Get Your Meter Runnin'

And head out on the highway, to Chico, Ca., and York, Pa., where MediaNews now says it plans to launch web metering plans similar to NYT idea.

'NYT' Revives Only James Cameron Music Video

NYT's Carpetbagger today points us to James Cameron's only music video, for an obscure band, which he did with then-wife (and fellow Oscar nominee) Kathryn Bigelow. One of a kind, to be sure:

Bye-bye, Miss American Pie

MinnPost news outlet decides: No more Google text ads on its site.

Friday Linkage

L.A. Times auto writer and Pulitzer winner jumps to WSJ.

AP reviews Jon Stewart on Bill O'Reilly show, part II.

Great NYT piece on battle over money involving "Crazy Heart" film and dying musician Stephen Bruton.

We covered the guy who is coming out with book of poems created by subtracting words from newspaper stories--now there's a site for people to join in.

Who is playing Judy Miller this time? Paul Krugman: "Fear-mongering" on the deficit may do as much harm as hype over Saddam's WMDs.

Some inspired kook has just launched a history of rock and roll series on YouTube.

Tweet and Sour

We covered earlier this week George Packer's anti-Twitter piece for the New Yorker. Now he's responding to his critics (remember, he'd said he'd never tried it), here.

I’d like to think that in 1860 I would have been an early train passenger, but I’d also like to think that in 1960 I’d have urged my wife to go off Thalidomide.

Bilton’s arguments on behalf of Twitter are that it’s useful for marketing and “information-sharing,” and that I, as a journalist, ought to understand the value as well as anyone: “Twitter is transforming the nature of news, the industry from which Mr. Packer reaps his paycheck. The news media are going through their most robust transformation since the dawn of the printing press, in large part due to the Internet and services like Twitter. After this metamorphosis takes place, everyone will benefit from the information moving swiftly around the globe.”

If there are any journalists left by then.

She's Against Taxes, All Right

The Alaska blog Mudflats had this yesterday and now AP updates it: (ANCHORAGE)-- Records show that Sarah Palin has not paid any property taxes on cabins that have been built on two back country plots partially owned by the former Alaska governor.

It's unclear how long ago the structures were built, but records show that there are no tax assessments for the buildings. Property taxes were only paid on the land — and not the structures themselves.

The issue has attracted the attention of local tax officials who conducted a scheduled aerial survey of the property on Thursday. Palin's attorney, Thomas Van Flein, says it is not the responsibility of property owners to report structures that go up on their land. But local assessor Dave Dunivan says owners are required by state law to report any omissions or errors in their tax assessments.

Tops in Environmental Reporting

The Columbia Graduate School of Journalism announced today that a USA Today investigation by reporters reporters Blake Morrison and Brad Heath into the smokestack effects of toxic air around America’s schools has won the 2009 John B. Oakes Award for excellence in environment journalism. Judges state that it focused the nation’s attention on the quality of the air that children breathe eight hours a day. As a result, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has launched a $2.25 million program to monitor air quality outside schools, and a campaign is underway before Congress for tighter rules on where schools can be built.

That award is getting plenty of notice so allow me to focus on a special citation for someone I've written about often in the past, Kelly Kennedy (left), who has covered numerous war-related stories with so much distinction for the Military Times papers. The judges called this a rare step to recognize a runnerup. The press release states: "Kennedy was recognized for courage in breaking news and for following up with a compelling series of more than two dozen stories about the health threats to troops who are exposed to war-zone burn pits." She also has an important book coming out next month based on her reporting in Iraq. -- Greg Mitchell

The iPadding of the News?

Bill Mitchell at Poynter says the iPad may change everything -- providing an "e-reader" solution (or partial) for the nagging high costs of actually printing and delivery the daily paper.

Today's Fun Commercial for Newspaper

Back to the Future?

