internet together. Read the Guardian article. -- May 14, 2009.

The NIS News Bulletin, a English-language Dutch news service, reports that the Dutch media minister is set to hire 60 journalists. The journalists will work at one of 30 commerical newspapers that cover national or regional news. The Minister explained his decision by saying that younger journalists are frequently the first to be laid off. About 4 million euros have been set aside for this project. The minister has also set up a committee to study other possible initiatives. Read the NIS News Bulletin. -- May 14, 2009.

 Greg Horowitz at the Digitalists raises an often-overlooked question about the impact of micropayments on the journalists who write the stories. He fears that news companies, armed with data about which articles brought in the most revenue, will increasingly adapt their coverage based on what sells. Journalists themselves may be rewarded or let go based on their ability to spur micropayments, and they may start to couch their pieces in more attention-grabbing styles. All of these developments, Horowitz argues, would be bad for journalism. Read the Digitalist post -- May 13, 2009. 

 Not everyone is convinced the Wall Street Journal's announcement that it will start charging micropayments will prove successful. Mike Mansick at TechDirt argues that charging micropayments actually decreases the value of the content for its users: These days, many people value content for the ability to engage with it, comment on it and share it with others. Micropayments take away that ability, and thus decrease the value of the content, Mansick says. Read Mansick's argument at TechDirt. -- May 13, 2009. 

Business Week discusses why David Geffen, the Hollywood billionaire who once chaired the  Dreamsworks studio, would make an offer to buy a stake in the New York Times. It is, after all, no secret that the paper is in financial trouble. Geffen certainly understands this, and therefore likely sees his offer as a civic investment rather than a business venture. Geffen tried to buy the Los Angeles Times in 2006. Read the Business Week article. -- May 13, 2009. 

 Washington state has agreed to provide its newspapers with a tax break, granting the industry a 40 percent reduction in the state's main business tax. The cut is similar to ones bestowed upon Boeing Co. and the timber industry in the past. Read the Seattle Times article.

The tax reduction plan is receiving a mixed reaction. The Business Insider, for one, remains critical. Read the Business Insider post. -- May 13, 2009

 MarketWatch, a financial website published by Dow Jones, has redesigned its Web site. Along with adding new features and emphasizing original content, MarketWatch launched the new site in an effort to boost online advertising sales. Even as its competitors like Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal require subscriptions for content, and as its parent company NewsCorp looks into charging for online content, MarketWatch is hoping that the redesign will allow them to keep providing business news for free. Read the Reuters article. -- May 13, 2009. 

Through innovation and newsroom changes, Britain's Telegraph receives 8 percent of its traffic, translating into 75,000 daily unique visitors, from news aggregators and social networking sites. The Telegraph cites a variety of changes -- instituting a new technology lab, merging the print and digital operations -- with strengthening its traffic.  The Telegraph relies on its readers to recommend their articles to others via Digg, Delicious, Reddit and others. Read the Editors Weblog article. -- May 13, 2009. 

You needn't look far to find skepticism about the potential of foundations and philanthropists to bankroll the work that newspapers have long done. Conventional wisdom is that funders of nonprofits can make only a marginal difference, that the real answers will come from private sector innovators.

But these skeptics aren't much found in evidence at the nation's leading investigative reporting nonprofits.

The Center for Public Integrity, ProPublica and the Center for Investigative Reporting are all on the move, all seeing growing opportunities for nonprofit investigative work, all hopeful about future funding.

With mainstream media continuing to feel the crush of declining revenues, the nonprofits are seeing demand for their work rising. And, in a scenario few thought possible, the cold calls are sometimes coming from the opposite direction – from foundations wondering if they might play a role in financing investigative reporting.

Jack Shafer in Slate discusses the 1962-1963 New York newspaper strike, and considers it a case study in what people do when the newspapers shut down. He argues that, despite today's oft-stated assumption, democracy and government did not appear to suffer too much under the 114-day strike. Instead, people turned to other news sources for information -- television, news magazines and books. Meanwhile, the circulation of newspapers not involved in the strike rose dramatically. Read the Slate article. -- May 12, 2009

MediaNews has set up its new strategy to revitalize its newspapers. The company's vision includes three major changes: First, MediaNews will begin to charge for its online news. Subscribers to the physical newspaper will have free online access, but all others will be directed to a pay vehicle. Second, the company will move to differentiate the newspaper from its online version. It will continue to utilize material from its printed source but "will also have user-generated content, community involvement and third party content." Finally, it will create a locus of local information with various resources, including shopping information and user content. Read the Romenesko post. -- May 12, 2009

