Well, I'm off for a few days, heading down South to Charlotte from good old New Jersey for the New Year. Updates will probably not resume until late Saturday or Sunday morning.

Enjoy the holiday, and thanks for reading. It's been a great first 11 months and 8 days for TMD, and it's exciting to look forward to what 2005 may bring!

Cheers!

DMNews.com features an article Thursday by Meg Weaver about magazine publishing, specifically about the lack of growth in the overall readership figures for the last few years - around 14, in fact, according to her stats. I have some very strong throughts on magazines, mostly surrounding monthly publications - which, I believe, are going to suffer further damage by both the increased news cycle that the Internet brings, but the availability of feature-esque stories and much shorter lead times for advertisers.

I have quite a few thoughts on this matter to share, but am still in data-gathering mode, so it'll be something to look forward to after the New Year. Feel free to drop your comments and questions on this post or in my inbox if you prefer.

Asheville's Citizen-Times has an article by Tony Kiss about the departure of Scotty Rhodarmer from the airwaves of 570 WWNC, where he had been a fixture in the mornings for forty years, and at the station for a full fifty.

Over at the Wireless Weblog, Mike Outmesguine details the tsunami relief effort he is involved in, as part of the Southern California Wireless Users Group (SOCALWUG), to bring "wireless equipment and expertise to damaged areas to help reconnect the people."

If you're interested in helping out this cause, you can reach Mike at "mo at wifi-toys.com" or voice: +1-818-889-9445 ext. 102.

For the last day and a half, I've been trying to figure out what, if any, warnings were given to the people in the various areas affected by Sunday's tsunami in southern Asia / India. As it turns out, it doesn't appear to be just as simple as a lack of "emergency broadcast system" such as the one offered in the United States. I am sure that some, though not necessarily all, of these places have some sort of media coming into them - radio, television, something. But it doesn't appear that anything got out to the people - including residents of these areas.

Alice Marshall points out a post by Mark A.R. Kleiman stating that it's not a good enough answer to say that there is no government-issued warning system in place. If there was warning - and there was, up to almost two hours in some cases - then at the very least the local/int'l media should have been notified and they could have done their best to disseminate this information throughout the populace. I wholeheartedly agree.

I promise you, a phone call from the International Tsunami Information Center saying "There's just been a Richter 9.0 quake in Sumatra and a big tsunami will hit the following places at the following times" will receive the undivided attention of any newsdesk in the world.

Indeed.

To boot, Kevin at Wizbang! writes about what allegedly happened in Thailand, where "experts" sat around trying to figure out what to do, and chose not to make a warning because they didn't want to scare tourists - just in case nothing actually happened. I understand their concern for the tourism industry, but what's worse - the egg on your face for being told you were "crying wolf" or the bodies of 60,000 (and counting) dead people, tourists or not. Every day, thousands of weather predictions are made, some more dramatic than others - do they all happen? No. Are they sometimes right? You betcha. I'd say airing on the side of caution would probably have been the smart thing to do in this case. Instead, we end up with one of those movie scenes where the government knows about the impending asteroid collision and decides not to tell anyone about it for fear of panic. Meanwhile, the panic is going to ensue once everyone sees the giant fireball approaching in the sky anyway.

[ed: If you are interested in donating to the relief efforts, Amazon.com seems to be leading the way in gathering funds. Jeff Jarvis says that when Glenn Reynolds originally posted at about 5pm Eastern time Tuesday, there were $112k in donations - then, at 8, it was about $360k. It's now $597k, with about 12,000 individual payments - they're accepting donations as low as $5.]

LGF's Charles Johnson leads us to an E&P story by Joe Strupp that discusses the lawsuit filed by eight individuals - six Navy SEALs and two of their wives - against the Associated Press on Tuesday for the use of a photograph that showed the SEALs' faces. The suit states that the AP's publishing of the photo has made their identities public - and it appears that the photo(s) were presumably used without permission after being found by a journalist on the personal website of one SEAL's wife.