The Editors Only blog has a big piece today about the future of E&P partly based on email interview with yours truly and new owner Duncan McIntosh. I find some parts a bit misleading, but you will surely get a kick out of it, especially when McIntosh says that what's needed now, going forward, are more pages about printing presses! But read and decide yourself! It's all here. -- Greg Mitchell

Thursday Links

Paid Content, indeed: NYT shouldn't wait until 2011 to start metering.

Small daily covers local man who killed infant son, and himself -- and suicide note and pictures ended up on Facebook.

Monster acquires HotJobs from Yahoo.

You betcha: New York Observer to help launch weekly for Las Vegas.

News Corp. digital guys stresses "dual" sources of revenue stream.

Widely-publicized and numerous stories about injured Iraq vet and his dog come into question.

If you missed Jon Stewart w/ Bill O'Reilly, it's all here (and Part II tonite).

I'm Still Selling 'E&P'

Oh, the indignity! It's bad enough that the new owner of E&P decided not to retain me when the magazine started up again last month -- with most of the "E" taken out of the E&P -- but the publication is still using me to sell subscription renewals.
I was alerted to this by a current subscriber, who forwarded an email he had just received, along with the note that he would NOT be renewing. Here's the pitch from the email:

Your subscription to Editor & Publisher is about to expire. In order to extend your service, we need only a few moments of your time. To verify that we have your correct information, please click below. You will be prompted to your personal renewal page where you can manage your account and ensure continuous service to Editor & Publisher in print and online.

It's signed, "Greg Mitchell, Editor."

Now, I could object on several grounds, but added to that, what about making me look bad as a writer? Consider the closing line: "We look forward to continuing your service to Editor & Publisher." Now that's really going too far. -- Greg Mitchell

Obama and the Press

Peter Baker of NYT posted tonight an appraisal of how Obama is using the new media, which lessens influence of the old. He takes questions from bloggers, via YouTube and even from Republicans but has not had a full-scale press conference with WH reporters for seven months--a recent record.

After a year in office, Mr. Obama has managed to do what every modern president may have wanted to do but never did: effectively shut out the reporters who work just a few feet from the Oval Office. He has not had a full-scale White House news conference in seven months, the longest such stretch by any president in a decade. And he has made a practice of not taking reporters’ questions at day-to-day events, as other presidents did.

None of that means that Mr. Obama has shielded himself from public scrutiny. But he has fundamentally altered the way a president deals with the news media. Instead of open-ended sessions with multiple reporters, he prefers one-on-one interviews, particularly with television anchors. He gives far more interviews than his two most recent predecessors did, reflecting the conclusion that the format is a more effective means for getting his message through.

Our Weekly Thank You

Thanks again for reading, supporting, tweeting, hailing and/or linking to this upstart blog. Page views just keep growing, even though we are doing this very part-time, and Exile continues to swamp the numbers for E&P's one remaining blog (which continues to draw very little daily traffic). To those who have asked how E&P's main site is doing: Traffic is less than one-half what it was last fall, it's falling day-by-day, and, amazingly, this week it's barely ahead of what it was one month ago after the magazine had shut down completely. As for us, many new opportunities are arising, we don't know how much longer we will do this, but please, keep on coming!

Jenny Taken For Ride

NYT just posted first review of memoir by Gov. Mark Sanford's wife, Jenny, which had been embargoed. Janet Maslin writes:

That Ms. Sanford and her support squad could laugh together (and make “hiking the Appalachian Trail” jokes, referring to the most famous whopper associated with the governor’s furtive trip to Argentina) says a lot about her ability to weather a crisis. Governor Sanford’s first move after the news conference says a lot about his. As “Staying True” reports, he was on the phone to his wife as soon as the cameras were off, and he had quite a question for her: “How’d I do?”

In the weird bubble inhabited by infantilized politicians — a place that is becoming more and more familiar as their partners’ and co-conspirators’ memoirs come down the pike — this was not even an unreasonable question. Mark Sanford had relied on his wife of 20 years for professional and moral support, even if his reasons for recruiting her services were not always the most noble. “But you’re free,” he once pointed out, explaining why she should run his first Congressional campaign. He wasn’t referring to her uncluttered schedule.