Perhaps because of all the media hype, Twitter had more unique visitors in the month of April than did the online versions of the New York Times or the Wall Street Journal. Twitter had 19.4 million visitors, compared with 15.6 and 12.2 million for the newspapers, respectively. These findings are consistent with previous announcements that Twitter gained 5 million new users in March. Read the Huffington Post article. -- May 12, 2009

The New York Times has launched Times Wire, a minute-by-minute update of the newspapers' articles and blog posts as they are posted on the web. While TechCrunch worries that the new feature won't do anything to address the problem of the newspaper's slow reporting speed, it does admit: "As an overview of the entire NYT site, it’s actually quite interesting." Read the TechCrunch post and check out the Times Wire. -- May 12, 2009

Thomson Reuters is revamping its mobile applications.  They will include video and market data as well as headlines. The applications are adapted to better suit the needs of iPhone or Blackberry users -- the former supplies more video and the latter focuses on business data. While the overhauled apps will remain free for now, the company has indicated that this is the first step in a transition to charging for the mobile content. Read the Finanical Times article. -- May 12, 2009.

The New York Times is re-evaluating its TimesSelect experiment, which introduced micropayments for some of the paper's content, and thinking of instituting a tiered membership scheme. The idea is akin to the American Express model, with different levels, from platinum to gold. The paper is also investigating other types of revenue, such as selling research to Fortune 500 companies. As of now, the newspaper has rejected raising the endowment or seeking individual donations as viable options. Read the Editors Weblog post. -- May 12, 2009.

Online advertisements are often measured (and paid for) in terms of clicks. Companies usually buy ads at CPMs (or cost per thousand clicks). But publishers are starting to turn to engagement advertising, which focuses on the level of engagement with a product or ad rather than the number of click-throughs. It remains difficult, however, to measure engagement, and the industry has traditionally relied upon time as the measure. There are still obstacles to overcome, but industry experts expect engagement ads to be the future of online advertising. Read the PaidContent.org article. -- May 11, 2009

As The New York Times struggles under the burdens of debt and the general decline of newspapers, Richard Siklos of Fortune reports that former Hollywood mogul David Geffen offered to purchase a 19 percent stake in the newspaper from Harbinger Capital Partners. The deal did not go through. Siklos also has a good summary of the challenges facing the so-called the Grey Lady. Read the Fortune article. -- May 11, 2009.

At the White House Correspondents Dinner, a traditionally humorous gathering of politicians and press, President Obama ended his satirical speech with an earnest support of newspapers: "a government without newspapers, a government without a tough and vibrant media is not an option for the United States of America." This statement has led some to conclude that the president is preparing for a government bailout of newspapers. Read the Editors Weblog post. -- May 11, 2009.

Papermotion might be the start of an entirely new way to consume newspaper advertising. Created by a French company, Total Immersion, and an Australian firm, the Dreamscape Group, this new technology uses a printed image.  When put in front of a webcam, it creates a three-dimensional image on the computer, complete with music. 20th Century Fox is the first major company to employ this type of advertising for their upcoming film, Night at the Museum 2. Read the Editors Weblog post and watch the demonstration video. -- May 11, 2009.

The problem with news charts, maps and databases is that they all require maintenance in order to stay relevant. Without continual updating, they quickly become irrelevant and sometimes misleading. One way to prevent this, without allocating staff, is to have the charts pull directly from the available information as it is released, so that the chart is quickly updated (The Raleigh News and Observer does this with their crime graphs, culling information from law enforcement databases). Another helpful tool might be Wolfram Alpha, a powerful search engine that will answer queries and compute information. Read the Nieman Journalism Lab post. -- May 11, 2009.

A Pricewaterhouse Coopers study surveyed viewers' willingness to pay for content. According to their survey, respondents were willing to pay 97 percent of the price for financial news. More promising, those surveyed said they would pay 77 percent of the full price for online sports news, and an average of 62 percent for general content. The study suggests, then, that newspapers and other news sources might be able to charge for online content, though perhaps not as much as they would like. Read the PaidContent article. -- May 11, 2009

The Wall Street Journal, whose online paid subscriptions have risen 21 percent since 2007, will soon add a micropayment service to view its online content. The service is set to launch in autumn; the cost of each viewed article has not yet been determined. The launch of the micropayment service comes as newspapers are increasingly looking at such a business model to fund their reporting. Read the Financial Times article. -- May 11, 2008.

Ryan Tate at Gawker weighs in on yesterday's Senate hearing, offering a defense of the bloggers that some in the mainstream media criticized. Specifically, he takes issue with the claim, voiced by former Baltimore Sun reporter David Simon, that bloggers do not cover the mundane, everyday issues like public meetings. Tate also highlights Arianna Huffington's argument that bloggers "chomp down on a story and stay with it, refusing to move off it until they've gotten down to the marrow." Read the Gawker post. -- May 7, 2009.