The Orlando Sentinel's Hal Boedeker set off a good one in his column on Tuesday, calling NBC's "Today" show host Katie Couric "the logical choice" to replace Dan Rather in the anchor chair for CBS Evening News. I can't help but believe that this column is fueled more because of the fact that Couric is A) female and B) because people are fixated by bringing someone in who isn't really in the hard news business, for some reason.

But herein lies the rub - as a late 20-something male, am I totally out of the demos that CBS News is looking for, or will be looking for down the road that it doesn't matter what my opinion is? I just don't see how Couric, whose "Today" show just has to have an overwhelmingly female audience (I'm making an educated guess, here), and is not filled with people looking for hard news for an hour, half-hour, whatever. It's fluffy, morning show amusement. Obviously the news needs to gain ground with female viewers - few would argue that - but I'm not sure if getting others to change the channel at the same time helps at all. If those viewers (watching "Today" wanted hard news, they'd be watching a cabler or something else, anyway. So does Couric's "best in the first half-hour" skill that Boedeker refers to translate to a solid half-hour in the evening?

At the same time, is CBS looking to take its current viewers, (whomever they are), and have them looking at whole new type of program - instead of finding someone who is in the "hard news" business to take the role? Maybe John Roberts and Scott Pelley aren't compelling enough for CBS to bank on right now - I really don't know if they would do a worse job than what is currently happening in the ratings - but I'm beginning to feel like people are just throwing names out just for the sake of doing so. Surely there are a solid list of candidates - women and men - for this job, that don't have to be "prime time" celebrities that aren't viewed as non-newsy by many in the public.

There have been tons of suggestions for this, including RatherBiased.com's Matthew Sheffield suggesting in a recent New York Observer column by Joe Hagan that ABC News' Elizabeth Vargas get a shot at it, for instance.

To attempt to gauge at least a small population of news viewers, TMD is offering an informal survey asking readers who they believe would make the best new anchor at CBS News - you can take the survey once, and it can be found here.

Lost Remote's Cory Bergman points out that SIRIUS satellite radio has reached one million subscribers.

While companies like Clear Channel Communications are well within the letter of the law to make acquisitions and changes in their various media outlets, it doesn't mean there aren't consequences that aren't creeping in on us all. This afternoon, I came across an article by Jessica Arsenault in the Herkimer Evening Telegram about a format change on Utica, New York's WARM 93.5. Arsenault writes that WARM is now following Clear Channel's "The River" format, which contains "songs by such artists as The Beatles, Bob Seger, the Eagles, Elton John, Fleetwood Mac, Santana, John Mellencamp, and the Rolling Stones, but will also include artists who receive little airplay on other stations."

In this particular case, the company cites "local listener feedback" as the reason for the change - which is a good thing. However, "The River" appears to be a simplifying of "no playlist" radio for the company, as the format is cropping up across the country. See below:

100.7 The River - Raleigh, NC
101.5 The River - Toledo, OH
97.3 The River - Harrisburg, PA
The River 105.7 - Salt Lake City, UT
99.5 The River - Albany, NY
105.9 The River - Portland, OR
The River 105.9 - Hartford, CT
107.5 The River - Nashville, TN

That said, I shouldn't be so quick to dismiss the concept here - one of the mainstays of satellite radio fans are that they can listen to the same station wherever they are in the U.S., whereas terrestrial radio doesn't have that advantage - in fact, it's a disadvantage. Is it possible that these moves are to create more solid competition in this manner? Obviously you're not banking on people who travel once or twice a year, but I know this is a big complaint by anyone (including myself) who likes taking road trips - you can't find a station you like everywhere you go.

So is it a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" kind of scenario here, or is Clear Channel making a solid effort on behalf of its listenership to improve radio's ability to have good retention numbers?

