Sometimes it kind of bugs me that I link to the free articles in the WSJ so much, but maybe it shows how valuable of a publication that newspaper is. In any case, here's the latest. Sarah Ellison and Dennis Berman have the lowdown on what is up with Tribune Co., and they inform that the company might not get sold to an outside bidder after all, and is looking to put the sand back in its own sandbox.

All in all, that isn't to say that nothing will be broken out, as the Journal reports that some portions, including broadcast, could be "spun off" to enable focused management of the print division. For Tribune's sake, that will hopefully include its long-term Internet and mobile interests, because we know how profitable print can be these days.

Taking a page out of the slacker handbook this week is apparently The Australian's Frank Devine, who finds that sources are much more easy to get quotes from when you just Google the topic you are looking for, make a few key changes to the exact quotations and information that someone else acquired, and print them in your own article. Some people say that journalists are getting information and topics to write about from blogs, and I don't doubt it, since it works most of the time in the other direction - but I think this is just a bit silly. What follows below comes to me via a colleague of mine, who figured it was right up my alley and thought it wise that more people are made aware of it.

Way back on January 19, Arabisto.com contributor Rima Abdelkader published this item entitled "FOX TV Show '24' Angers Arab/Muslim Fans in the United States and Abroad," featuring comments from New York-based law student and Arab-American Sawsan Zaky, who expressed horror towards FOX's hit show because of how it showed Muslims in America - and that's just part of the quality story that Abdelkader had put together. Here's where Devine fits in. Seems that he thought the same about the work from the Arabisto site, and used slightly altered quotes in this commentary, published on Feburary 2 under the hed of "There's no villainy in reflecting the truth about terrorists." It seems that Sawsan Zaky is either the most quoted person from the Arab-American community when it comes to 24, or his quote is just really really good and it's no big deal if we tweak a few words here and there. Devine also did a really good job of sourcing information about Dr. Jack Shaheen, who told Abdelkader about his research on film and television and its portrayal of Muslims - but never spoke with the Australian staffer.

As it turns out, Crikey's Jane Nethercote was able to get in touch with Devine, something that the folks at Arabisto unfortunately weren't able to do when they wrote about how this all went down, in an item by Nadia Gergis on Feburary 2. Devine apparently told Crikey that he found Abdelkader's item in Google, and used it "as a reference" because it was "among the more up to date." How quaint.

In my eyes, this is just as lazy as people who use Wikipedia as a flat out source, rather than a strong starting point that has excellent links to original, [we hope] reputable sources of information. I mean, if you read it on the Internet, it must be true, right? Frank Devine may be penning under the world of being a columnist, but after being editor at the Chicago Sun-Times and executive editor of the New York Post two decades ago, you'd think he would know better. It's not so hard to say "In fact, one outspoken blogger found out firsthand from Arab-Americans in the New York City area that..." in your column, now is it?

Another tsk, tsk is the least of Frank Devine's worries at this point, and I seriously hope that I've done my part to spread this story on this side of the globe.

Wednesday heralded some bad news for editorial staffers at the Philadelphia Inquirer, the Associated Press reports, as 71 employees were laid off, effective January 17.

As we see more and more of these layoffs showing up, I'm wondering if it will herald the start of new daily publications of some note in these marketplaces, as it is obviously easier to "staff up" to production level, add in the AP-like service of your choice, and keep your focus to the Web. Think about it this way - the newspaper layoffs are not forcing these publications out of business (at least not for the most part), but are getting them into a position where they are "realizing" the streamlining of newsgathering, printing, etc. etc. Additionally, they're in the unfortunate position of having senior people making money in excess of what newer, even online-only, publications are offering - or need to offer.

As I was lining up items to potentially blog about this morning, I noticed this WSJ article by Dennis Berman and Sarah Ellison about who was looking into getting a piece of Tribune Co., who is looking for interested bidders at the moment. Then, my colleague Chris Thilk pinged me with a couple of items I hadn't seen, namely this posting from Ben McConnell, who makes the most clear statement that we should all be paying attention to - that this is, indeed, the "end of traditional media ownership." Well, at least in Chi-town. It's most surely a bellwether for things to come, but not one that we haven't seen coming already, right? As much as I try to factor out the Internet and newsreading (and gathering) in general, it's pretty clear that scaling up (or down) is not the same as it used to be.

