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A Grim Take on the State of the News Business

Maria Puente USA Today
A look at the state of investigative reporting and long form journalism, a former New York Times editor details threats to an informed public coming from the decline of newspapers and the rise of social media gimmicks that beggar fact-based writing.

labor

The Backstory Behind the Unions that Bought a Chicago Sun-Times Stake

Brian Dolber The Conversation
An investment group led by former Chicago alderman and businessman Edwin Eisendrath and the Chicago Federation of Labor recently pulled off an unusual feat when it acquired the Chicago Sun-Times. The purchase is a return to labor’s long tradition in fostering a broader public sphere.

labor

Union Group Led by Eisendrath Outduels Trib Owner to Acquire Sun-Times

Mitchell Armentrout Chicago Sun-Times
The Eisendrath group’s deal preserves two independent newspaper voices in Chicago, one of the last two-newspaper towns in America. Tronc had vowed to operate the Tribune and Sun-Times as independent titles, though media observers had expressed skepticism over how long that might last.

The Black Press: Soldiers Without Swords

A  powerful and engaging account of American history that has been virtually forgotten: the story of the pioneering black newspapermen and women who gave voice to black America. 

Media Bits & Bytes - It's Elementary edition

Portside
Seattle pauses surveillance plans; Journalists on the move; Google wins book-scanning decision; Supercomputer Watson for all; Writers persecuted for digital media use; Google bigger than print industries.

Media Bits & Bytes – On the Move Edition – May 7, 2013

Portside
Racializing the Boston Bombers; LA Times Drops the "I-Word"; NY Times, Not So Much; ESPN Becomes New Conduit to Obama; Newspapers Remain Immobile; Online Ads Follow You Around; New Fight Over Internet `Wiretapping'; Feds Becoming Big Customer of Consumer Data Collected by Corporations; Decade of iTunes Killed the CD Industry; Journalism or Churnalism?; Wikipedia Has Women Problems

Is the Press Too Big to Fail? - It's Dumb Journalism, Stupid

Todd Gitlin TomDispatch.com
The news, with the usual notable exceptions, was generally a tawdry affair in the service of power. Still, can there be any question that, as the newspaper fades, we're entering a new age of conglomerated mainstream chaos? You only needed to check out the "coverage" of the Boston Marathon bombing aftermath - which you would have had to be blind, deaf, and dumb to miss... What possible dreams (other than coverage nightmares) could emerge from that? - Tom Engelhardt
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