WebMD's public editor, Robert Davis, PhD, responded Monday to comments sent in by the site's visitors, specifically regarding an article about mercury fillings being offered by dentists. Davis points out that while WebMD could have been "more skeptical" about some of the information it used in the article, there wasn't a need to offer "equal time" to people who were on the other side of the issue, outside of having inputs about their beliefs about the fillings and their health risks - because of the "weight" carried by the medical findings on the subject. He concludes by pointing out that no matter who you would ask, it would end up that he was biased, because the readers of the article (or any article, really) would have different perceptions on what was being written about.

Nicholas Blanford writes about the changes currently taking place in the Syrian press, including a lessened "fear of imprisonment" by journalists.

Kevin at PubliusTX points out the reaction of Pegasus News to an article in the Dallas Morning News about how blog readership is "on the decline." The piece unfortunately focuses on political blogs as the bellwhether for the entire "industry," however. Sure, political blogs made huge amounts of news in the months (even a year) before 2004's presidential election, but just because they've had a drop in their traffic doesn't mean the medium (or whatever you want to call it) is on the way down a gully. I think not, frankly. For one thing, media calling out blogs is like that whole pot, kettle thing - except the kettle just came off the assembly line and the pot is a hand-me-down.

Although the influence of blogs has grown, they attract only a fraction of the number of readers tallied by traditional media outlets' Web sites. Organizations such as the Associated Press and CBS News were among the fastest-growing news and political sites last month, according to Nielsen//NetRatings.

Yet another writer appears to miss the point - at least in her article. Colleen McCain Nelson is focused on a drop in traffic and blogs being able to hang on to the little they have, rather than the fact that they work with the "traditional media outlets" by posting commentary, links, and additional information about news. For instance, if you take a site like mine, I have experienced little or no drop because of political discussions being minimized - in fact, November was my biggest month, with stories like the NBA brawl coverage and "Monday Night Football" shenanigans drawing a ton of readers. Sure, it's "niche" here at TMD, but niche isn't a bad thing in this case - it's a way of life.

Not once does Nelson even mention the "bloated" numbers that BlogAds was raking in. On November 4, BusinessWeek's Sarah Lacy wrote an article asking about "Life after Nov. 2." In that item, BlogAds owner Henry Copeland said that "Many single days this year we have equaled our entire 2003 revenues." Think about that for a second - the growth was phenomenal, but the 40% decline was just the sign of the slippery slope. Right. It's no wonder that meeting analysts' expectations make your stocks drop on the market - they must be following similar logic.

This is the kind of article that peeves me so much and keeps me following the media as a whole. If you weren't familiar with blogging at all, you could look at this and say "See Martha, I knew there wasn't any money on those blogs - they're just another fad. Tell Tommy to stop wasting time on his LiveJournal already."

Part two of this is that Nelson has done one thing - quantified blogging by the revenues generated. Let's put it this way - if the revenues that exist now vanished, MANY sites, including mine, would continue posting quality content, not worried about getting 200 visitors instead of 1,000, and that would be that. Sure, the money's great, and I'm not complaining, but no one was paying me to spend countless hours (and a few hundred bucks) getting this site up and running in the first place - so should it stop me from being in the game now? Heck no.

[hat tip: Kimberly]

Some bloggers have put together a wealth of tsunami-related information if you're looking for updated details:

• Jeff Jarvis has a stack of news coverage of Sunday's tsunami and its aftereffects in southern Asia, India, and the surrounding region.
• Over at Command Post, Michele Catalano is doing yeoman's work of putting together all sorts of information, from the latest news down to how to help.
• Brian Stelter has notes about the coverage seen so far on the nets and cablers.
• Doc chimes in, and points out the ever important Technorati for events such as this.
• For a sense of scale (disclaimer, I don't have a way to test the absolute validity of this), check out this animation of the wave formation and distribution, via Nick Denton.
• And finally, Kevin at Wizbang! leads us to a story and accompanying amateur video of the tsunami hitting the beach in Thailand.
Posted by Tom at 5:37 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack

In October, there were concerns about the accreditation of Arizona State University's journalism school. This week, the accreditation was removed the AP reports.

