Mediagazer: Major Newspaper Chain Goes Open Source (Curt Hopkins/ReadWriteWeb)

11:00 AM ET, July 5, 2010

Top News:

Jeff Jarvis / BuzzMachine:

Independence day for newspapers — Today Journal Register, a newspaper company, declared its freedom from old publishing methods and old journalistic methods. The company's 18 dailies published today, July 4, using nothing but free, web-based tools. And they involved their communities in their journalism in new ways.

Discussion: Common Sense Journalism, Journalism.co.uk, Terry Heaton's PoMo Blog and Digital First

Curt Hopkins / ReadWriteWeb:

Major Newspaper Chain Goes Open Source — The argument over the utility of open source has one more voter in the yes camp. This time, it's the Journal Register Company, a U.S. newspaper chain with 170 publications. — Calling it the Ben Franklin Project, the company tried open source for a month.

Discussion: Journal Register Company and The Solomon Scandals

Jeremy W. Peters / New York Times:

At Yahoo, Using Queries to Steer News Coverage — Welcome to the era of the algorithm as editor. — For as long as hot lead has been used to make metal type, the model for generating news has been top-down: editors determined what information was important and then shared it with the masses.

Discussion: New York Observer, Editors Weblog, Techie Buzz and The Wall Blog, more at Techmeme »

John Markoff / New York Times:

Taking the Mystery Out of Web Anonymity — THE Obama Administration is trying to fix the Internet's dog problem. — The problem, as depicted in Peter Steiner's legendary 1993 New Yorker cartoon, is that on the Internet nobody knows you're a dog. And thus the enduring conundrum over who can be trusted in cyberspace.

Discussion: Kirk LaPointe's …

David Carr / New York Times:

The Media Equation: For Blogger, ‘Outspoken’ Was a Selling Point, Till It Wasn't — Wanted: Political blogger covering the conservative movement. Must be provocative and write with a strong point of view although not in a way that would reveal bias or offend any of your potential subjects.

Discussion: Washington Post

Mark Fitzgerald / EditorandPublisher.com:

None Dare Call Them ‘Newspapers’: Canwest Chain to be ‘Postmedia Network Inc.’ — CHICAGO — Canwest Limited Partnership LLC never exactly screamed “newspaper company,” but when the sale closes of the publishing group that includes the National Post, Ottawa Citizen and Vancouver Sun …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

Jeremy W. Peters / Media Decoder:

On The Economist's Cover, Only a Part of the Picture — It was the ideal metaphor for a politically troubled president. — There was President Obama on the cover of the June 19 issue of The Economist, standing alone on a Louisiana beach, head down, looking forlornly at the ground.

Discussion: Silicon Alley Insider

Margaret Simons / Crikey:

Fairfax at the crossroads — McCarthy v Matthews — Things are coming to a head, at last, in the ongoing confusion and flailing around at Fairfax Media. Whether this results in any brave new direction for the company remains to be seen. — For the last couple of months the Fairfax board …

The Huffington Post:

Howard Kurtz Takes On Politico's Patrick Gavin (VIDEO) — Washington Post writer and host of CNN's “Reliable Sources” Howard Kurtz takes on Politico's Patrick Gavin Sunday. — Kurtz responds to Gavin's column criticizing him for booking the same cast of characters on “Reliable Sources.”

Discussion: Gawker

Kevin / Strange Attractor:

Honesty in the age of the paywall — After months of discussion and speculation, The Times and The Sunday Times have disappeared behind a paywall or have asked their readers to pay for the journalism that they value, depending on which side of an almost religious divide you fall on.

Paul Thomasch / Reuters:

At Sun Valley, brighter moods may not mean big deals — (Reuters) - As Rupert Murdoch, Bob Iger and other media honchos assemble in Sun Valley next week for some fly-fishing or white water rafting, spirits should be brighter than a year ago: stock prices are up by about a third, after all.

Kal Penn / The Huffington Post:

The “Hilarious” Xenophobia of Time's Joel Stein — I want to applaud Joel Stein for his hilarious account of Edison, New Jersey in his Time magazine article this week, “My Own Private India”; it is as unique and groundbreaking as Thomas Alva himself. — Were it not for the intelligent …