At Wednesday's Senate hearing on the future of journalism, traditional journalists sounded alarms about their struggling industy. Yet two of the witnesses, Marissa Mayer of Google and Arianna Huffington of the eponymous Huffington Post, represented the new-media aggregators that rely on others' original content. Mayer and Huffington both had to respond to senators who highlighted their role in killing newspapers. Sen. Kerry lamented: "I see cacophony without standards. I see more and more people operating in public life with snippets, and I think that's dangerous." Read the Washington Post column. -- May 7, 2009.

Earlier this week, Amazon.com announced its new, larger format Kindle designed for newspapers and other larger publications. The New York Times, the Boston Globe and the Washington Post have said they will deliver newspapers on the device. News Corp's owner, Rubert Murdoch, is unconvinced. He stated that his company is not interested in handing over its content to the people who made the Kindle. Instead, he expects that one of his general newspapers will start charging for online content within the year. At yesterday's Senate hearing, Dallas Morning News exec James Moroney mirrored Murdoch's sentiment, complaining that Amazon wants 70% of subscription revenue from the newspaper. Read the Financial Times' story. -- May 7, 2009.

In yesterday's broadcast, NPR's Diane Rehm interviewed four media experts about the fate of the newspaper industry: American University professor Jane Hall, blogger Alan Mutter, editor of the American Journalism Review Rem Reider, and editor of the Milkwaukee Journal-Sentiel Martin Kaiser.  Theydiscussed various options for finding a new revenue model -- newspapers going nonprofit, publishing on the Web only, changing antitrust laws and initiating new mergers. Hear the NPR interview. -- May 7, 2009

Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation and the New York Times Company are both moving closer toward charging for online content. Murdoch says his company is considering establishing a pay wall for all or part of its content within a year. The NY Times is less committed; the company is still evaluating subscription and micropayment models. Read the Editors Weblog Post. -- May 7, 2009.

A hearing called by Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry produced conflicting views over whether the federal government might play a productive role in supporting the beleaguered news industry.  The publisher of the Dallas Morning News said yes.  But new media representatives said a federal role would be counterproductive. Read testimony at Senate site -- May 6, 2009

Amazon and Plastic Logic are both banking on the idea that creating a larger, Kindle-like electronic device will prove popular as the new way of consuming news. Each company is racing to complete its version of the gadget, which may prove to be the saving grace for newspapers looking for a way to charge for their content. With the devices, publishers conceivably might be able to revert to long-established business model of selling subscriptions and supporting articles with ads. Read the New York Times article. -- May 4, 2009.

TechCrunch reports that online advertising revenues dropped significantly over the last quarter, suggesting that the recession has come to online ad sales. With Google, Yahoo, AOL and Microsoft reporting on their finances for the quarter, Web revenue dropped 2 percent from last year and 7 percent from the fourth quarter. Read the TechCrunch report. -- May 4, 2009.

Allowing comments on news stories is increasingly common, despite the potential pitfalls. One of the benefits of comments section can actually be increased pageviews which translate into increased online advertising dollars. It keeps readers at the site longer, can create a community of users, and increases the interaction between producers and consumers of news. All of this may result in added revenue. Read the article from the San Francisco Chronicle. -- May 4, 2009.

When pressed at Monday's briefing, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs expressed concern over the failing newspaper industry, but stated, "I don't know what, in all honesty, government can do about it." Even as Sen. John Kerry begins holding hearings this week on the state of the newspaper industry, it appears that the White House is not planning imminent action. Read the Huffington Post article. -- May 4, 2009.

The Detroit Free Press has partnered with a local CBS affiliate, WWJ-TV, to launch a morning news show. The program will air two hours each weekday morning, and feature content produced by the newspaper's journalists, in addition to updates on weather and traffic. Read the Free Press article. -- May 4, 2009.

National Public Radio combined computer code, archives and Google Hot Trends to create an automated twitter account NPRBackstory. It goes like this: the code automatically detects frequent search terms, checks within the NPR archives for related stories and posts the link on Twitter, all without any human involvement. The goal of the project is to provide some backstory and context to breaking news, and to make full use of the online NPR archives that date back to 1995. Read the Nieman Journalism Lab post. -- May 4, 2009.

MTV is promoting its new show, What You're Watching with Alexa Chung, by taking advantages of new media. Yet the television channel is taking the unprecented step of sharing the ad revenue from the show with Facebook and Twitter. While many companies and industries, including CNN and Us Weekly, have used these two sites to promote their projects, this is the first time that either site will receive revenue for hosting the organization. Read the Paid Content post. -- May 4, 2009