But while we're talking about journalism skills and credibility, this report should probably be fixed up - "fail to promote woman" isn't exactly correct grammar, to say the least.

[update: 12/29] E&P's Joe Strupp gets the story straight on Wednesday, confirming that ASU's J-school has not lost its accreditation at this time, and has only been given an "initial review" that was highly critical of the school.

On the "Today" show this morning, Ann Curry was discussing (briefly) the horrific tsunami in Asia, and how there is a lack of warning system enabled for much of the region. Before tossing to the CNBC Asia anchor, she said something along the lines of "I guess this lack of warning system is a topic of discussion today?"

It doesn't seem that bad written down, but in context of the audio/video, it was pretty harsh. Curry seemed a little uncomfortable in the hosting chair that she's currently sitting in, frankly. I think she should stick to the news, because she doesn't appear to dig the fluffiness of going from one story about thousands dead to, just a few minutes later, another about some woman's dog eating her Christmas gifts and if the credit card company will reimburse her.

K. Paul Mallasch put together some good thoughts (and a good springboard) about credibility and transparency, and their relationship to online media - figured I would chime in a bit. Blogs and a lot of online-only media were started with the idea of "differing" with the way that the previous few hundred years of news and commentary were performed. It's not at all about doing it better (though some might disagree) - it's about doing something in a manner that you think is more accommodating to the reader. Whether acting as a proxy or filter to people interested in a topic or topics that you are, or offering commentary on news events that differs from what some of the "mainstream" columnists have to say, blogs are doing their thing.

By transparency, I mean the publisher of the website to be available on the website as an ongoing character or persona, giving their personal input on what the website is doing. Personality and personalization on a small scale will help the public trust the online publication, I believe. This has never really been the case in traditional media.

At the same time, blogs are full of fact checkers - it's almost a prerequisite for many blog-related activities, it seems. And the one thing that bloggers are good at is digging things up, or going the extra mile on a story or idea. This is where transparency comes in. Readers aren't necessarily aware of the political beliefs or other personal "biases" that might be going on in the head of a newspaper journalist - by design. Columnists pretty much have their cards on the table - again, by design. In blogging, most people know what is going on behind the scenes with sites they read. Many bloggers disclose their day jobs, their opinions, or their biographies to the world. Since many blogs don't exercise "journalism" to the letter (though some do) or have a j-school grad at the helm, it's helpful to have some helpful hints about the author or authors - this is where the transparency comes in. Disclosure is key here - is s/he a conservative or liberal, tech-savvy or not, or whatever. Newspapers and other publications have built in credibility (let's not argue about this) for the most part - bloggers don't start with it in every case.

Mallasch closes by asking "How important do you think credibility is? Can transparency help in gaining credibility?" It's obviously important - possibly one of the most important things when it comes to blogs. If people get disillusioned about a site or source, they may leave, never to return - and tell their friends to do the same. Transparency is an excellent first step in gaining street cred (RSS cred?), and is definitely something I've started to see more of as I peruse the blogosphere. As a for instance, I recently tried to make it clear what the advertising guidelines were on TMD, which you can read here. Beyond this, I've seen disclaimers and terms like this one at Baseball Crank and a few other sites. Obviously there is the possibility of "fake" credibility gained by putting one of these up, as they are easily cut-and-pasted into a site, readers are pretty good at separating the wheat from the chaff when it comes down to it.

So getting back to the questions, the short answers are "yes" and "yes." However, concepts like transparency aren't one-time things - they can't just be posted and then forgotten about, like a photo - they should be ingrained in however a publisher decides to put forth his or her content.

In Sunday's Naples News (reg. req'd), editor Phil Lewis details a situation surrounding an anonymous person putting flyers inside the newspapers found inside a coin-operated rack. The handmade flyers are in no way associated with the paper, and are apparently from someone attempting to get the word out about a person they describe as a "sexuall preditor" (sic).

If you are in the Naples, Florida area, Lewis is asking for your help in catching the person or persons altering their newspapers inside the racks.

