Who is Covering Kentucky?

Bill Bishop reports on the closure of the last Eastern Kentucky news bureau: 

The reporters who worked Eastern Kentucky news bureaus helped change the nation and brought Kentucky together. The last bureau will close this week.

It’s fitting that Dori Hjalmarson’s story Sunday was about the decline in population in Breathitt County, Kentucky, as people abandon that coalfield county in search of work elsewhere because Dori is leaving, too.

Continue reading:

http://www.dailyyonder.com/state-empty-bureaus/2011/05/26/3345

Archiving the Past

Josh Halliday reports on the “National Memory” project:

“It’s an absolute fact. The history of the newspaper publishing industry is the history of failure,” says Ed King, the charismatic head of the British Library’s newspaper collection. King paints a bleak picture – but he is overseeing the library’s ambitious attempt to make millions of pages of yesterday’s chip paper available online for the first time. This, he claims, could give “short-lived, ephemeral titles” a second birth.

Continue reading:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2011/may/30/british-library-digital-newspaper-archive

PBS Goes Corporate

ELIZABETH JENSEN reports on PBS: 

FOR decades, the uninterrupted programming on PBS has been one of its most distinctive selling points to audiences and philanthropic and corporate supporters alike.  But those leisurely stretches of break-free programs could be going away.

Continue reading:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/31/business/media/31adco.html?_r=1

Best Read Cities in America

Richard Florida reports on the best read cities in America:

Which cities are America’s best-read? There’s no need for guess work any longer, now that Amazon.com has compiled all of its book, magazine, and newspaper sales (in both print and Kindle format) since January 1st of this year for U.S cities with populations of more than 100,000 and ranked them according to their per-capita sales. Some of the results (via Mashable) are ho-hum, others more surprising.

Continue reading:

http://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2011/05/the-20-best-read-cities-in-america/239546/

“you get paid a lot more to keep your mouth shut than to publish people’s secrets.”

Ben Popper reports on technology journalism:

Not only is Silicon Alley booming again, but the IPO market is back in swing, meaning billions of web dollars are flowing through Wall Street.

Continue reading:

http://www.betabeat.com/2011/05/26/with-the-tech-sector-booming-reporters-headed-for-the-exit/

Jumping Ship At HuffPo

Glynnis MacNicol reports on AOL/HuffPo: 

Since Aol purchased the Huffington Post from Arianna Huffington in February for $315 million most of the subsequent coverage has focused on the widespread layoffs of Aol employees; the hiring of experienced reporters (many of whom are notably from the NYT, but more on that later); and Arianna’s verbal tete-a-tetes with NYT managing editor Bill Keller.

Continue reading:

http://www.businessinsider.com/arianna-aol-nyt-merger-2011-5#ixzz1NS3RuhQ1

Fired For Tweeting

Elana Zak examines reasons why reporters were fired for tweeting: 

When it comes to Twitter, journalists tread a thin line. While a lot of news organizations strongly suggest their reporters sign up for an account and gain followers, many don’t have a written social media policy. Even if you are off the clock, something you share in 140 characters or less can come back to haunt you. Here are eight journalists who should’ve thought twice before hitting the “Tweet” button. (Note: I’m going to post the first four today and the next four later in the week.)

Continue reading:

http://www.mediabistro.com/10000words/8-journalists-who-were-fired-for-tweeting-part-1_b4136

African-Americans Depart From Mainstream Newsrooms

Pamela Newkirk examines African-Americans in newsrooms across the U.S.:

It started as a trickle. Sylvester Monroe resigned in 2006 as Sunday national editor at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution and, two months later, joined the staff of Ebony magazine. In 2008 the renowned byline of Jack E. White, the first black columnist at Time magazine, began to regularly appear on The Root, where Lynette Clemetson, formerly of The New York Times and Newsweek, was managing editor. By March of this year when Constance C. R. White, once an influential New York Times fashion writer, was named editor in chief of Essence, the trickle had swelled into a river of prominent African-American journalists streaming to black-oriented media.

Continue reading:

http://www.cjr.org/feature/the_not-so-great_migration.php

The Sacramento Bee Eliminates 44 Jobs

Erik Sass reports on McClatchy Co. newspapers: 

There is no sign of a recovery for the newspaper business as publishers face continuing declines in print ad revenue, which probably translates into more layoffs in 2011. One of the nation’s leading newspaper publishers, McClatchy Co., has quietly eliminated several hundred positions, with a first round of layoffs in February followed by even deeper cuts this month.

Continue reading:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.showArticle&art_aid=151128

San Francisco Union Leader Says ‘Jobs Will Not Return’

Shawn Gaynor reports on Bay Area News Group:

Former San Francisco Chronicle science writer and union activist Carl Hall took a buyout from the newspaper in 2009. He is now executive officer of the Pacific Media Workers Guild, which represents union newsroom workers at Bay Area newspapers. He talked about changes in the Bay Area’s print news landscape and the future of unionized journalism.

Continue reading:

http://sfpublicpress.org/news/2011-05/union-leader-says-jobs-will-not-return-urges-media-workers-to-reinvent-selves