Degradation

Degrading authorship is something the web already does spectacularly well.

Joshua Benton of Nieman Journalism Lab, on how Medium renders authorship secondary

News Byte

Paid Newspaper Aggregator Ongo Shuts Down

Ongo, a newspaper-backed startup that tried to sell digital subscriptions to a variety of publications, is shuttering after less than two years. The New York Times, the Washington Post and Gannett each put a reported $4 million into the company, but it never got traction with subscribers. Nieman Journalism Lab has a good exit interview with CEO Dan Haarmann, who blames Apple’s subscription policy, among other factors, for the company’s failure.

There’s No Tomorrow

The reason for the change is that articles are no longer written only for the newspaper. Breaking news is posted immediately on the Globe’s websites; stories are then fleshed out, posted again, then put into the process for the next day’s paper and the next day’s web entries. With all that traffic, a reliance on “yesterday,” “today,” and “tomorrow” is an invitation for error.

Charles Mansbach, Page 1 editor of the Boston Globe, on why the paper will no longer use the words in stories

Voices

Attention Versus Distraction? What That Big NY Times Story Leaves Out

Yesterday’s Sunday Times devoted the lead slot of its front page to a long examination of the effects of the web on the attention spans of teenagers.

Voices

Cartoonist: Apple Backs Down After Denying iPhone App

The cartoonist who won the Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning this week says Apple has asked him to resubmit an iPhone app that it earlier rejected because it “ridicules public figures.” Mark Fiore, who won the prize for animations that ran on SFGate.com, submitted an iPhone app to Apple last year and received an email informing him that his application had been denied, according to a post by Laura McGann at Harvard’s Nieman Journalism Lab.

Does Your Mom Edit Your Blog? Google Wants to Know.

Why did Google start labeling blogs as “blogs” in its search results? Eric Schmidt thinks it may have to do with your mother.

What Does the New York Times Really Know About Apple’s Tablet? “I Ain’t Sayin’,” Says Editor Bill Keller.

All the news we can’t tell you about? Most publishers can’t even get Apple to acknowledge that it’s working on a tablet, but maybe the newspaper of record has more pull. In any event, its top editor is staying mostly mum.

The AP Tries a “Truthiness” Approach: “We’re Not Talking to Google” Means “We’re Talking to Google”

Associated Press CEO Tom Curley told a group of journalists this week that his company isn’t talking to Google about renewing its licensing deal. But they have been talking for months and talked again this week.

Voices

Google Offers to Help Newspapers Charge for Their Content

Google, which is often in the crosshairs of newspaper publishers, thinks it can help newspaper companies get paid for their work. The search giant is planning to upgrade its existing Google Checkout payment service to handle a broad suite of billing and subscription services targeted at premium content creators like newspapers, according to a memo the company recently submitted to the Newspaper Association of America.

Who Says the Web Doesn’t Pay? Gawker Boss Nick Denton Says He’ll Shell Out for Salacious Stories.

The blog network owner says he’ll open his checkbook for readers who have amazing tales and pictures he can publish. He’s not talking TMZ money, yet. But “I’d love to have their reputation–as the place you go if you want to make a buck.”