Just wanted to take a moment and wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!!!

(well, if you're so inclined, of course.)

Just wanted to share my thoughts and prayers for those close to Johnny Oates, former Texas Rangers and Baltimore Orioles manager, who died Friday from a brain tumor. He was 58.

Details on Oates' career as a player are available here and as a manager here, courtesy of Baseball-Reference.com.

The Associated Press reports on a story involving Corpus Christi Caller-Times reporter Venessa Santos-Garza, who "participated in a police sting by posing as a prostitute." This appears to be part of a potential newsgathering operation, and the paper has stated that it would not go forward with a story about it.

The Green Bay Press-Gazette's Warren Gerds covers the story about Olga Halaburda, a television reporter for WFRV-TV, who will be present in the Ukraine to cover the country's controversial elections.

Vermont's WNNE-TV picks up an AP story about the case against a Fosters Daily Democrat photojournalist who was charged with interference while taking pictures of an incident involving police and University of New Hampshire students.

The Associated Press reports that Dave McNeely of the Austin American-Statesman will retire - from the newspaper - after this week's column, set to run on Sunday.

The Cincinnati Enquirer's John Kiesewetter writes about the end of an era of sorts in the Ohio city, as WLW-AM will have its final helicopter-based traffic report on Friday, signifying a shift to new technology by the Clear Channel-owned station.

What appears to be a major part of the change will be the loss of "color commentary" by traffic reporter - and pilot - John Phillips. Phillips is well known for expressing himself about drivers while looking at a traffic jam - something that is sure to be long gone, as it's a little different to be watching the proprietary camera system that Clear Channel will be utilizing, rather than following from above.

The Daily Herald's Victor Balta compiled his list of "10 moments and shows that shaped the year in television."

Making up a bunch of the list, interestingly enough, are a few programs and individuals that left the airwaves in 2004 - but Balta is right in choosing them, as they will have a lasting impact on television's ratings.

I don't think it's just me, but one segment of guitar in Modest Mouse's "Ocean Breathes Salty" sounds eerily similar to a small piece of "One on One" by Daryl Hall & John Oates.

You can hear the Modest Mouse sample here if you have iTunes - the section comes up around 0:14.

Or, it could just be me.

Tuesday's Editor & Publisher story about a proposed update to the ethics policy at the Associated Press detailed some concerns among union leaders about some of the restrictions involved. That being said, it appears that many of the tenets put forth are basic principles that AP staffers - along with journalists elsewhere - have followed for years.

A veteran AP reporter tells TMD that the rules surrounding anonymous sources "are not controversial at all," and reiterated that this concept has been applied for quite some time. However, the idea that "editors and writers who regularly cover the financial markets may not own stock in any company" need additional clarification, as fixtures such as specialized mutual funds "could present some conflict-of-interest problems" for staffers. This is the type of feedback that AP executive editor Kathleen Carroll was looking to receive before making this policy formal, as discussed in the E&P article.

One thing I found to be curious was the new guideline for approval of any and all freelancing, irrelevant of a staffer's perception of conflict of interest, at the same time that there are reportedly discussions within AP's management circles to be "more supportive" towards staffers who are looking to write their own books. E&P's Joe Strupp points out that AP staffers are permitted to freelance, according to their News Media Guild contract, "as long as there is no conflict with a writer's AP assignments." The issue here is that many reporters have books that evolved out of stories they covered for the AP at one point - so a case-by-case scenario may come out of this.

[update] Doug Fisher has more, including a link to the entire policy.

Over at OlbermannWatch, Robert Cox has posted an email exchange where MSNBC's Keith Olbermann is given some "advice" on how he has been handling his stories on the "Countdown" program, specifically regarding voter fraud in this year's Presidential election. On the other end of the emails is Tom Sileo, a Tribune broadcast news producer (he was not working for Tribune at the time of the correspondence), who takes Olbermann and some of his colleagues to task for shoddy - and biased - reporting and discussion on the network.

