Morning Reading List, 04.16.08

Good morning Washington. Doug Heye celebrates a birthday today. Yesterday, the new Yahoo! election page went live in conjunction with Politico. And the first lady will soon co-host the "Today" show. Quickly navigate Morning Reading List: REVOLVING DOOR | NEWSPAPERS | TV | ONLINE MEDIA | MAGAZINES | RADIO | NEWS NOTES | JOBS A third of you recycle, but you are not that into avoiding plastic water bottles. Today's "Angry Journalist" rant of the day: "How many times will upper management come up with quick money-maker schemes, spend money to put them in place and then refuse to give them the monetary and staff support they need to really be successful? And why does same upper management seem so mystified when said schemes completely tank? It's all about making a quick buck, to hell with the product. I feel like I work at Wal-Mart." REVOLVING DOOR Washingtonian's Ben Clark has joined Fleishman-Hillard's DC digital team. Top of post NEWSPAPERS Poynter's Ethics and Diversity Fellow Tom Huang writes, "Let me be a realist, if not a pessimist: The diversity numbers released by the American Society of Newspaper Editors on Sunday worry me. A lot. At first glance, the overall numbers don't seem too gloomy: In the past year, the percent of minorities working at daily newspapers grew a smidgeon -- from 13.43 percent to 13.52 percent. But it's the absolute number we should be worried about. The only reason why the percentage of minorities in newsrooms has essentially remained flat is because both white and minority journalists left our newsrooms at about the same rate" "Republican John McCain was a significant or dominant factor in only 35% of the campaign stories last week. But though he trailed both Hillary Clinton (56%) and Barack Obama (46%) in exposure, he was the winner when it came to the media narrative for the week of April 7-13, according to a Project for Excellence in Journalism study." His Extreme-ness writes, "The Washington Post Metro section has been hot on the trail lately, pursuing the story of full-length phone books getting decommissioned. From the sound of their breathless coverage, you would think there was only one left in the DC area -- and that one was removed." On The Media reports, "Gene Weingarten, writer for the Washington Post Magazine, got an idea: he would lock himself in a room for 24 hours straight with 5 TV's, 2 radios and a laptop all tuned to loud, opinionated pundits. After basically losing his mind, he tells us what he learned." The Press Gazette reports, "The number of newspaper journalists in the US fell last year by almost 5 per cent to a low of 52,600, the lowest it has been for almost 25 years and the biggest drop in 30 years. The new figures, released by the American Society of Newspaper Editors, reflects the attrition going on in the America media." The AP reports, "About half of the 1,326 employees at Media General Inc.'s Florida properties -- including The Tampa Tribune and WFLA-TV -- were offered buyout packages Monday as the struggling company tries to cut costs and consolidate platforms." Check out the winners of the "Best headlines of the year" Top of post TV "Dan Rather On Les Moonves, The 'Evening News,' And Who Should Replace Katie When (Not If) She Goes" "MSNBC won't air 'controversial' gun ad" A NBC release announced, "'NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams' was honored with a 2007 Sigma Delta Chi Award for excellence in journalism in the category of 'Breaking News Coverage (Network/Top 25 Markets)' for 'The Massacre at Virginia Tech.' The NBC News program was the only network evening news broadcast to win the prestigious award. This is the third consecutive year 'NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams' has won for breaking news coverage." Check out all of the winners here. An ABC release announced, "'World News with Charles Gibson' was the #1 evening newscast among Total Viewers, Households, and Adults 25-54 for the week of April 7-13. The ABC News broadcast averaged 8.03 million Total Viewers, and a 2.0/8 among Adults 25-54, outperforming NBC's 'Nightly News' by 110,000 Total Viewers and 160,000 key demo viewers. This marks the 15th time this season 'World News' has ranked first among Adults 25-54 and the 9th time this season the broadcast has ranked first among total viewers." Newsweek reports, "Craig Ferguson can't beat Dave's or Jay's ratings, but he's got something bigger: a date with the president." Check out "Bill Moyers Acceptance Speech for the Ridenhour Courage Prize" where he says journalists' "deeper mission is to uncover the news that powerful people would prefer to keep hidden." The New York Times reports, "While the fate of Ms. Couric and the 'CBS Evening News' is in the headlines, the entire