In addition, Chris pointed out to me that the Trib was reporting that another Chicago paper, the Sun-Times, is looking into financial difficulties of its own. I don't know if I really want to go down a road like this, but are we seriously in a time where, aside from places like Seattle, joint-operating agreements are potentially keeping a publication alive at the cost of another, that some serious, long-time-lived publications, whether weekly or daily, could bite the bullet because there was no other option?

Now, don't get me wrong - this has happened before, for years and years. I mean, the Star-Ledger from here in New Jersey is named that because one day, a long, long time ago, the Newark Star-Eagle merged with the Newark Ledger. There are plenty of other examples of that. But if mass-media companies are seeing that scaling up and mergers aren't making their jobs any easier, will those massive publications fade away?

Well, it looks like it wasn't such a great day in Cincinnati, based on the first five headlines I'm seeing in my RSS reader for the Cincinnati Enquirer.

Ugh.

On Friday, some key news came out about how Tribune Co. is going to handle its own business, but what's most important here isn't that the company is trying to be more productive, but the fact that the company is now up for sale, if you really read between the giant lines that have now been put in front of your face in 800-point type.

Anyone want to contemplate the thought of Tribune being purchased - or split up - in some way? Aside from the fact that the company is worth about $8 billion, according to that WSJ article by Sarah Ellison and Julia Angwin, its assets are across the board parts of our economy, from newspapers that are nationally known down to (or up to, depending on your perspective) the Chicago Cubs. Heck, it wouldn't surprise me to see some entrepreneurial group of Cubs fans who go out on a limb asking for a sale just so their preferred team can bring in some ownership that will create a winner, if that's even possible. I mean, baseball curses have to die sometime, right?

The Baltimore Sun has named Rondra Matthews, who currently publishes the Daily Press from Newport News, Virginia, publisher, reports that paper's Andrea Walker.

The Seattle P-I's Dan Richman writes Friday about the announcement that the Post-Intelligencer, owned by the Hearst Corporation, and the Seattle Times would go ahead with binding arbitration in the joint operating agreement (JOA) battle. There is the definite possibility that a "win" for the Times would mean the end for the P-I, at least from what Hearst has said publicly.

You can see the Times' coverage of the story here in an article by Eric Pryne.

The AP's Seth Sutel writes Monday about statistics hitting the streets today that are showing pretty big numbers (that are not surprising, IMHO) as far as Web visitation of newspaper sites goes. And if the whole "it's all about me" thing hadn't hit you over the head yet, then the following quote should swing it.

[Executive vice president at Starcom Worldwide Andrew] Swinand did say afterward that he was still "bullish" on newspapers' online advertising potential, but added that newspapers should do more to personalize and localize their online content, in ways such as the social networking site MySpace does.

Just as I like to customize my "newspaper" experience in my RSS reader, I'd probably be one interested in doing the same on the newspaper sites I visit on their own merit. Just as the New York Times threw down a redesign of its presence a few days ago to better suit those with newer technology, we should expect the same of *what* news we're looking at.

With news coming out that McClatchy has accepted bids for the 12 newspapers that it didn't want to keep in the recent deal to purchase Knight Ridder, people should definitely heed what the WaPo's Robert Kaiser has to say on the subject, writes CyberJournalist's Jonathan Dube. I couldn't agree more.

Late last night, the WSJ's Joseph Hallinan and Dennis Berman shared details of the expected purchase of Knight Ridder to McClatchy for about $4.5 billion. This morning, the AP's Seth Sutel confirms the deal, according to company sources on both sides.

Outside of Tony Ridder, who heads up K-R, Sutel reports that McClatchy boss Gary Pruitt has said that there would be "no plans for newsroom layoffs."

