Romenesko

St. Petersburg Times | The Hollywood Reporter
e.Republic was chosen from among six bidders for the magazine. Several of the principals of the California media company are members of the Church of Scientology, and the St. Petersburg Times has been running stories critical of the church. "It's a business deal," says Times Publishing veep Andrew Corty. "We didn't want to exclude anybody because of their personal or religious beliefs." || Related.
> Sacramento News & Review: "Executives at e.Republic are so close to Scientology that they don't understand where the [company] 'training' ends and the religion begins."

Times West Virginian
Times West Virginian publisher Andrew Kniceley (left) used his newspaper to apologize for yelling at a football coach because his son played only three plays in a game. "I regret any embarrassment or discomfort that I have caused FSU [Fairmont State University], my newspaper and my family -- especially my son Josh," writes the publisher, who is also chairman of the FSU board.

The Kojo Nnamdi
Listen to Thursday's WAMU discussion of the state of alternative media. The guests: Mark Jurkowitz of the Project for Excellence in Journalism; former Washington Blade editor Kevin Naff; Richard Karpel of the Association of Alternative Newsweeklies; and Washington City Paper editor Erik Wemple.

Nieman Journalism Lab | Poynter Online
One of the tweaks that Zachary Seward has noticed: Steve Brill used to use the term "wall" to describe subscription content, but he's now abandoned that language. "We're not putting up any kind of a paywall," he's been saying. || Earlier Brill interview with Steve Myers.

Westword
That's the approach William Breathes takes. He describes the decor ("like that hippie kid's hangout in high school -- complete with a boom box and thrift-store furniture"); the service ("employees didn't seem particularly interested in ... even helping me"); and what he ordered ("I'd settled on a gram of hash and two grams of herb"). The only thing missing is the number of stars he'd give the place.
> Earlier: Over 200 apply to be Westword's pot critic

NPR.org
"I've even talked to writers who've told me that it's an obsession," says editor Joe Randazzo. "Nearly everything that they see, think or do gets instantly reframed into this kind of headline." Re the staff's political leanings: "I would not say that we are a group of Republicans, but I don't think we're a group of really left-wing liberals either."

Washington City Paper
Erik Wemple reports several WashingtonPost.com editorial staffers as well as some non-editorial workers are among those who've gotten the ax as the website merges with the main Post newsroom.

Tampa Bay Business Journal
83 Degrees, which launched this week, is getting money from the Tampa Downtown Partnership, Pinellas County Economic Development, and city leaders in Tampa, Largo and Clearwater. A critic of the venture has already launched a parody site.

Online Journalism Review
That's too bad, says Robert Niles, because "Walt's management style empowered the company to cultivate fresh ideas," while news business management has smothered creativity. "As a newspaper online producer in the late 1990s and early 2000s, I'm quite familiar with the 'No, because...' speech, especially on projects relating to editorial coverage and social media."

Chicago Tribune
Chicago-Main Newsstand in Evanston has sold 140 copies of Granta 108: Chicago. The only other time the newsstand sold any issue that topped 100 copies was when Newsweek put out a special edition after Barack Obama won the presidential election. "It's unusual for a literary magazine to sell like that," says the newsstand owner. "Even mainstream magazines don't sell in that quantity -- 50 of anything is huge."

MarketWatch
"That makes us different -- doesn't make one right and one wrong," says John King, after being asked how his show will contrast with the one Lou Dobbs hosted.

Chicago Sun-Times
Richard Daley says gripes in the media about the city of Chicago shutting down part of Michigan Avenue for Oprah Winfrey's season kickoff may have been too much for the talk show queen. "You keep kicking people, and people will leave. Simple as that."

Columbia Journalism Review
"I actually hadn't seen the Economist cover when we designed this, so I wasn't even aware that they had arrived at the same design solution," says Atlantic art director Jason Treat. Graphic design historian Steven Heller tells Greg Marx that the similarity may be embarrassing, but "the off-the-cliff idea is one of those 'universal notions.'"

MinOnline
Steve Smith says the digital version of December's GQ isn't exactly the "App of the Year," "but Conde Nast's launch of the GQ 'Man of the Year' issue in an iPhone version brims with intriguing ideas about how to handle deeper magazine content on mobile platforms large and small."

