Mediagazer: Why I watched a snake-handling pastor die for his faith (Lauren Pond/Washington Post)

6:45 PM ET, June 3, 2012

Top News:

My Gettysburg oration: A vision for journalism that can long endure — This is the prepared text for my June 2 keynote speech to the Pennsylvania Press Conference. I ad-libbed a bit, so this isn't exactly what I said. — I'm used to leading 90-minute workshops at conferences like this.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu

Richard Mullins / Tampa Bay Online:

Tampa Bay Times' parent, Poynter, facing financial squeeze — Newspaper no longer a ‘viable’ source for support, media institute says — TAMPA — The renowned Poynter Institute for Media Studies in St. Petersburg is turning to new funding options as officials acknowledge their traditional source …

Discussion: Poynter, Examiner, @romenesko and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Lauren Pond / Washington Post:

Why I watched a snake-handling pastor die for his faith — This is what I saw through my camera lens: Pastor Randy “Mack” Wolford, tossing and turning on the couch in his mother-in-law's West Virginia trailer, suffering from the pain of a rattlesnake bite he had received earlier in the day.

Discussion: Boing Boing and The New Yorker Blog

Jonathan Berr / InvestorPlace:

Bloomberg Can't Save New York Times Co. — Why the mayor's media company isn't the Gray Lady's answer — New York magazine's recent profile of New York Times Co. (NYSE:NYT) Chairman Arthur Sulzberger does a great job portraying the family drama and economic pressures that led to the ouster of his one-time friend CEO Janet Robinson.

Richard Nieva / Fortune:

Tim Stevens is the nicest guy in tech — Not to mention one of the most powerful. The editor in chief of Engadget plays a crucial — if not always acknowledged — role in the $190 billion consumer electronics industry. And, in a cast of blowhards and rascals, he's a different sort of editor …

Ken Doctor / Nieman Journalism Lab:

The newsonomics of majority reader revenue — Who would you rather support journalism, advertisers or readers? — It's a new question, one that made less sense to pose just three years ago. Now, though, with major shifts in the news market, it's one to think about.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Rem Rieder / American Journalism Review:

Plagiarism Is Plagiarism — I have a great deal of respect for Marvin Kalb. He had a long and illustrious career as a broadcast journalist. Since then, in a variety of roles at the Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard, he has been a formidable champion of journalism excellence.

Rosa Ramirez / MediaShift:

Tobacco Underground: A Lesson in Collaborating Across Borders — As the most high-profile international collaboration, WikiLeaks offers some interesting lessons about working with news organizations abroad. But it can be difficult to untangle those lessons from the drama that surrounded the story.

Justin Ellis / Nieman Journalism Lab:

New York Times turns readers into beta testers with Test Drive — Congratulations, New York Times readers: You can now think of yourself as beta testers. — The Times has released a new browser tool that will let readers test experimental features on NYTimes.com in real time.

Discussion: Journalism.co.uk and beta620

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

Condé Nast Finds Magazine Readership Growing Among Millennials — It's a fairly common assumption that millennials don't read print media because they're all too busy browsing blogs, clicking on Facebook links and watching YouTube videos to crack open a physical magazine.

Julie Bosman / Media Decoder:

The Return of Oprah's Book Club — Oprah Winfrey, the publishing industry's unrivaled tastemaker, will revive her popular book club next week after a two-year hiatus, promising the book business some of the sales and publicity it thought had vanished along with her weekday talk show.

Discussion: The Rumpus.net, Engadget, TVbytheNumbers, paidContent, GalleyCat, Mashable! and The Huffington Post

Jim Romenesko:

More NYT journalists ask for a fair contract — Here's the New York Newspaper Guild's fourth video featuring Times journalists appealing for a fair contract. In this one, Dan Wakin, Ralph Blumenthal, Clyde Haberman and John Schwartz “describe their devotion to The Times …

Discussion: The Huffington Post