Romenesko

Washington Post | New York Times
In a letter to readers about the salons uproar, Post publisher Katharine Weymouth says "our mistake was to suggest that we would hold and participate in an off-the-record dinner with journalists and power brokers paid for by a sponsor. We will not organize such events. ...I apologize to our readers for the mistakes I made in this case." || David Carr: Weymouth’s initial explanation broke a WP tradition: those who are handed the sword generally fall on it when trouble comes.

New York Times
"I have a feeling for what was going through the minds of Times editors [when they worked to keep David Rohde's kidnapping quiet]," writes NYT public editor Clark Hoyt. "In 2005, while I was Washington editor of the Knight Ridder newspapers, our Jerusalem correspondent, Dion Nissenbaum, and a British photographer were abducted in Gaza by armed thugs. Fearing for their lives, I asked news organizations not to report it -- and none did."

True/Slant
NPR's Scott Simon gets an A from Lewis Grossberger for his "straightforward" presentation that's "full of Journalism 101 verities." Bob Woodward gets a failing grade for being "the epitome of the tired, droning, narcolepsy-inducing academic who inspired so many of us to cut our 8 and 9 o’clocks in college." PLUS: More teacher evaluations.

> Michigan State U. j-school director is asked to resign
> ESPN Mag's Simmons: Decision to end column was mine
> "Don't let the state of the industry bring you down"
> More on financial advisers' newspaper "columns"
> Edelman's Rubel on blogs losing their luster to Twitter
> Why don't newspaper columnists make good bloggers?
> Franken-Coleman pundits now free to hit the beach
> Journos from FT, NYT, other outlets discuss media biz
> New York Blade lays off editor, suspends publication
> SAJA gives scholarship money to seven students
> Milwaukee JS to print Kenosha News; 53 lose jobs

San Jose Mercury News
Alison van Diggelen may be an unknown, but her interview subjects aren't. The citizen journalist has convinced Martin Sheen, Charlie Rose, Jack Welch and others to chat for her podcasts. Maureen Dowd, who agreed to an interview, says: "I thought it would be rude to say no. She was persistent, charming and enthusiastic, which is kind of an unbeatable combination."

Kennebec Journal
Scott Wasser will help MaineToday Media CEO Richard Connor run the editorial departments of the Portland Press Herald, Kennebec Journal, Morning Sentinel, Coastal Journal and their related websites that MaineToday Media recently acquired from Seattle Times Co. Wasser keeps his title of vice president/news at Connor's Wilkes-Barre Times Leader.

Associated Press
A dozen equity owners, about a dozen freelancers and partner blogs are providing content for the Rocky Mountain Independent, led by former Rocky Mountain News journalists.

Modesto Bee
Lynn Dickerson's duties will be divided between McClatchy's two other operational vice presidents. "We continue to restructure and transition to a new business model, one that requires us to be smaller and more efficient in every area of the organization," says CEO Gary Pruitt. "This includes our senior management and corporate offices."

Reuters
Congressional Quarterly says the accusations of corporate espionage and theft of information are baseless. Federal News also accuses CQ, which Poynter is selling, of trying to buy the transcript provider to eliminate a competitor.

Washington Post | Slate
Former Miami Herald editor Tom Fiedler says news organizations should be a neutral broker among differing interests and that "what the Post was looking to do was to make a profit on the role of the convener. ...The idea of crossing a boundary line that seems to me painted so brightly white, I'm astonished that it got this far." || Jack Shafer: What really stinks is that Katharine Weymouth appears to have considered selling something that wasn't hers to sell -- WP's credibility.
> News of WP's planned salons inspired wisecracks in DC
> WPers, who can't even accept a coffee mug, were "furious"
> Temple on lessons learned from the Post's salons fiasco

Boston Globe
Former advertising executive Jack Connors and private equity investor Stephen Pagliuca got the okay this week from the New York Times Co. to team up for a potential Globe bid. Meanwhile, the Times has moved to make a sale more palatable by asking would-be buyers to assume only a portion of the Globe's pension liability, report Robert Weisman and Beth Healy. Overall liability from pension plans at the Globe exceeds $200 million.

LAObserved.com | LATimes.com
John Arthur was the #2 editor. "John and I did not agree on the need for the just-announced masthead changes, and we differ on the best approach to reaching our goals," says Times editor Russ Stanton. Sports editor Randy Harvey becomes associate editor and obituaries editor Jon Thurber is promoted to managing editor, print.
> Arthur was a leftover from the O'Shea era, an editor ago

Boston Globe
Globe editorial page editor Renee Loth, who has been with the paper for 24 years, says "I was once described in a magazine profile as 'the most powerful woman in Boston.' This was cause for much hilarity among my family and friends. But of course it's not the power of any one individual, but only this institution, the Boston Globe, that gives the editorial page its influence."
> John Kelly: "People are on the move here at the Post"

ChicagoReader.com
The Chicago Tribune is paying its Chicago Now bloggers $5 per 1,000 hits. Michael Miner is told that the operation has 65 bloggers and last month recorded 700,000 pageviews. That works out to $3,500 split 65 ways, or about $54 a blogger for the month.