Sileo: I don't agree with the approach your taking to this 'story', plain and simple. I feel that you, David Shuster, and Chris Matthews have a documented bias against President Bush that compromises your work. The poor ratings for MSNBC may prove that millions of others share my assessment. If the three of you approached your work more like Tim Russert, who knows how far MSNBC could climb.

To which Olbermann replies:

The poor ratings of MSNBC owe to incredibly unstable scheduling. For three years we did not have the same nightly line-up for more than six weeks successively. We've now gone over a year since the last change. The 6-9 PM ratings have doubled. I'm afraid tv success is much more of a function of constancy and style than it is of political tone.

While Olbermann is right that being on television in one slot for a little while helps in the ratings, it isn't the only thing. Many of the MSNBC nighttime programming has been laughed off for some time now, irrelevant of what time things were on. It's not so much a function of moving existing shows around because you feel like it, but more of having shows literally fail in their slot - or overall. Sure, the ratings have "doubled," but what does that really mean in the grand scheme? That in another year, they'll "double" again? Figuring out what viewers are moving to MSNBC is a question to ask as well. Are they taking newswatchers away from the competition (namely FOX News and CNN) or from regular television broadcasts, or are these "new" viewers who weren't previously watching shows at that time? What are FOX's latest ratings vs. MSNBC, anyway, like 4-6 times the number of viewers in the 8-10 timeframe? TVNewser reported on December 1 that while November was huge for MSNBC with regard to growth, they're "gaining" on CNN but still lagging well behind FOX's increases. It's not just continuity, frankly - it's content.

Some people argue that content isn't king anymore - I'm not one of them.

The News & Observer's David Ranii writes about the apparent success that radio stations are finding with an all (or mostly) Christmas music format in recent years. In fact, one station included in the article, 93.9 FM, actually began playing all-Christmas tunes before Thanksgiving.

Kerry Spot's Jim Geraghty reports that his sources "familiar with discussions at CBS News" are saying that the news division will make a joint announcement regarding their internal investigation and new anchor. Still no timeline on this statement, though.

[via Political Wire]

Editor & Publisher's Joe Strupp has the scoop on a proposed ethics policy that's causing a stir with union leaders representing Associated Press journalists. The items in question include proper use of datelines, attribution for anonymous sources, and restrictions on ownership of company stock.

The Associated Press is reporting that columnist Jack Newfield died Monday evening at age 66. Newfield most recently wrote for the New York Sun.

Just saw over at Buzzmachine that the Washington Post was purchasing Slate from Microsoft. WaPo's Howard Kurtz writes about the paper's announcement, informing that "Post executives said they would keep Jacob Weisberg as editor and most of the 30-person staff."

Jarvis, who talked with Kurtz about the deal, said "it's a good thing for both; they fit well together, not unlike Dow Jones and Marketwatch."

As this "old" and "new" media world come together, it will be interesting to see how soon it is before Slate items appear in the print edition of the Post - if ever.

At Daily Kos, one diarist posts a critical item about incoming MSNBC host Monica Crowley, who is set to do a show on the cabler with Ron Reagan in early '05. In the piece, we're led to a 1999 article by Slate's Timothy Noah, "Nixon's Monica Stonewalls About Plagiarism!"

Noah details an item Crowley had written for the Wall Street Journal in 1999 "commemorating" the 25th anniversary of Richard Nixon's resignation from the presidency. Shortly after the piece ran, the WSJ printed this editor's note:

"There are striking similarities in phraseology between "The Day Richard Nixon Said Goodbye," an editorial feature Monday by Monica Crowley, and a 1988 article by Paul Johnson in Commentary magazine ... Had we known of the parallels, we would not have published the article."

Noah says, "Pretty interesting, no?" Yes, it most certainly is. Here's one bit of the evidence that was put forth -

From Johnson's "In Praise of Richard Nixon," Commentary, October 1988:

"There was none of the personal corruption which had marked the rule of Lyndon Johnson, let alone the gross immoralities and security risks of John F. Kennedy's White House."

