Mediagazer: Can Anyone Replace the Local Beat Reporter? (Conor Friedersdorf/The Atlantic Online)

12:15 PM ET, June 19, 2010

Top News:

Conor Friedersdorf / The Atlantic Online:

Can Anyone Replace the Local Beat Reporter? — I'd like to repeat a story I sometimes tell about the importance of local journalism. It begins in 2003, when I worked as the Inland Valley Daily Bulletin's beat reporter for Rancho Cucamonga (population 150,000), an affluent commuter suburb about an hour east of downtown Los Angeles.

Kevin Roderick / LA Observed:
Big problems at L.A. Times this morning **

Discussion: Romenesko, L.A. NOW and Readers' Representative …

Neil Swidey / Boston Globe:

Inside the mind of the anonymous online poster — These users comment on everything from today's news to hotel rooms. Many are harmless. But some are ruthless. Who are they exactly, and why do they do what they do? — On Monday, May 17, at 2 p.m., a breaking news article headlined …

Discussion: Romenesko and Universal Hub

MediaPost:

Mobile Search Ads Will Follow Queries — Mobile search has long been considered a can't-miss proposition because search is a natural fit with on-the-go users looking for information. With its Android mobile operating system, the launch of its own smartphone and other mobile services, Google is clearly betting big on mobile search.

Discussion: CyberJournalist.net

Martin Naylor / Media Week:

Telegraph Media Group appoints first director of mobile — Telegraph Media Group (TMG) has appointed former Associated executive Mark Challinor as its first director of mobile. — Mark Challinor: joins TMG as director of mobile — From July, Challinor will work across the company …

Discussion: paidContent:UK

Roy Greenslade / Guardian:

Lebedev to give SoE conference lecture — Alexander Lebedev is to kick off the Society of Editors (SoE) conference in Glasgow in November by delivering the annual lecture. — The owner of the London Evening Standard and the two Independent titles is likely to choose press freedom as his theme.

Discussion: Society Of Editors, Journalism.co.uk, Jon Slattery and Press Gazette

Felix Salmon:

The NYT doesn't care about posting primary documents — The NYT has a clear policy when it comes to primary sources — if you're writing about a certain document, then you should link to it, if it's online. Increasingly, the NYT's journalists are actually doing that.

Discussion: Techdirt

Zeke Turner / New York Observer:

Thomson Reuters Smells a Rat — During a global real estate summit hosted by Thomson Reuters this week, two men in rat costumes pretending to be the company's CEO Tom Glocer and divisional CEO Devin Wenig interviewed people on the street about the company's alleged illegal pay cuts and use …

Gawker:

Wired, Wikileaks and the Hacker-Journalist Complex — On June 6th, Wired.com published a report that military intelligence analyst Bradley Manning had been arrested for allegedly leaking the famous 2007 Apache helicopter attack video to Wikileaks. Now Wikileaks and others are questioning Wired's involvement in the story.

Discussion: Salon and CJR

Joe Pompeo / The Wire:

5 Staffers Flee Newsweek, Hedge-Funder Phil Falcone May Be Trying To Buy It (WPO) — All's been quiet on the Newsweek front recently, but here are a few interesting developments. — By our count, five staffers have left Newsweek since The Washington Post Co. announced on May 5 that it was putting …

Discussion: CHINAdaily and FishbowlNY

V. Michael Bove, Jr. / Nieman Reports:

The Future of Storytelling: A Participatory Endeavor — For 25 years the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab has been at the forefront of exploring how technology can enhance communication and storytelling. V. Michael Bove, Jr., a principal research scientist …

Evelyn Rusli / TechCrunch:

Does The iPad Change Everything? Publishers Chime In — We've fiercely debated the merits of the iPad (here and here and here and here) and whether Apple's “magical” device will transform the mass market. The question, of course, is not whether the iPad is the leader in the tablet market …

Discussion: DailyFinance, 9 to 5 Mac and Garcia Media

Financial Times:

AOL — It's reassuring to have prejudices confirmed; politicians are corrupt, blondes have more fun, and AOL is hopeless. The former internet giant on Thursday confirmed the sale of Bebo - a social networking site bought for $850m in 2008 - but did not disclose the likely nominal sale price.

Jon Bershad / Mediaite:

How The Most Expensive Penis Joke Ever Killed Gothamist - Rainbow Deal — The multi-million dollar deal for Rainbow media to buy Gothamist and its family of local city blogs has fallen apart and, yesterday, the Village Voice wrote a post theorizing that most of the blame fell on an article …

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and New York Magazine