Mediagazer: Is investigative journalism still “sexy” 40 years after Watergate? (Emma Knight/Editors Weblog)

2:55 AM ET, June 17, 2012

Top News:

Who jumped first from the newspaper sinking ship? — When did the ripe, bulbous, and gibbous newspaper bubble pop? — It was probably in the 1990s, when the business better resembled a cruising blimp than it did the dotcoms like Pets.com, Boo.com, and TheGlobe.com, which all went kerblewy around the turn of the century.

Discussion: TeleRead

Jason Boog / GalleyCat:

eBook Revenues Top Hardcover — Net sales revenue from eBooks have surpassed hardcover books in the first quarter of 2012. — According to the March Association of American Publishers (AAP) net sales revenue report (collecting data from 1,189 publishers), adult eBook sales were $282.3 million …

Discussion: TeleRead, TechCrunch, AppNewser and mediabistro.com

Steve Outing:

In defense of fewer print editions — So much has been written about the New Orleans Times-Picayune cutting back to three days a week for print publication (and laying off a bunch of employees in the “digital-first” transition) that I hesitated adding to the word onslaught.

Discussion: Poynter, Gambit New Orleans News …, GigaOM and New Orleans Times-Picayune

Steve Myers / Poynter:
What the future of news looks like in Alabama after Advance cuts staff by 400

Thanks:@myersnews

Rex Hammock / Rex Hammock's RexBlog.com:

How many curators does it take to curate a story about lightbulbs? — The concept of media curation has been around a long time. How long? Well, I can at least date it back to August of 2007, as that's when I registered the domain CurationMedia.com, an address that re-directs to Hammock.com.

Discussion: Poynter

Adam Schweigert:

Towards a Better Definition of Curation in Journalism — The role of the curator in journalism has become intertwined with the notion of aggregation: collecting information from various sources and piecing it together into a (hopefully, more or less) coherent whole.

Howard Finberg / Poynter:

Journalism education cannot teach its way to the future — As we think about the changes whipping through the media industry, there is a nearby storm about to strike journalism education. — The future of journalism education will be a very different and difficult future, a future that is full of innovation and creative disruption.

Discussion: The Changing Newsroom and @jayrosen_nyu

Andrew Phelps / Nieman Journalism Lab:

Reporters' Lab seeks a new boss as Sarah Cohen moves on — Sarah Cohen, director of Duke University's still-pretty-new Reporters' Lab at Duke University, says the project will remain active after she takes a new reporting job at The New York Times on Aug. 1.

Emma Knight / Editors Weblog:

Is investigative journalism still “sexy” 40 years after Watergate? — “Investigative reporting became sexy after Watergate,” wrote Alicia Shepard, media consultant for the News Literacy Project, in The New York Times' Room for Debate forum on the lasting effects of the scandal, published yesterday.

Adam L. Penenberg / Fast Company:

Laurel Touby's Mediabistro Mediapivot — How a freelance writer turned organizing parties into a business she went on to sell for $23 million. The 6th in our Pivot series. — Most journalists know Mediabistro as a freelancer's resource, a place to scour job boards or enroll in classes …

Peter Kafka / AllThingsD:

Apple Gives Podcasts a Gentle Push Out of iTunes — Podcasts were supposed to be a big deal several years ago, but that boom never happened. Now there's at least anecdotal evidence that the format is actually picking up steam, as creators, listeners and advertisers warm to the format.

Discussion: PC Magazine, Softpedia News, MacRumors, VentureBeat, The Verge, Podcasting News, MacStories, WebProNews, Macgasm, @tcarmody, Engadget, The Next Web, TUAW, 9to5Mac and App Advice

Andrew Beaujon / Poynter:

Warren Buffett's Buffalo News to erect paywall — “Trusted, credible and enterprising news gathering by 140 professional journalists doesn't come cheap, nor should it,” Buffalo News Editor Margaret Sullivan writes in announcing a digital subscription plan coming this fall.

Discussion: Buffalo News and Artvoice Daily

Keenan Steiner / Sunlight Foundation Reporting Group:

Time Warner Cable posts its political file online, so why the fuss, NAB? — If posting already-public information on political ad spending is so damaging to broadcasters, as the National Association of Broadcasters argues, then why has one of the country's biggest cable providers been doing it since 2010?

Michael Massing / CJR:

How far can CNN sink? — How far can CNN sink? — In April, CNN recorded its lowest monthly ratings in more than 10 years. In May, it recorded its lowest monthly primetime ratings in more than 20 years. It's now regularly eclipsed not only by Fox News (long the leader in cable news) but also by MSNBC.

Discussion: Mediaite