From Crowley's "The Day Nixon Said Goodbye," Wall Street Journal, August 9, 1999:

"There was none of the personal corruption that had marked the rule of Lyndon Johnson or the base immoralities and outrageous security risks of the Kennedy and Clinton White Houses."

Read the whole thing.

[ed: Crowley's email box is full this morning, and MSNBC has not yet responded to a request for comment. Via Atrios.]

The Globe and Mail's Richard Blackwell details the changes planned for the Toronto Star and National Post for 2005. The Star will shift to a "magazine-style broadsheet" for its Sunday edition, and will cover breaking news, "but will now concentrate on feature material," Blackwell reports. The Post has been increasing front page headline size, and the paper's publisher may be bringing about a "tabloid sensibility," say some who follow newspaper moves.

For the last few weeks, I've been pondering putting together a blog "un" conference in New Jersey or New York - most likely the former, due to cost concerns, though. Obviously BloggerCon has been the "big" event for the last couple times around the block, and this isn't meant to be of that scale - though I wouldn't mind a few hundred people, of course.

At this point, I'm looking at late January/early-mid February, based on availability of locations, mostly. So far, I have received costs for holding such an event at my alma mater, Monmouth University in West Long Branch, NJ. It's easily accessible by car from the Garden State Parkway (exit 105, because you'll ask), and is a short trip from a fairly busy NJ Transit train station as well. This is in no way definitive, though. I'm also looking into some northern-NJ locations, and a few others here and there that have been suggested to me.

I'll be working on an "agenda" of sorts in the next week or two, and will gladly take suggestions on topics to cover and possible locations (especially if you have an "in") either in the comments or via email. Some ideas I'm tossing around are around blog ethics such as use of photographs and "fair use," hyperlocal blogging, PR and blogs, and more. I'd also like to hear from people who think they'd be interested in coming along, or helping out with some of the responsibilities. At this point, it looks like there will be some costs to hold an event, but I haven't ironed out how much they'd be exactly - it'll depend on sizing and location.

I have a few ideas on some people I'd like to participate and be session facilitators - some of you I've already chatted with about this, others may just end up with a note in your inbox one day soon. Just a warning =)

Right now, my primary focus is ironing out the location and any insurance needs - the other details are a lot easier to handle. There will be no fee to attend, but any offers for donations will probably be accepted, if the costs continue to be a factor.

The Associated Press reports Monday that Rommyn Blair Skipper, city editor of Wilmington, North Carolina's Star-News, died on Saturday from brain cancer. He was 37.

If you're interested in a Gmail account, be one of the first ten commenters on this post, and I'll send you an invite.

[6 left]

Mosnews.com has the story about Igor Kolodezenko, a newspaper editor who was convicted of publishing anti-Semitic items in a Siberian newspaper, Russkaya Sibir.

TVNewser reports that CNN's Tucker Carlson might be the replacement for Deborah Norville in the 9pm timeslot on MSNBC.

On Friday, Robert Cox wondered about what would have to happen "before GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt shuts the entire mess down" at the cable net. Looks like MSNBC boss Rick Kaplan is doing his best to avoid something of that sort.

Bunny McIntosh writes about her experience of being part of MTV's "Room Raiders" show. She gives some really great insights on what actually goes on between camera shots - not that we're surprised. (Okay, at least I'm not surprised.)

[Hat tip: Shabe]

On Sunday, TIME publicly announced that President George W. Bush has been named the magazine's "Person of the Year" for 2004.

For sharpening the debate until the choices bled, for reframing reality to match his design, for gambling his fortunes—and ours—on his faith in the power of leadership, George W. Bush is TIME's 2004 Person of the Year.

Bloomberg's Chris Dolmetsch and Cecile Daurat have a roundup on some facts about the "person" choice, where they point out that Bush "is the 12th person to be chosen more than once and the eighth president to be named multiple times."