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Some OTM listeners following the coverage of the earthquake in Haiti have written us to point out the sheer numbers of reporters who had made their way to the stricken island. In a commentary for The New Republic, senior editor Noam Scheiber suggests that the press should cover disasters like Haiti the same way it covers the day-to-day activities of the President: through a pool.
The National Enquirer has gotten a lot of mainstream press recognition recently for singlehandedly breaking John Edwards’ affair with Rielle Hunter. On the heels of last week's admission by Edwards that he is the father of an illegitimate child with Hunter, the tabloid has announced it is submitting its coverage for the Pulitzer Prize. Executive Editor Barry Levine discusses the chances and the Enquirer’s image in the mainstream press.
Journalist Paige Williams wrote a profile of Dolly Freed, a reclusive author who'd been briefly famous in the 1970s after writing a book about her years spent living off the grid. When Williams couldn't find anyone willing to publish Freed's story, she decided to publish it herself and ask readers for donations.
Time was journalism school was touted as the first step to entering The Industry and making a living. But The Industry is quickly collapsing and j-school is scrambling to adjust its training accordingly. Jeff Jarvis, professor and new-media evangelist, argues that the future lies in teaching ‘entrepreneurial journalism,’ where every student is a business venture.
Last week, Comcast moved one step closer to acquiring NBC-Universal when the two companies reportedly agreed on a valuation of NBC-Universal at around $30 billion. The idea of combining distribution and content has always seemed like a good idea to media moguls, but Craig Moffett, analyst at Bernstein Research, says it never really works out.
This week, the Associated Press fired a shot across the bow of news aggregation sites like Google and the Huffington Post. Without calling any site out by name, the AP said they would take legal action against websites that use their content without paying. Business Week's media columnist Jon Fine says news companies seem ready to ask consumers to pay for content again.
This week, On the Media is re-airing a show dedicated to one of our favorite topics – books. From Oprah's Book Club to the Google Library Project, the way we buy, search, read and even discuss books is changing. And so we begin with a look at some of the forces now tugging at the industry.
Michael Kinsley is a longtime columnist and editor, mostly of non-fiction. He also happens to think there’s much too much of the stuff and even he has trouble staying afloat in the sea of new books each year. Kinsley explains his predicament.