Fayetteville Observer
Observer executive editor Mike Arnholt told the Army on Thursday that not allowing coverage of Sarah Palin's book promotion at Fort Bragg would set an unacceptable precedent. He was backed up by lawyer Matthew Freedus, who wrote: "As a general rule, military bases are not public forums. But when they are open to the public, they have to be open to the press to the same extent." The media now has limited access to Monday's event.
> AP lawyer calls restrictions "unlawful and unacceptable"

Chicago Tribune
Administrators at Stevenson High School in Lincolnshire, Ill. spiked today's edition of The Statesman because of stories on drinking and smoking by honor students, teen pregnancy, and shoplifting. The Student Press Law Center's director says: "It is irresponsible to withhold this information so they can protect their fantasy image of Stevenson as a place where no one has ever gotten pregnant or shoplifted."
> Earlier: Statesman adviser quits over "hooking up" brouhaha

Reuters
Harbinger Capital Partners now owns 14.64% of the Times Co's publicly traded shares. In September, the hedge fund reported a 16.38% stake.
> NYT's Chicago Report debuts today | Read it
> Will NYT go easy on HBO because of documentary?

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
Madison attorney Jon Axelrod tells the Wall Street Journal in a letter that "it is totally inappropriate to demean [former Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice Louis B. Butler Jr.] because of his race by comparing him to a butler, an occupation unfortunately stereotyped as predominantly African American."

Associated Press
It does that by laying off 90 newsroom employees -- about 2% of the workforce. || Gawker's been getting information from AP tipsters.
> AP reporters who found Palin book share $500 prize

Chronicle of Higher Education
Sanford Ungar, Neil Henry, Kathleen Hall Jamieson, Garrick Utley and others share their thoughts with the Chronicle. || Nicholas Lemann, Michael Schudson/Len Downie, and Carlin Romano also have pieces in the Chronicle's special issue on the future of journalism.

Associated Press
The Army says it fears Sarah Palin's book promotion on Monday will turn into political grandstanding against President Barack Obama, and that keeping the media away will prevent that. || UPDATE: After news orgs file complain, the Army says the media will have limited access.

Newsweek
Brian Williams says of "The Daily Show with Jon Stewart": "How did we live without it?"

NPR.org
Oddly, several news organizations refer to the president's chief of staff on a second reference as "Rahm Emanuel," writes Alicia Shepard. "NPR has just decided to make that a policy after correspondent Nina Totenberg referred to Emanuel three times by his first name only on-air. ...If it were up to me, NPR would not have a special rule for Emanuel (he'd just be Emanuel)."

ProPublica
"We sink a lot of wells, and it's sometimes a surprise when we hit a gusher," writes Stephen Engelberg. "It's why cash-strapped news organizations are backing away from [investigative reporting]. No one can say how a story will end. And no one can really predict what it will accomplish."

Talking Biz News | NYTimes.com
Chris Roush reports BusinessWeek senior writer Stephen Baker, Technology & You columnist Steve Wildstrom, personal finance editor Lauren Young and engagement editor Shirley Brady are among those leaving. (Stephanie Clifford: About 100 of BW's 400 employees cut.) Media columnist Jon Fine tweets: "I will not be returning to BusinessWeek and my column once Bloomberg owns the mag." || Live-blogging the BW layoffs.

paidContent.org
Staci Kramer figures the annual revenue from Kindle subscriptions is about $4.5 million, with the Wall Street Journal getting less than half that after Amazon.com takes its cut.

Manchester, Conn. Journal Inquirer
The Journal Inquirer's story on the lawsuit says "the Courant is accused of using its competitor's work to make up for the work formerly done by the Courant's own reporting staff, which was cut in half in the last two years." The lawsuit calls the Courant's alleged plagiarism "immoral, oppressive, unethical, and unscrupulous."
> Earlier: Papers start noticing Courant trend -- plagiarism

On Point Radio
Jeff Jarvis, Michael Wolff, and Steven Brill were guests on this morning's "On Point with Tom Ashbrook." (Brill once again refused to name any news organizations that have signed up with Journalism Online.) Listen to it.

Bay Windows
The editors of New England's largest gay/lesbian newspaper say that when the gay community is "viewed as a marketing demographic rather than a movement, the result should not be surprising. The death of [Washington Blade parent] Window Media was self-inflicted." || City Paper: Washington Blade plans to return as the D.C. Agenda.

Wall Street Journal
In an Oct. 13 e-mail to student reporters, a George Washington law school PR official wrote that "the Supreme Court's Public Information Office has asked to approve any quotes you use from the justice's speech." WRGW news director Jesse Regis tells Jess Bravin he had no choice but to comply with the preclearance request. Justice Anthony Kennedy's lecture was "a big event for us, and you have to play by their rules."