Corporate mergers tend to change the "feel" of that company, but typically a lot of that is only seen for employees on both sides. When it comes to media mergers, it's something that a lot of the time changes the product itself. If you've seen the McClatchy pubs before, such as the Sacramento Bee, you'd have noticed that it's a very different publication than the Miami Herald, a K-R pub. Will that change, somewhat? Probably. I remember back when my local Asbury Park Press was purchased by Gannett, and how some contacts I had at the paper were reacting, and can see right now how the publication changed since that time. Change and evolution are usually good, but in a time when the print editions of newspapers are having a hard time with (at least) the younger audiences out there, consolidation creates the opportunity for not only larger successes - but larger failures. We'll see how the new McClatchy fares, and wish them good luck.

From my pal Notorious MiG comes news of a fun headline from this particular story from today's Lenta.ru.

He informs me that the headline translates to "Russia makes Gretzky cry" - NICE!

Additionally, MiG points out that "lenta" means "tape." More specifically, the tape used to print out the news. So, it's "The Tape."

This morning, Chris Thilk alerted me to this article over at MediaPost where John Wolfe wrote about a move by the Dallas Morning News to add a new magazine - on a DVD - into its Sunday editions later on this Spring. It looks like some mix of advertising and content - we'll call it advercontent for the moment - that will show up on the screens of those receiving the paper.

What's interesting here is that most of the materials of a disc variety have been aimed at computers users. While DVDs will work just fine on your laptop or desktop computer, this is targeted at people who are going to pop the DVD into a set-top player, and watch in the comfort of a living room or other space, probably for the most part. Now, if only we could get an idea on the "open rate" for this thing.

Over the weekend, the AP reported that Rozel Lee, a Tampa Tribune reporter, had been fired after stating that she "intentionally" voted one way in a contest for the best local football player so that the favorite would lose. Will this change how reporters are able to vote in contests like this in the future? The Tribune appears to be reviewing that, according to the AP piece.

Well, big step for me tonight - subscribed to the online version of the Wall Street Journal. Been finding the content - beyond the free stuff - really helpful of late. So while linking to it isn't going to be helpful for everyone, I'll probably be doing it here and there when it's necessary. You can all find a print edition, right? =)

Jeff Jarvis has a blog post up about changes to the newspaper, and brings up the topic of coupons disappearing from the papers, and how that affected a pub he worked at a few years back. I'm not going to delve too much into the argument, but I will say, flat out, that I purchase the Sunday paper where I live *purely* for the coupons for the grocery store. That's not to say that I don't read any of the paper (the comics, especially), because I get most of the stories online - but pretty much I'm only buying the paper for saving money at the grocery store. Should we take a survey on this? I bet we'd get a lot more than just me and the one commenter on Jarvis' site who does the same with a Philadelphia newspaper.

So if the paper decided to ditch the coupons - or my carrier decided s/he wanted all of them for her/himself, I'd ditch the paper. Probably along with a few other people. In effect, I'm buying advertisements.

As of Wednesday, January 18, readers of the Chicago Tribune will no longer see stock tables in the pages of the newspaper, Bloomberg News reports this afternoon.

As you would probably guess, the Internet has a lot to do with this. Expect this to be one of the first dominos of a few to do the same.

Wednesday morning, The Wall Street Journal ran a story by Brian Steinberg and Joe Hagan about the announcement that Richard Zannino, Dow Jones' CFO, would take the reins as CEO as of February 1. But, as you'll probably notice, what might be the most important part of the story is in the first sentence - Zannino is not a journalist, and has a straight-up business background. The Motley Fool's Tim Beyers loves the move, specifically in how Zannino's finance experience could prove crucial for the company's prosperity going forward.

While shareholders will probably enjoy this transition, will the same be said for those who enjoy Dow Jones' news operations?

The AP's Dave Carpenter details the departure of the Chicago Sun-Times' Red Streak tabloid paper from the market a little over a week ago not as the demise of this style of publication, but a sign of the future. Both publishers and advertisers see the tabloid papers as a way to reach younger readers, and even if this style of paper isn't what ultimately stays around, it shows that the publishers are dedicated to finding a way to reach the market.

Roxanne Cooper informs about the news that the Gambit Weekly, the alt-pub from New Orleans, will be selling the "Best Of" issue that was set to hit the streets right about the time that Hurricane Karina devastated the city for $10 each, with the proceeds going to The Foundation for Entertainment Development and Education. While it was surely unfortunate that the publication wasn't able to make the difference it usually does when it hits the streets (as Rox mentions, alt-weekly "Best Of" issues are usually good for business), this is probably an even better way that the Gambit can help the community.

