Monday Night Closing

Zell's past may hint at plan for Tribune - Los Angeles Times
What happened during his ownership of Jacor may be more relevant to the case of Tribune, the Chicago-based parent of the Los Angeles Times, KTLA-TV Channel 5, the Chicago Tribune, two dozen other TV stations, nine other newspapers and the Chicago Cubs baseball team. Zell is a maverick in his casual dress, blunt language and contrarian investing approach. Unlike some other self-made tycoons, he is far from a lone wolf. Throughout his career, Zell has forged strong relationships with partners and subordinates.

Media more fearful about the Internet - Chicago Tribune
This year's report, released Monday, finds them terrified of it, and that, says PEJ director Tom Rosenstiel, is progress.The fear is the galvanizing kind, he says, and with it have come scrambling to catch up and hope the Internet will rescue businesses such as print and television news whose analog models appear to be in steady and irreversible decline.

The news is fast becoming just another commodity - The Guardian
The Los Angeles Times, the newspaper of record for America's second largest city, has been busily destroying itself over the past couple years. Faced with shrinking revenues, and competition from a host of online information sources, the paper's large investors have been demanding one cutback upon another.

Newspaper Asks Public to Identify Local Blogger - Workbench
I don't know Padgett, but he has the right to speak his mind on the web without intimidation by politicians and the press, whether or not he's writing under his real name.

Web revolution leaving newsgathering in a lurch - USA Today
The annual State of the News Media report, out today, finds that most newspapers are ramping up their websites to stay relevant. But because online advertising lags in comparison to print, many newspapers can't adequately staff their websites with reporters who gather news.
"The dirty little secret of the information revolution is it has been more about repurposing or repackaging news than gathering it," project director Tom Rosenstiel says. Meanwhile, many newspapers are cutting their print staffs to satisfy profit demands as the industry retrenches. "The greatest risk, as revenues decline in print and don't grow sufficiently online, is dead newspapers and websites that are pale imitations of what papers used to be."