Mediagazer: Journalists call for independent investigation of Protess controversy at Medill (Jim Romenesko/Poynter)

9:05 PM ET, April 27, 2011

Top News:

Julie Moos / Poynter:

Factchecking Obama: Birther controversy was 4% of newshole, not ‘dominant’ story — In a news conference called Wednesday morning to resolve the controversy over where he was born, President Barack Obama showed his recently-released long-form birth certificate and criticized not only 'birthers …

Discussion: The Huffington Post, Journalism.org, Mediaite, doublex.com, New York Times, The New Yorker Blog, TVNewser, Salon, Political Punch, The Wire and Pajamas Media

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

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

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

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

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, Jon Slattery and Journalism.co.uk

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.

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

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.

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

AP Interactive visualizes a future of stories that reach beyond text — Over the past two years, the Associated Press has nearly doubled the number of interactive graphics it produces each month, jumping from 40 in 2009 to over 70 so far in 2011. On the surface, that increase is logical almost …

Discussion: eMedia Vitals

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

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

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

David Kaplan / paidContent:

Is The Mag Recovery Over? Meredith Profits, Revenues Drop On Ad Pullback — While newspapers' ad revenues continue to be depressed at the major publishers, magazines have tended to keep their collective head above water. But an advertising pullback has caused women's magazine publisher Meredith Corp. …

Discussion: MediaPost and FishbowlNY

Gabriel Snyder / The Atlantic Wire:

Malcolm Gladwell: What I Read — How do other people deal with the torrent of information that pours down on us all? Do they have some secret? Perhaps. We are asking various people who seem well-informed to describe their media diets. Malcolm Gladwell, author of The Tipping Point …

Discussion: FishbowlNY and The Atlantic Wire, Thanks:deliacabe

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: ABC News and AdAge

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 …

Dan Duray / New York Observer:

What's an Out-of-Work Ethicist to Do? Randy Cohen Seeks Refuge on the Airwaves — Randy Cohen received the news that The New York Times Magazine would continue the Ethicist without him from Hugo Lindgren himself. Mr. Cohen had been edited by Mr. Lindgren and called it …

Discussion: New York Magazine and FishbowlNY

New York Times:

In WikiLeaks' Growth, Some Control Is Lost — WikiLeaks, the Web site responsible for publicizing millions of state secrets in the last year, has tried to pick its media partners carefully. But the site has become such a large player in journalism that some of its secrets are no longer its own to control.

Discussion: Runnin' Scared and http://www.Stinkyjournalism …

Ellie Behling / eMedia Vitals:

Bloomberg updates social media policy: Ask first. Tweet later. — Bloomberg's new social media policy encourages reporters to use Twitter — but with stipulations. It might seem like an obvious move for a news organization these days, but some traditional outlets, including Bloomberg, have managed to hold off until now.

Discussion: Poynter, FishbowlNY and @jayrosen_nyu

Liz Gannes / NetworkEffect:

YouTube Founders Are Back, and Have Bought Delicious From Yahoo — YouTube co-founders Chad Hurley and Steve Chen are preparing a triumphant return to tech, launching a new Internet company called AVOS out of their old stomping ground in San Mateo, Calif. — Their first move is not an obvious one …

Discussion: TechCrunch, blog.delicious.com, AVOS, New York Times, paidContent, Yodel Anecdotal, ReadWriteWeb, @hornokplease, VentureBeat, Epicenter and DealBook, more at Techmeme »

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?

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.

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.

Discussion: Adweek

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 and Daily Mail

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: SAI, more at Techmeme »