Editor & Publisher
Their investigation into public employee pensions will run Nov. 29, reports Joe Strupp. Seven papers are involved.

Maynard Institute
The 20 demonstrators are angry that this "Mallard Fillmore" cartoon ran just a week after the one-year anniversary of the death of Ecuadorean immigrant Marcelo Lucero.

Wall Street Journal
The police department and Manhattan District Attorney's office are investigating whether the Newspaper and Mail Deliverers' Union has again forged ties with organized crime. A grand jury indicted the union in 1992 on a corruption charge.

TampaBay.com
The items for sale include the cover image, a local band profile and photo shoot, the chance to write a music review of your choice and a chance to add your questions to an interview that the alt-weekly's political editor will conduct with a politician. Eric Deggans asks: "What if a group of white supremacists want to buy the cover?"

Daily Press (Newport News)
"Most Americans probably already know pretty much what's happened by the time they get home at night, with radio and the Internet and iPods," says retired TV newsman Roger Mudd. "So at 6:30 p.m., they don't want to sit in front of television for a half hour and have someone tell them what they already know."

SwampPolitics.com
Fox News host Gregg Jarrett told viewers that Sarah Palin is "continuing to draw huge crowds while she's promoting her brand new book." He then showed old file footage of Palin rallies from the 2008 presidential campaign. Mark Silva hears this will result in "serious disciplinary action."

Fort Myers News-Press
"I have the right to pick and choose who I want to speak to," Sheriff Mike Scott said as he walked away, "and don't you forget it." He refuses to grant face-to-face or phone interviews with the News-Press because of its coverage of various sheriff's office issues.

Arizona Republic | cronkite.asu.edu
Brian Williams, who received the 2009 Walter Cronkite Award for Excellence in Journalism at Arizona State University, said if the late CBS anchor had come along today, he would have gotten less attention. "I think there's too much noise. There's too much to cut through for a modest man from Missouri." || Watch Williams give his speech.

TheWrap.com
Sharon Waxman reports the Hollywood Reporter and other publications are close to being sold to James Finkelstein, whose family's News Communications Inc. owns the "Who's Who" series.

TPM LiveWire
Publisher Jonathan Slevin also asks readers to "read certain newspaper and blog reports about this organization with a discerning eye. Many of our competitors enthusiastically repeat rumors, myths and misinformation." He doesn't correct or cite any errors in those reports.

Wall Street Journal | All Things D
Conde Nast and Adobe Systems are building a digital version of Wired magazine for electronic reading devices, reports Russell Adams. The publisher will eventually release versions for all of its titles. || More from Peter Kafka.

> Sun-Times promotes baseball writer DeLuca to sports editor
> WP: Blade's importance to our area can't be overstated
> What "Morning Joe" serves up isn't as hot these days
> It wasn't Riverfront Times that lost the torso pics case
> CNN's Rollins calls Dobbs "smart, a man of integrity"
> Dobbs' total-control clause may be the last of its kind
> Rock critic Hilburn recalls the clout he had in 1975
> Lipsky's ever-so-slowly resurrecting the New York Sun

STLtoday.com
St. Louis Post-Dispatch social media editor Kurt Greenbaum says before calling a school to report that one of its computers was used to post a vulgar comment, "I should have walked the idea around the newsroom a little more." PLUS: More lessons learned from the incident, which resulted in a school employee losing his job.

Editor & Publisher
Allvoices will pay up to $250 per story to journalists selected to participate in its "Provoices" program. If the story generates a lot of traffic, the writer could be eligible for more money. Former Boston Globe correspondent and Chicago Sun-Times columnist Lynda Gorov will oversee the program. || Related story

Forbes.com
"I don't think Poynter would try it," says Rick Edmonds, "but it might make sense for the [New York] Daily News." (Its owner, Mort Zuckerman, has pitched the idea.) || What Edmonds will tell the FTC next month: "I'll be talking about the bankruptcies newspapers face and explain the likelihood that more staff cuts will be coming to newspapers next year."

Romenesko Letters
"He'd actually advocate transparency in the federal judiciary that would increase the tiny number of reporters who subsist on the trickle of news allowed by the judges," writes John Maggs.

New York Daily News | WSJ.com
The $2.99 app was released Wednesday. "We're excited to see GQ on devices that have been synonymous with envelope pushing and creative innovation, says GQ editor-in-chief Jim Nelson. || Earlier: It's "a breakthrough in the magazine giant's embrace of digital publishing."