Click Through, Indeed

Ad Age reports: 1 in 4 click away from videos if ads load first.

'Parade' Marches On, Without Editor

Janice Kaplan exits the magazine suddenly, pushed or jumped?

A 'Soloist' No Longer

At E&P, I assigned early on a piece about Steve Lopez, the L.A. Times columnist who was writing about a gifted, homeless classical musician he had found on the local Skid Row. He turned it into a book, The Soloist, which became a 2009 movie starring Jamie Foxx as the musician, Nathaniel Ayers, and Robert Downey Jr. as Lopez. I posted numerous Web stories and blog items about all of that, plus the movie trailer and so on.

Today, Lopez writes that "Mr. Ayers" as he calls him has gone into the studio to cut his first CD, with the help of two players from the L.A. Philharmonic -- and Flea, from the Red Hot Chili Peppers. There's even a video. Lopez writes:

I picked him up on skid row and packed his bass, cello, violin, guitar, trumpet and flute into my car. He left his viola, French horn, keyboards and trombone in his room, perhaps saving them for his second CD.

On the way to Silver Lake, Mr. Ayers was nervous but game. He wanted to know how the day would play out, and I reminded him there was no strategy other than for him to jam on as many instruments as he cared to play. Steven Argila, a pianist and owner of the studio, had met Mr. Ayers before and was ready to go with the flow, and the same was true of Stephen Krause, the recording engineer.

Bass player Flea and drummer Scott Gold, my mate at The Times, beat us to the studio. I think it's fair to say Mr. Ayers had never met anyone named Flea at Juilliard, but musicians are musicians, and they were all playing together before long.

Matthew Broderick Pilots a Newspaper

As our own Joe Strupp notes today at his personal blog, Matthew Broderick is set to star in a TV pilot set in a newspaper office out in the Hamptons, Newsday reports. Broderick and wife Sarah Jessica Parker have a home nearby. Excerpt:

NBC has ordered "Beach Lane," a pilot starring Matthew Broderick, which is significant news in itself because Mr. Broadway (Bloom, of "The Producers," of course, and so much more) has avoided TV for most of his career.

But this one will be produced by another legend, Lorne Michaels, who lured Broderick, however briefly, to "30 Rock" a couple seasons ago.

Marci Klein, who runs Michaels' production company, could not be reached Tuesday. But the Hollywood Reporter noted that on "Beach Lane," Broderick would play a "celebrity author" who is retained by a millionaire to run a struggling Hamptons newspaper.

Independent Thinking

If you have ever thought of starting an indy news site--or joining one--here's a revealing post at NiemanLab on how the folks behind The Washington Independent raised $11.5 million.

Hitting Packer's Tweet Spot

NYT biz/tech writer Nick Bilton hits writer George Packer for his recent anti-Twitter piece in the New Yorker, noting, among others things, it was a case of don't knock if you ain't tried it. Excerpt:

Most importantly, Twitter is transforming the nature of news, the industry from which Mr. Packer reaps his paycheck. The news media are going through their most robust transformation since the dawn of the printing press, in large part due to the Internet and services like Twitter. After this metamorphosis takes place, everyone will benefit from the information moving swiftly around the globe.

You can see that change beginning to take place. During the protests in Iran last year, when ordinary Iranians shared information through Twitter about the government atrocities taking place. That supplemented the reporting by professional journalists, who faced restrictions on their movements and coverage. More recently, after the earthquake in Haiti, Twitter helped spread information about donation efforts, connected people to their loved ones, and of course, spread news from inside the country — news that reprinted in this publication.

Finally, there’s the filtering, entertainment and serendipitous value of these services, as I outlined in a previous post.

Wednesday Linkage

WSJ online free today, thanks to sponsorship by Acura.