Information on how you can purchase a copy is available here.

For some time now, the Seattle Times has allowed freelancer Bill Richards to cover its ongoing battle with the Seattle Post-Intelligencer regarding the joint operating agreement (JOA) that the papers are stuck in. This week, the Times has named its own Eric Pryne as the staffer who would continue the coverage of this story, the P-I's Todd Bishop reports.

It should be noted that the P-I has been covering the story on its own, while the Times was given a lot of kudos for bringing in an outsider to do the job. Will that change, especially in this time of super-critical media followers, or is the fact that the P-I has been able to do it all along proof positive that while we all hope and think that newspaper reporters can be perfectly objective, that a reporter covering the economics of his or her publication can do so legitimately? I don't have an issue with the paper's decision to make this move, but think they might be criticized for doing so, purely because of the "objective" move it took for the last three years.

The Boston Globe's Robert Gavin writes about the newspaper's announcement that Mary Jacobus would be taking on the role of president and general manager at the daily, taking on the role being vacated by Richard Daniels, who is moving elsewhere within the Boston Globe Media organization.

For awhile, I had seen the volume of "hit pieces" and negative press that so-called "new media" tools were getting in major publications as a totally bad thing, and that some of the writers didn't get it. That might still be the case (the latter, that is), but now I'm beginning to feel like at the end of the day, these are all good stories for new media. This morning, I read an item in Fortune where Adam Lashinsky describes the effect that online classifieds site Craigslist has been doing its darndest in taking away classified advertising revenues from print newspapers. At first I was like "duh, who didn't realize this?" but quickly reversed, realizing that there are tons of people who a) probably haven't heard of Craiglist before and b) don't get the low down on every single Web or new media function on a regular basis. So even though Craiglist has been around for a long, long time now (at least in 'net time), the audience reading this in Fortune might not be quite as savvy as to realize that this was one of the factors in the recent revenue losses at major media outlets.

The Association of Alternative Newsweeklies' Joy Howard writes about how the Gambit Weekly, the alt-pub in New Orleans, is expected to hit print yet again on November 1. Howard details the preparations that the paper's staffers took pre-Hurricane Katrina that has allowed them to set a fairly firm timeline of being back on track, and what has been going on since New Orleans was flooded back in early September.

If anyone was wondering what would happen to the "rest of us" who aren't paying for the behind the wall op-eds and such at the NYT, this is probably a good example. People will end up not linking to the original works, but linking to the people who have digested and commented on those works, adding their own voices to the mix.

And you thought "telephone" was fun when you were six years old...

Back in May, when the New York Times announced that its columnists would be going behind a paid wall through a product called TimesSelect, it wasn't highly thought of. Shortly afterward, the Times' Martin Nisenholtz discussed the decision and what was involved. Still, most didn't take very well to it.

This morning, at least one user is having some trouble using the service - and it's someone with a print subscription, to boot. It'll be fascinating to see how this works, as the paper's columnists are probably some of the most-linked-to articles on the Web right now - or, they were, at least. On Friday, Matt Sheffield gave the gasface to the Times' plan, making the point that those potential NYT readers who have no idea who the columnists were before might never know now, if they don't ever pay for a sub online.

Finally, PaidContent's Staci Kramer has all kinds of good stuff on the service's launch, including the fact that advertising will be sold on the columnist pages, according to a spokesperson for the publication - a 180 from what was originally believed.

The Associated Press is reporting Tuesday that Richard Wayne O'Bryant, the managing editor of the University of North Florida's student newspaper, the Spinnaker, was found dead on Monday. His death is believed to be a suicide.

Earlier today, the Detroit Free Press announced that Caesar Andrews, formerly a Gannett News Service editor, will be taking on the executive editor role at that publication.

While we were here in the States hoping that our newspapers would stay away from the insensitive or downright stupid headlines regarding Hurricane Katrina, it turns out that the cake-taker is a bit of a ways across the Atlantic. The U.K.'s Times ran an article on August 31 entitled "Mississippi drowning." If you don't get it at first, here's your reminder.