Daily Finance
Runner's World tells Jeff Bercovici that Brian Adams's contract contains a clause stipulating that his photos of Sarah Palin in gym shorts would be under embargo until August 2010. "That leaves the questions of whether anyone at Newsweek knew that Adams was not contractually free to sell the photo, and whether the promised embargo was a factor in Palin's decision to pose for Runner's World," writes Bercovici.

PeerNews.com
Pierre Omidyar's online operation will produce original, in-depth reporting and analysis of local issues in Hawaii. He's aiming for an early 2010 launch. || Howard Weaver, who is advising Omidyar and partner Randy Ching, writes about the venture.
> Hawaii is a test bed, in part; if it works, expect expansion

Los Angeles Times

CNN

Candy Crowley ("before" photo at left) tells James Rainey that she didn't have surgery, as has been rumored in the blogosphere; instead, she's been dieting, swimming and working out. A change she thinks has made the biggest difference: Transcendental Meditation.

Philadelphia Inquirer
The auction had been scheduled for today. Philadelphia Newspapers' attorney hopes the appeals court will issues its ruling before the end of December. It's to decide whether senior lenders can use money they're owed to bid for the media firm.

Columbia Journalism Review
"A doomed strategy would be to wish that it were 1950 again and retreat into denial," says Rod Durst. "A winning strategy would be to embrace the change and figure out how to manage and monetize it by leveraging the existing brand."

Toronto Star
"It's not easy monitoring events from 10,000 kilometres away," writes Martin Regg Cohn, "but covering Iran from Toronto is still easier than it was in Tehran when New York Times reporter Nazila Fathi was holed up in her apartment, watched by security agents, her phone and Internet connections compromised."

Wall Street Journal
Supreme Court Justice Anthony Kennedy says the request came from a new employee who misunderstood his rule for classroom visits: no outside media, but campus reporters are welcome. "My family is all upset, and other people are calling me" about reports that Kennedy barred a student paper from publishing an article about his talk without his approval. || Jess Bravin: Kennedy's day of misunderstanding.

Bible Belt Blogger
"It's kind of my fault," confesses Frank Lockwood. He was with Times managing editor Jill Abramson in Buenos Aires for a fellowship project when they watched a preacher exorcise a demon from a wild-eyed woman. "Since that day, I've never stepped foot in another Universal Church of the Kingdom of God congregation," writes Lockwood.
> Ex-WTer says Moon church religious ceremony was "creepy"

Daily Northwestern
"To do so would violate federal privacy law," says professor David Protess, discussing prosecutors' subpoena of information about Medill investigative journalism students. "I will also refuse to comply with any demand to turn over unpublished information, because that would set a terrible precedent for other student journalists."

Content Bridges
That's what former St. Paul Pioneer Press managing editor Ken Doctor says. His suggestion to the area's media: "Before you go to the mattresses, in a war of words and attrition, look to how you can collectively use the new tools of the trade ... to produce more worthy-of-Lake Wobegon above-average journalism, rather than less."

Neon Tommy
"That's why they brought me in," says Drex Heikes. "I call [investigative reporting] 'journalism with a capital J' and that's why I'm here. ... We want good, hard-nosed investigative work." He says an open reporting position attracted 429 applicants, including Pulitzer Prize winners.

Washington Post
Former Washington Times editorial page editor Richard Miniter (left) says he "was made to feel there was no choice" but to attend the ceremony if he wanted to keep his job. No one at the paper gave him an explanation when he stopped receiving pay and benefits in September, and "now I'm sad and angry."

Texas Tribune
Harry Cabluck spent forty years AP. "He was in the presidential motorcade on that balmy day in November 1963 when John F. Kennedy was shot," writes Elise Hu, "has photographed every president since then, and caught countless backroom moments of George W. Bush's run for the White House."

Associated Press | Bloomberg
AP spokesman Paul Colford wouldn't give numbers to an AP reporter, but the union representing AP employees said 38 Guild-covered journalists had been fired as of Tuesday night. The Guild didn't have a count for how many managers and workers outside the U.S. lost their jobs. || UPDATE: The union now says 57 of its members were fired.
> Four on AP's business desk laid off

New York Observer
Jodi Kantor will write about the Obamas. "[Her] book will draw on the three years of reporting she has done since giving up the editorship of The Times’ Arts & Leisure section," writes Leon Neyfakh.