Rupert Murdoch hails profits (and now helped by Avatar) but declares that content truly is king.

Ken Doctor with interesting new book on news outlet challenges titled "Newsonomics."

Are FT advertisers being charged for impressions even when users run into paywall?

Web Counting: The Good, The Bad and the Huh?

The Newspaper Association of America produced a new report on latest numbers on traffic at newspaper sites. It mixes the good -- one in three supposedly go to these sites -- with the bad -- traffic appears to be slowing or declining. But this is based all on Nielsen Online numbers, and when I was editor at E&P -- which was owned by The Nielsen Co. before heading out to sea-- I always insisted on generous take-with-grain-of-salt warnings with our monthly reports on these numbers. Other number crunchers vary, and also are not necessarily correct, but it's impossible to get a firm grip on all this. The Nielsen numbers are further hard to judge since they've lately increased the size of their panels (after much criticism) so comparisons to last year's numbers are shaky. UPDATE: Commenter to this post hits E&P's take on NAA report. -- Greg Mitchell

Ready, Aim, Charge!

Richard Perez-Pena just out at NYT site with new take on news outlets "ready" to charge for online access. It focuses on the Steve Brill/Gordon Crovitz consortium, and visits a couple of small papers ready to take the plunge, including one in Lancaster, Pa. and the Web site Global Post out of Boston. Excerpt:

Specifically, head to the offices of The Intelligencer Journal-Lancaster New Era , one of the first handful of news outlets to acknowledge in interviews that it intends, in the next few months, to start using a software system developed by the entrepreneurs Steven Brill, L. Gordon Crovitz and their partners, which they are calling Press+. Others interested include The Fayetteville Observer in North Carolina and Global Post, an Internet site based in Boston.

A very small number of news organizations, including The Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times and Newsday, already charge online readers, each with a system developed largely in-house, and The New York Times announced recently that it planned to do the same. But with advertising plummeting, many other publishers eager for a new source of revenue are considering making the switch, despite the risk of losing audience and advertising.

Last year, Mr. Brill and company seized on that interest, founding their operation, Journalism Online, with the aim of developing a highly flexible system that would become the industry standard, and keeping 20 percent of their client’s online revenue as their fee

.

Winter Wonderland

AP announces its coverage plans for Olympics, including daily Web cast, much more.

Super, Man

What, dat? NYT sports reporters offer their views on who will win Super Bowl in new video.

Second Thoughts

Reuters distributed a story yesterday on worrisome new "back door taxes" under Obama. Naturally it showed up at the top of the Drudge Report. Now Reuters has pulled the story, promising something different later in the week.

Tuesday Morning Links

Allen Mutter wisely throws some cold water on hoo-ha over Gannett announcing profits yesterday -- it's mainly due to cost-cutting and there's little left to cut. May be "leaner" but not "stronger."

NY Daily News gets first look at book by Gov. Mark Sanford's estranged wife.

Print classified down 70% in 10 years. Ouch.

Wash Post gives op-ed space to suspended NBA star Gilbert "Guns In The" Arena.

Toyota runs full-page newspapers ads on current recall for 2nd straight day.

Fun fact: This week is allegedly the 113th anniversary of the term "yellow journalism" first used in print.

Colbert, Harold Ford and a Certain 'Young Lady'

Stephen last week mocked the former Tennessee congressman for considering run for Senate in NY -- and allegedly changing positions -- so last night brought him on to give him a chance to respond. Colbert actually grilled him again and Ford may have made things worse by calling the incumbent, Kristin Gillibrand, a "young lady" -- she is 44 and he is 40.
Harold Ford Jr.

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
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Colbert Report Full Episodes Political Humor Economy

Elevator Mystic

A group of journalists got stuck in an elevator at the NYT building tonight. TV pro Ann Curry tweeted while inside and hailed her colleagues, such as NYT's Jennifer Preston -- and now video has been posted.