Mediagazer: Columbia Accepts Assad Aide Who Was Helped by Barbara Walters (Amy Chozick/Media Decoder)

7:00 PM ET, June 7, 2012

Top News:

Josh Stearns / CJR:

New Orleans and the future of news — Media policy matters, and journalists ought to weigh in — Last week's announcement that the New Orleans Times-Picayune would be slashing its staff and cutting its print run to just three days a week has sparked a new round of debates about the future of news.

Discussion: American Journalism Review and Philly.com

Harry Shearer / CJR:

The Sometimes Picayune — Want to damage New Orleans (again)? Decimate its newspaper — Here, for your reading pleasure, are two familiar cliches: 1. New Orleans is a unique city. 2. The newspaper business is changing. Several days ago, when it was announced that The Times-Picayune …

Discussion: Fortune

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Don't just liquidate your newspapers — reinvent them — As newspaper owners like Newhouse-owned Advance Publications try to stem the cash flowing out of their businesses by shutting down the presses, there are a number of ways to look at their decision. On the one hand, it can be seen …

Discussion: NetNewsCheck Latest

Julie Moos / Poynter:
'I'm not going to read the paper online': New Orleans photographer documents locals reading the Times-Picayune

Discussion: TheLensNola.org and Fair Grinds

Michael Calderone / The Huffington Post:

Dean Baquet Defends New York Times Amid Leak Controversy: 'We Can't Edit A Paper For Our Critics' — NEW YORK — Dean Baquet, managing editor of The New York Times, defended his paper's national security coverage after members of Congress called for an investigation into the leaking …

Discussion: Guardian, FishbowlNY, Politico and Politico

Dylan Byers / Politico: The New York Times: Barack Obama's not leaking to us

The Huffington Post: Dianne Feinstein, Saxby Chambliss Promise To Crack Down On National Security Leaks

Jack Mirkinson / The Huffington Post:
New York Times Leak Controversy Escalates

Discussion: C-SPAN

Michael Massing / CJR:
When watchdog meets lapdog

Discussion: Poynter, The New Yorker Blog, Sunlight Foundation Blog, Politico and The Huffington Post

Adam Martin / The Atlantic Wire:

Chuck Klosterman Is The New York Times Magazine's New Ethicist — Update (2:04 p.m. EDT): Klosterman, a music and culture critic best known for his Esquire column Chuck Klosterman's America and the book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, confirmed via email that he starts his new gig this weekend.

Discussion: FishbowlNY, The Wrap, New York Magazine, The New York Observer, @felixsalmon, JIMROMENESKO.COM, The 6th Floor, New York Times, Slate, @mathewi and @max_read

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter: New York Times' new Ethicist Chuck Klosterman: 'I always prefer discussing other people's problems'

Amy Chozick / Media Decoder:

Columbia Accepts Assad Aide Who Was Helped by Barbara Walters — The young aide to President Bashar al-Assad of Syria who received an endorsement from the longtime television correspondent Barbara Walters was accepted into a prestigious graduate program at Columbia University, the school said on Thursday.

Discussion: New York Magazine, @nahaltoosi, @yousefmunayyer, @jillian_dunham, New York Post, Gothamist, Erik Wemple, Daily Mail and Guardian

Jennifer Saba / Reuters:

Analysis: In scare for newspapers, digital ad growth stalls — (Reuters) - As more newspapers cut back on print to reduce costs and focus on their websites, a troubling trend has emerged: online advertising sales are stalling. — In the first quarter, digital advertising revenue …

Discussion: Guardian, PSFK, Gannett Blog and NetNewsCheck Latest

Leonard Downie Jr / Washington Post:

Forty years after Watergate, investigative journalism is at risk — Investigative reporting in America did not begin with Watergate. But it became entrenched in American journalism — and has been steadily spreading around the world — largely because of Watergate.

Discussion: JIMROMENESKO.COM

Bloomberg:

As Tribune Nears Exit From Three-Year Bankruptcy, Big Papers Could Sell — Los Angeles Times and Chicago Tribune Most Likely to Attract ‘Vanity Buyers’ — Tribune Co. begins its last big court fight today, one of two steps remaining before the publisher exits bankruptcy into a newspaper market where values have dropped by half.

Discussion: Guardian

Michael Oneal / Chicago Tribune:
Tribune, creditors to present plan to leave bankruptcy

Discussion: L.A. NOW, LA Observed and JIMROMENESKO.COM

Emma Bazilian / Adweek:

‘Entertainment Weekly’ Cuts Staff — Time Inc.'s Entertainment Weekly has cut three editorial staffers in recent weeks, Adweek has learned. A spokeswoman said three junior-level positions were eliminated over the past six weeks and their responsibilities absorbed by existing editorial staffers.

Laura Hazard Owen / paidContent:

B&N: DOJ e-book suit endangers consumers, bookstores and copyrighted expression — In a complaint sent to the Department of Justice this morning, Barnes & Noble says that the DOJ's proposed settlement with HarperCollins, Hachette and Simon & Schuster for allegedly colluding to fix e-book prices …

Discussion: Bloomberg, Reuters, Media Decoder, Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica and Digital Book World

Dylan Byers / Politico:

Scarborough rips Times for biased coverage — Morning Joe co-host Joe Scarborough went off on the New York Times today for a front-page article in its Home section featuring neighbors' complaints about Mitt Romney's $12 million house in La Jolla, San Deigo.

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Capital New York, Politico, New York Times, The Huffington Post, The Week, Mediaite and Gawker

Economist:

Reporters without orders — Can journalism funded by private generosity compensate for the decline of the commercial kind? — from the print edition — BANDITS, terrorists, clan rivalries, lawless security forces and corrupt officials make Russia's north Caucasus the murkiest part of an often opaque country.

Discussion: @jayrosen_nyu