WP Ombudsman's Blog
Post ombudsman Andrew Alexander says reaction to the story about the Post's off-the-record salons "was immediate and ranged from anger to disappointment to disbelief." The promotional flier came out of the office of Charles Pelton, who recently joined the paper to find ways to generate business through conferences and events. Pelton says newsroom leaders had been involved in discussions about the salons. "This was well developed with the newsroom. What was not developed was the marketing message to potential sponsors."
> WH spokesman Gibbs discusses the controversy

True/Slant
It's fair for a media writer like Howard Kurtz to point out the sudden presence of female faces of color among the press in the White House, says Lisa Takeuchi Cullen, but "what I don’t think is fair is the implication, careful and nuanced as it is, that their work ought to be specially inspected for bias. ...Don't tarnish their professionalism by prematurely alleging bias." || Related from TheRoot.com.

GlobalPost.com
"The Daily Show" and "The Colbert Report" had plenty of laughs in their reports from Iran and Iraq, says Thomas Mucha, "but they also produced some insightful -- and certainly entertaining -- coverage of these two complex and important global stories. If Wolf Blitzer isn't quaking in his beard, he should be."

Politico.com | WP | Hillman Foundation
A Washington Post spokeswoman says a flier promoting $25,000 to $250,000 WP-sponsored sessions with "those powerful few" went out before it was properly vetted, "and this draft does not represent what the company's vision for these dinners are." || Executive editor Marcus Brauchli (left): "We will not participate in events where promises are made that in exchange for money The Post will offer access to newsroom personnel or will refrain from confrontational questioning." || More from Howard Kurtz. || Comment from Charles Kaiser.
> Kane: Reaction in WP newsroom was astonishment
> Kafka: Why not have editorial staffers participate?

Boston Globe
A dozen "idiot" editors came and went between 1975 and 2000. Owner Herb Lipson -- he's the guy who fired several Boston mag staffers, then enjoyed a steak -- once boasted during the good times that he was "backstroking in green." Lipson, says a former editor, "is to the right of Attila the Hun" and wants his magazines -- he owns Philadelphia, too -- "going after poor people, Democrats, the handicapped, minorities."

NPR.org
Former LAT and NYT investigative journalist Doug Frantz now works for Sen. John Kerry on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his first report -- on Iran's nuclear program -- "is surprisingly readable for a finding by a Senate committee," says David Folkenflik. Frantz tells him: "My first and highest responsibility there was to produce something that would inform Sen. John Kerry, my boss. In a sense, everything I do and write is for an audience of one."

Politico.com
Mike Allen reports the Washington Post is offering lobbyists and association executives off the record, non-confrontational access to "those powerful few" -- WH officials, members of Congress, and Post reporters and editors -- for $25,000 to $250,000. The offer, writes Allen, "is a new sign of the lengths to which news organizations will go to find revenue at a time when most newspapers are struggling for survival."

Washington Post
That's what the Post's Robin Givhan tells Howard Kurtz, who points out that five reporters who cover Michelle Obama are African American women. "Whether racial and gender identification produces a gauzier, more favorable portrayal of Obama is perhaps too early to judge," he writes. "After all, no one raises questions when an Irish American male reporter covers a pol named Murphy."

TheStreet.com
Rupert Murdoch says Michael Wolff's claim that he's planned out a Times deal in detail is "nonsense." "I don't think it's for sale anyway. I haven't even thought about it. But I would imagine that it would be legally and politically almost impossible, so I'm not thinking about it." How's advertising at WSJ? he's asked by Dan Freed. "Marginally better than at other newspapers, but not great. Certainly we have reduced our costs at The Journal I think fully as much as we've declined in national advertising."

Women's Wear Daily
"Do I like it? Well, sometimes I like it. You get in fights because there's something to fight about," Michael Wolff tells Irin Carmon. Lately, Wolff has been fighting with Times media writer David Carr, who says Wolff "has credibility. I just don't think he's spending it very well."

NYTimes.com
David Rohde is low-key by nature, and he was in character as he spoke briefly in the Times newsroom on Wednesday, reports Clyde Haberman. He didn't discuss details of his abduction or of his escape, but he said that his escort and interpreter, Tahir Ludin, had told the hostage takers that if they wanted to chop off Rohde’s head, they would have to chop off his own first.