Mediagazer: Why newspaper ad sales are not recovering (Newsosaur/Reflections of a Newsosaur)

4:55 AM ET, April 28, 2011

Top News:

Brian Stelter / New York Times:

In Trying to Debunk a Theory, the News Media Extended Its Life — The facts about Barack Obama's birth never wavered. But the more the fraudulent theories were debated and dispelled in major news media outlets, the more people seemed to believe them. — The conspiracy theories …

Discussion: The New Yorker Blog

Julie Moos / Poynter:
Factchecking Obama: Birther controversy was 4% of newshole, not ‘dominant’ story

Discussion: Journalism.org, Online NewsHour, Democracy in America, TVNewser, New York Times, The Huffington Post, Mediaite, doublex.com, The Wire, Colorlines and Pajamas Media

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
Obama Scolds Media For Focusing On Birthers

Discussion: Journalism.org, FrumForum, Z on TV, @davidfolkenflik, Pajamas Media, Political Punch, Yahoo! News, TVWeek.com and The Wire

Associated Press:
Obama releases birth form, decries ‘silliness’

Discussion: New York Times, Mediaite, White House.gov Blog, Guardian, Hit & Run, New York Magazine, The Politico, The Politico, The Raw Story, Pajamas Media, Mediaite, The Wire, Seattle Times, Runnin' Scared, MediaMemo, The Maddow Blog, The Wire and New York Observer

Joel Meares / CJR:

The Royals Ban Satirical Coverage of Kate and Wills' Big Day — A video feed rule change and CJR's call for a royal boycott — Finally, CJR finds a Royal Wedding angle. — It comes to us all the way from Sydney, Australia, where the national broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Network …

Discussion: Crikey, ABC News, AdAge, Sydney Morning Herald and The Daily Beast

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

How the AP will cover the Royal Wedding — “Friday is royal wedding day in London and our report will look a little different,” says a memo to Associated Press staff. “The Associated Press will be alerting every development, running live video in SD and HD, tweeting and posting on Facebook …

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Want to keep mobile users engaged longer? Just add audio — NPR's iPhone, iPad, and Android apps have together surpassed five million downloads, an impressive number — but most of their users never stream audio. When they do listen, however, they are far more engaged.

Discussion: MediaPost and eMedia Vitals

Newsosaur / Reflections of a Newsosaur:

Why newspaper ad sales are not recovering — Nearly two years after the U.S. economy began climbing out of the worst recession since the 1930s, advertising sales at newspapers have yet to hit bottom. — Now, the question haunting every newspaper executive is: How low will they go?

Discussion: SEO Book.com

Katie Feola / Adweek:

The New York Times Has Not Sunk...Yet Sulzberger talks up company at annual meeting — NEW YORK—At the New York Times Company's annual meeting here on Wednesday, company chairman Arthur Sulzberger Jr. did his best to keep the focus on the flagship paper's high quality journalism.

Discussion: FishbowlNY

Jim Romenesko / Poynter:

Journalists call for independent investigation of Protess controversy at Medill — Romenesko Misc. — The 35 people who signed the statement say they “are deeply concerned about what appears to be a retaliatory — campaign by law enforcement authorities and Northwestern University …

Joshua Benton / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Jesse Thorn on making your own thing in public radio (while still being able to feed your family) — Two years ago, I did an interview with Jesse Thorn, the host of the public radio program The Sound of Young America and, to my mind, one of the most interesting entrepreneurs in public media today.

Yvette Kantrow / The Huffington Post:

The Maginot Media — Nearly three years after the financial world imploded, the business media is still operating under a cloud of shame for failing to sound the alarm that the end was near. The press, the story goes, should have warned us sooner that real estate was a bubble …

Kara Swisher / BoomTown:

Ahead of Earnings Next Week, Demand Media Shares Drastic Dip Due to Googley Panda-Monium — April showers bring...well, a bad month for the still-young stock of online content maker Demand Media. — After a successful IPO in January, shares of the Santa Monica, Calif. …

Laurie Sullivan / MediaPost:

Google Experiments With News, Acquires Mobile Start-up — Google has been testing a new format for its News page. This design gets a little more social by displaying expandable sections with related stories about the subject, highlighting movable modules.

Jeffrey Benzing / American Journalism Review:

On the Front Lines — Former TBD.com honcho Jim Brady is helping the Journal Register Company reinvent itself for the digital age. Posted: Wed, April 27, 2011 — Jeffrey Benzing (jbenzing@ajr.umd.edu) is an AJR editorial assistant. — They're building Thunderdome.

Alex Sherman / Bloomberg:

Comcast in Talks to Offer On-Demand Movies 6 to 8 Weeks After Theaters — Comcast Corp. (CMCSA), the largest U.S. cable-television company, is in talks with Hollywood movie studios to show some films on demand six to eight weeks after their theatrical release, a Comcast executive said.

Discussion: Deadline.com, Company Town and MediaPost

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Journalism Gets Better the More People Who Do It — New York University journalism professor Jay Rosen has written a blog post in which he describes the central lessons about the craft that he has tried to convey to students in the 25 years he has been teaching, and one of the main lessons is that …

Discussion: The Buttry Diary, Thanks:magtweets

Kevin Ryan / AdAge:

Will Google's Search Ad Previews Break The Click? — Probably Not, But Big Adjustments Lie Ahead For Search Advertisers — Search ad formats are in a constant state of motion. Since sponsored ads first appeared on the scene, tweaks to how ads appear and what makes people click have kept marketers on their toes.

Michael Arrington / TechCrunch:

An Update To My Investment Policy — Before TechCrunch I was an occasional angel investor, going back to the mid 1990s. I've also made investments since TechCrunch, in companies like Dogster, DanceJam, Seesmic and Daylife. Some people have seen this as a conflict of interest, which it of course is.

Discussion: Gawker and SAI, more at Techmeme »

Matt Palevsky / Poynter:

Royal Wedding ticket the latest benchmark of citizen journalism's ascendancy at CNN — A week ago, CNN announced that it will send Floridian Jason Sauter to the hottest ticket of the year, the British Royal Wedding. Sauter — who works as a guest service manager at Disney World and …

Discussion: Washington Post and mediabistro.com

Meg Pickard / Guardian:

Guardian Local - an update on the experiment — The Guardian Local pilot has taught us a lot about new models of journalism but we will soon be winding it down — We believe that journalism plays a vital role in communities, so two years ago we created the Local project.

Discussion: paidContent:UK and Jon Slattery

John Eggerton / Broadcasting & Cable:

Copps Lays Into Local News ‘Evisceration’ — FCC commish wants better and more accountable journalism — The venue was different, but the message was the same. FCC Commissioner Michael Copps, on something of a farewell tour as he wraps up his second and what he has indicated …

Discussion: FishbowlLA

Ian Burrell / The Independent:

What now for those buying anonymity? — After presenter's confession, what now for the rich and famous who have bought anonymity with super-injunctions? — Campaigners for reform of Britain's privacy laws have expressed hope that Andrew Marr's dramatic volte-face yesterday over an injunction …

Discussion: BBC