[via Testy Copy Editors]

The Olympian's executive editor, Vickie Kilgore, explains to readers of the newspaper that even with the acquisition of that publication by Knight Ridder, readers will still be seeing the same old Olympian every morning on their doorstep - or online.

Ever wonder what it's like to move a printing press in and out of a newspaper's buildings? Well, the Hagerstown, Maryland-based Herald-Mail recently did just that, and the paper's Erin Cunningham shared a few details of what went into getting that done earlier this week.

The Morning News brings word of the purchase of two newspapers previously held by Community Publishers Inc. by the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. This ends a relationship between the two publishers, who had been working together through what the Morning News's Ron Wood describes as a joint venture to run a few local publications.

E&P's Jennifer Saba reports that the dollars spent on newspaper ads along with dollars spent by readers on newsprint are still increasing, but are doing so at a lesser amount than in years past.

The Denver Business Journal's Amy Bryer is critical towards the way that the Denver Post and Rocky Mountain News are citing their combined circulation to advertisers. The method, while legal by the rules of the Audit Bureau of Circulations, could be viewed as violating "the spirit" of the guidelines regarding circulation count. Bryer states that the newspapers include "bulk" copies delivered to places like hotels and restaurants as their overall circulation, even though the end-reader may pay as little as $0.00 for a copy. While most newspapers also include these same figures in their own circulation counts, Bryer believes that the fact that the bulk distributions of these papers is making up more than 10% of their total circ (actually around 13%), that something is out of whack.

As the average consumer slowly and surely drops their newspaper subscription and low-paid or unpaid circ such as those described above probably stays static, will the ABC be forced to make changes to their guidlines in this area?

Crain's is reporting Wednesday afternoon that Knight Ridder has gotten out of the Detroit Free Press, with Gannett jumping in just as they sell the Detroit News to the MediaNews Group.

On Monday, the Trenton Times' Rose Colon details the closing of a longtime New Jersey community newspaper, the Hightstown Gazette.

Lexington, Kentucky's WKYT Channel 27 reports this week that the Winchester Sun has been sold to Schurz Communications, based out of Indiana.

The AP's Ken Ritter has details on the move to push the Las Vegas Sun into the Las Vegas Review-Journal, including how the paper's staff has suffered significant losses since this plan began in May.

Joplin Globe editor Edgar Simpson writes about what he believes all newspapers should keep in mind when trying to figure out their place in society - that the paper represents a place for community news and information to not only be disseminated, but for that same community to have a voice.

The McKinney Courier-Gazette, along with other Hartman Newspapers, L.P. publications, have been acquired by American Community Newspapers.

Ohio's Chillicothe Gazette has announced that current managing editor Michael Throne will now take on the general manager duties of the newspaper as well.

Late last week, New York Times reported that assistant managing editor Jonathan Landman would take on the role of deputy ME for digital journalism as of August 23. Landman is an 18-year veteran of the Times, with previous experience at New York's Daily News and Newsday.

Chicago Defender executive editor Roland Martin publishes his 'call to action' for other black newspapers in the United States to prove the New York Times wrong that it can compete in the space - as the company announced it would do with a publication in Florida with the launch of the Gainesville Guardian.

The Associated Press reports Wednesday that the Los Angeles Times' editor, John Carroll, will retire by mid-August.

Mississippi newspaper The Democrat has named Melissa Turner as news editor, and Muffet Lee McPhail as editor.

For those of you who think the whole Judith Miller situation wherein she is being punished for not revealing her government source for the leaking of a CIA agent's name is a good thing, then perhaps you'll be pleased about the fact that the Cleveland Plain Dealer is "holding back" two stories that the publication believes are very important because of fears of government reprisal for printing a story about the leaked information.

Fortunately, the most other editors and journalists don't agree with the move, reports the New York Times' David Cay Johnston.

The Associated Press has a story Monday about a battle between three small-town newspapers, the River Cities Beacon, Dayton Dispatch News and River Cities Star in Dayton, Kentucky.

The Memphis Business Journal informs that the Commercial Appeal, Memphis' daily newspaper, will lose its president and publisher at month's en