CBS News division represents only a fraction of the CBS broadcast network's revenue. More perplexing is the prime-time schedule, where no new hit has emerged this year, and as a result, CBS is likely to lose the crown of most-watched network to the Fox network." Top of post ONLINE MEDIA In conjunction with Pope Benedict's visit to the U.S., washingtonpost.com and Newsweek's interactive feature on religion "On Faith" is hosting a live webcast. Anchored by On Faith founder and Washington D.C. insider Sally Quinn and Washington Post journalist Eugene Robinson, the video will stream live the mornings of April 16 and April 17 here. The first show begins at around 10 a.m. today. Tech Crunch reports, "AOL will announce the acquisition of San Francisco-based Sphere, a blog content engine that launched in 2006. The price is not being disclosed, but sources are suggesting it's in the $25 million range, or possibly a little more." The Los Angeles Times has a, "Interview with Ken Layne, new owner of Wonkette" Portfolio's Mixed Media reports, "That's the idea behind a new hyperlink technology rolling out on parts of WashingtonPost.com Tuesday morning. Two of the paper's blogs, The Fix and Celebritology, will introduce links powered by a tech start-up called Apture. By rolling the cursor over a link, readers can see what's at the destination -- be it an article, photo or video -- without clicking through." Portfolio reports, "No wonder Rupert Murdoch's in no hurry to do away with The Wall Street Journal's online pay wall. Even with it still in place around large sections of the site, traffic is still growing at a most impressive rate. According to internal numbers, WSJ.com hosted 15 million unique visitors in March, a 175 percent increase over March 2007, says Alan Murray, executive editor of the Wall Street Journal Online. Page views came in at around 165 million, up 75 percent year-over-year" The Washington Blogger April Meeting is tonight at 7:00PM at Regional Food and Drink. For more info, click here. Top of post MAGAZINES The New York Post reports, "Magazines that cover news, business and luxury goods were sent reeling in the first quarter of the year, while food magazines offered a few rays of light for the publishing industry, according to just released figures." Top of post RADIO Matthew Felling will be hosting NPR's "The Kojo Nnamdi Show" today. A release announced, "The Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB) congratulates the Public Radio Exchange (PRX) for receiving a MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions. Established by the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, the MacArthur Award for Creative and Effective Institutions recognizes and invests in small, emerging nonprofit organizations around the world that demonstrate exceptional creativity and effectiveness." Top of post NEWS NOTES The AP reports, "Rupert Murdoch and Sam Zell, two media figures who led major newspaper acquisitions in recent months, are among four new members joining the board of directors of The Associated Press, it was announced Monday at the news cooperative's annual meeting." The Los Angeles Times reports, "Shares of media company News Corp., controlled by Rupert Murdoch, fell the most in five years after Sanford C. Bernstein & Co. and UBS analysts cut their outlook for the stock, citing concerns that growth will slow." The AP reports, "The Associated Press announced Monday it will further cut fees paid by struggling newspaper members and will develop an advertising-supported service that will deliver stories and photos to advanced cell phones, including the iPhone." MediaChannel.org reports, "Syracuse University's S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications today announced 22 finalists in five categories in the second annual Mirror Awards competition honoring excellence in media industry reporting. The competition drew more than 100 entries. The media's top writers, readers and leaders will gather June 23 at 11:45 a.m. at the Rainbow Room, 30 Rockefeller Plaza, New York City, to fete the winners." For the list of winners, click here. Top of post JOBS Forbes Interactive Media is looking for a Regional Sales Manager. Congressional Quarterly, Inc. is looking for a Marketing Manager. Society of American Florists is looking for a Senior Editor. "An international news wire service is looking for an entertainment anchor and general reporter with a journalism education and background to anchor a daily entertainment webcast for their website." Top of post Hat Tips: DCRTV, TVNewser, IWantMedia, Romenesko, MediaBistro, JournalismJobs, JournalismNext

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Morning Reading List, 04.16.08

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