Mediagazer: What New Orleans Can Expect When Its Newspaper Goes Away (Micheline Maynard/Forbes)

9:45 AM ET, May 24, 2012

Top News:

New Orleans Paper Said to Face Deep Cuts and May Cut Back Publication — The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which distinguished itself amid great adversity during Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath, is about to enact large staff cuts and may cut back its daily print publishing schedule …

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM, The Huffington Post, Poynter, Guardian, NetNewsCheck Latest, CJR, @the_gambit, @michaelroston, @bmccarthytp, @toffleresque, @the_gambit, @the_gambit, @lizzieohreally, @elgray and @ryanchittum

Kevin Allman / The Gambit:

Times-Picayune employees in shock as extent of Newhouse cuts begins to emerge — Tonight, in private homes, on porches and at least one bar, employees of The Times-Picayune gathered to collectively absorb the shock of a New York Times report that the paper is about to undergo a massive restructuring …

Micheline Maynard / Forbes:

What New Orleans Can Expect When Its Newspaper Goes Away — The news is spreading here in New Orleans and across the journalism world: the fabled Times-Picayune, as we all know it, may cease to exist. — Visitors tour Hurricane Katrina front pages from The Times-Picayune newspaper …

Discussion: Rehak/Stuebing Mostly Media

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Amazon bans Kindle Store spam (finally) — Amazon is finally banning some of the junkier content in the Kindle Store, including “content that is freely available on the web unless you are the copyright owner of that content.” — The company is making new rules on public domain and “other non-exclusive content.”

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Survey: NPR's listeners best-informed, Fox viewers worst-informed — People who watch no news at all can answer more questions about international current events than people who watch cable news, a survey by Fairleigh Dickinson University's PublicMind finds.

Discussion: Mediaite, The Media Machine, Erik Wemple, Hit & Run and The Huffington Post

Gordon Rayner / Telegraph:

Leveson Inquiry: DCMS exchanged 799 texts with News Corp during BskyB bid — Between June 2010, when the bid was announced, and July 2011, when it was abandoned because of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal, Mr Michel also exchanged 191 telephone calls and 158 emails with Mr Hunt's department …

Discussion: @arusbridger, @rosschawkins, Guido Fawkes and London Evening Standard

Josh Halliday / Guardian:
Leveson inquiry: Hunt's permanent secretary to appear on Friday

Discussion: Press Gazette and Guardian

David Kravets / Wired:

New York Legislation Would Ban Anonymous Online Speech — Did you hear the one about the New York state lawmakers who forgot about the First Amendment in the name of combating cyberbullying and “baseless political attacks”? — Proposed legislation in both chambers would require New York-based websites …

Discussion: ThinkProgress, CNET, @anonyops, @jimgiles, Guardian, The Atlantic Wire, The Daily Caller, Mediaite, Betabeat, Mashable!, Runnin' Scared, Gothamist, Techdirt, NYConvergence.com, New York Magazine and Digital Trends

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Why rich people are investing in newspapers, again — In March, Chris Hughes paid around $5 million for a majority share of The New Republic. On Sunday The New York Times reported he'd be doubling the magazine's staff and hiring former editor Franklin Foer to edit the magazine once again.

Discussion: Publishing Executive …

Christine Haughney / New York Times:

Time and Newsweek Magazine Covers Catch Eyes and Clicks — Who knew there could be so much controversy left in the subject of breast-feeding? — The recent Time magazine cover featuring an attractive 26-year-old mother suckled by her 3-year-old son — with the headline “Are You Mom Enough?”

Discussion: magCulture.com/blog

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

Esquire to Publish E-Books Devoted to Men's Fiction — That creaky label “women's fiction” tends to conjure up images of novels about family, career or relationships. But men's fiction? — Esquire magazine will try to define it in June with a new push into publishing fiction …

Discussion: New York Magazine and The Huffington Post

Michael Miner / Chicago Reader:

Wrapports buys the Reader — Wrapports LLC, the collection of high-flying investors who own the Sun-Times and Sun-Times Media, have added the Reader to their stable, buying this 41-year-old weekly-which the Wrapports news release chooses to call “iconic”—for slightly under $3 million.

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:
It's official: Chicago Reader sold to Sun-Times parent

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, Chicago Sun Times and The Huffington Post

Kara Swisher / AllThingsD:

This Was Inevitable: Huffington Post + Oprah Coming — While it might seem as though Web content queen Arianna Huffington could soon launch a moon edition of her eponymous Huffington Post — perhaps HuffPo Lunar — the AOL-owned unit's next effort will be an Oprah Winfrey section on the huge online publishing platform.

Discussion: mediabistro.com, NetNewsCheck Latest, Media & Entertainment, MediaPost, FishbowlLA, Adweek, FishbowlNY and The Huffington Post

Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:

Apple: U.S. e-book lawsuit “fundamentally flawed” — (Reuters) - Apple Inc is rejecting charges that it conspired to fix prices of electronic books, calling the U.S. government's antitrust lawsuit a “fundamentally flawed” endeavor that could discourage competition and harm consumers.

Discussion: CNET, 9to5Mac and GigaOM

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

Hachette is offering new e-books to some libraries — Hachette, which has not made new e-books available to libraries since 2010, is reconsidering the idea. In a pilot program starting this spring (which is...now?), the publisher is working with two e-book distributors to bring a …

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Katharine Zaleski leaves Washington Post — Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli announced to staff today that Katharine Zaleski, the Washington Post's executive director of digital news, will be leaving the news organization to join Planet Daily, where she'll be managing editor.

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest, @buzzfeedben and Betabeat

Jim Romenesko:

Larry Platt resigns as Philadelphia Daily News editor — Philadelphia Daily News editor Larry Platt says he's leaving the paper after just a year and a half. “I never looked at this gig as a long-term play for me,” he tells his staff. Larry Platt “I have long loved the Daily News …

Discussion: Politico, Off Mic, @ckrewson and Philly.com