Mediagazer: The Sometimes Picayune — Want to damage New Orleans (again)? (Harry Shearer/CJR)

4:25 PM ET, June 7, 2012

Top News:

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

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

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 and GigaOM

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

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: FishbowlNY

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 and Politico

Dylan Byers / Politico:
New York Times responds to John Kerry

Discussion: Gawker, Daily Kos and The Huffington Post

Dylan Byers / Politico: Kerry questions NYT decision to run stories

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

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

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

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, New York Post and Gothamist

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Oliver North uses Maureen Dowd plagiarism defense — Fox News Insider took down Oliver North's Memorial Day column last month after NYU journalism professor Michael Norman complained that it contained a passage lifted verbatim from his memoir. — Some classic Fox editorial moves followed, Paul Farhi reports:

Discussion: Erik Wemple, Mediaite, JIMROMENESKO.COM, Washington Post and The Huffington Post

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: Politico, Mediaite, The Huffington Post and New York Times

Joe Pompeo / Capital New York:

The ‘Times’ shuffles the deck, again, on the education beat — The journalists who produce The New York Times' education report have seen a fair amount of change in recent months. In February, Jodi Rudoren, the paper's education editor at the time, accepted a new post: To take the place of Ethan Bronner as Jerusalem bureau chief.

Jim Romenesko:

Winners of Livingston Awards announced — The Livingston Awards go to journalists under the age of 35. The prize is $10,000. This year's winners: * Local reporting. Andrew McLemore, 25, of The Williamson County (Texas) Sun for “Until Proven Innocent.” * National reporting.