Mediagazer: Homicide Watch Venture Struggles to Survive (David Carr/New York Times)

10:40 AM ET, September 10, 2012

Top News:

Homicide Watch Venture Struggles to Survive — Journalism has a shortage of many things: capital, advertisers and, in some instances, readers. But certainly its most precious commodity is innovation. — Again and again, the business struggles to get out of the rut that put it on a road to ruin in the first place.

Discussion: Poynter, eMedia Vitals, City Desk, @rajunarisetti and @antderosa

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

US site Homicide Watch DC exceeds $40k crowdfunding target — The US site will use the funding to run Homicide Watch DC as a ‘student reporting lab’ for the next year while founder Laura Amico and her husband Chris study journalism innovation at Harvard — US crime reporting site Homicide Watch DC …

Discussion: Homicide Watch DC and @homicidewatch

Christine Haughney / Media Decoder:

Roll Call and CQ Today to Merge Into One Paper — As many Washington-area news outlets continue their hiring sprees to feed the appetite for political news, two political newspaper stalwarts, Roll Call and CQ Today, are following what recently has been a far more common path in journalism.

Discussion: Politico

Henry Blodget / Business Insider:

Destroyed By Blogs, “Variety” Magazine Will Sell For Less Than $30 Million — In case you need another example of the digital missile that has slammed into the traditional media world, check out Reed Elsevier's ongoing attempts to sell Variety magazine. — Variety, you will recall, used to rule Hollywood.

New York Post:

Penske takes inside track in Variety auction — Variety, the legendary but struggling Hollywood magazine, is still not ready for its close-up. — Reed Elsevier, looking to unload the 107-year-old title, its last remaining North American trade magazine, has been forced to cut Variety's asking price …

David Taintor / Talking Points Memo:

NY Times' Jim Roberts: ‘The Pace Of Change Gets Faster And Faster’ — Jim Roberts, an assistant managing editor at the New York Times, recently spoke to TPM about his years at the Grey Lady, his social media strategy and the impact of the paper's paywall. What's the most dramatic change you've seen in your 25 years at the Times?

Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:

Times-Picayune Is Singing the Blues to Angry Readers — As the chief architect of the plan to turn New Orleans into the biggest city in America without a daily newspaper, Ricky Mathews spent the summer having to “take the licks,” as he put it in his Mississippi twang, of a ferocious community blowback.

Discussion: Poynter and NetNewsCheck Latest

Rick Edmonds / Poynter:

Newspapers' print ad revenue losses are larger than digital ad gains by a ratio of 25 to 1 — The newspaper industry' s effort to cover print advertising losses with digital ad gains, weak in 2010 and 2011, deteriorated further in the first half of this year.

Discussion: The Newspaper Guild

Rachel McAthy / Journalism.co.uk:

Multimedia project Narratively launches and surpasses $50k funding target — The project, which this week started its daily publication of multimedia pieces, had raised $53,000 at the time of writing, with the campaign due to close later today — New York focused multimedia project Narratively …

Mark Lisheron / American Journalism Review:

On the Rebound — Things are looking up at Minneapolis' once-troubled Star Tribune, where a publisher with deep local roots believes customers will pay for news—print, online, wherever—if the paper delivers the goods. — Senior Contributing Writer Mark Lisheron (mark@texaswatchdog.org) …

Max de La Bruyere / Yale Daily News:

For Our Readers: Membis investigation complete — After the Wall Street Journal fired Liane Membis '12 in July for fabricating sources, the News opened an investigation into her work as a staff reporter for the paper between 2009 and 2010. After fact-checking her articles and contacting …

Discussion: Poynter, Talking Biz News and @romenesko

Jeff John Roberts / paidContent:

Lawyer files Hail Mary request to stop ebook pricing changes — Just days before a court ruling forces major publishers to tear up ebook contracts, a prominent attorney has asked to suspend the proceedings until an appeals court can weigh in on a price-fixing settlement between the Justice Department and three publishers.

Mathew Ingram / GigaOM:

Newspaper restructuring — think steel, cars and airlines — If there is a poster child for the “digital first” newspaper movement, it is probably Journal Register Co., which manages a chain of dailies and weeklies in the eastern U.S. John Paton took the helm as CEO after it emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 …

Discussion: Strange Attractor