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Suntimes.com | TheWrap.com
"He is the longest-serving and best-known member of the paper's staff, and if they made such a drastic decision, we are invited to wonder if Variety itself will long survive," writes Roger Ebert. || Sharon Waxman interviews the dismissed film critic.

Associated Press | Topeka Capital-Journal
Claire O'Brien told other reporters that GateHouse refused to pay for her legal representation and scuttled her efforts to find legal help after being ordered to testify about a jailhouse interview with a murder suspect. GateHouse denies that, and O'Brien was fired from the Dodge City Daily Globe on Friday.

Chicago Tribune
The Tribune will edit, format and produce whole pages for the Daily Press. "This is a model that, particularly in smaller markets, although I can see it in larger markets as well, can change the economics of the newspaper business the same way Clear Channel changed the economics of the radio business," says Daily Press president Digby Solomon.

From: Gray, Tim M (RBI-US)
Sent: Monday, March 08, 2010 1:14 PM
To: Editorial Staff
Subject: internal memo, for Variety editorial staff only

Change is always scary, and at Variety, we have had a lot of changes in the past few years. But change is not always bad.

We are making further changes in the newsroom. We will post a story to the web, which the Dailies will run tomorrow. That's to update the outside world. This memo is to give details to you staffers, and we will have a meeting this afternoon to address any questions.

Today's changes won't be noticed by readers. Our goal is the same: To maintain, or improve, our quality coverage. But internally, we hope the changes -- which will include several new hires coming aboard -- will make things more streamlined and efficient, will eliminate unnecessary work, and will increase coordination and communication in the newsroom.

I want to outline the new editorial structure, then give you some thoughts on the bigger picture.

The newsroom will be in four areas: reporting, web, features and producing (copy editors, paginators, art dept.). Note that I didn't use the word "divisions." Because we will continue to integrate, a process that began about a year ago.

This involves several title changes, reflecting shifts in roles and duties that have begun during this past year.

Kirstin Wilder will finally get her well-deserved title of managing editor. She will continue to make sure everything runs efficiently, to oversee production and finances, and to coordinate editorial needs/concerns at the corporate level. Several people will now report directly to her.

Steve Gaydos will keep his executive editor title but drop the word "features," to reflect the fact that he is expanding his duties. Aside from maintaining his expert stewardship over VPlus, he will contribute to other growing areas.

Chris Krewson and Leo Wolinsky will obviously keep their new titles and duties. They have already devised ways to work more efficiently and effectively, on the web and in print.

Dana Harris's new title is editor of strategic projects, developing special content for additional tiers of readers behind the paywall.

Other new titles: Carole Horst, associate editor; Paula Taylor, creative director; Ted Johnson and Cynthia Littleton, deputy editors; and Terry Flores, senior editor.

Maintaining their titles, but with increased responsibility, are Brian Cochrane and Pat Saperstein.

As for the bigger picture:

Reviews: We are not changing our review policy. Last year we ran more than 1,200 film reviews. No other news outlet comes even close, and we will continue to be the leader in numbers and quality. It doesn't make economic sense to have full-time reviewers, but Todd, Derek and Rooney have been asked to continue as freelancers. And, of course, we still have great people on staff, including Justin Chang, Peter Debruge and Brian Lowry, who will continue their work as critics while performing their other key duties. And we will of course still use David Benedict in London and other freelancers.

Legit coverage: It's part of our heritage, and we will naturally continue. But the recent readers' survey reminded us that our approach to legit was a throwback to another era.

Since Variety is about business news, our coverage will be smarter, more geared for the industry and less consumer-y.

Variety restructuring: Last year, Neil Stiles and Brian Gott went to Amsterdam and met with other Reed Elsevier executives. Most said only 10-20% of their publications' income came from subscriptions and ads. It's a new world in the media, and it's a new world at Variety. Our content will remain basically the same, but the financial structure will change. We've already started making money from the paywall, events and conferences, licensing, etc etc. While these are new areas, the primary concern is this: What can we give Variety readers that they need, and what can we do better than anyone else? Believe me, these new areas are not done lightly or arbitrarily.

Newsroom restructuring: Variety editorial is the engine that gives the Variety "brand" its credibility and importance. Don't ever forget that. For the readers and advertisers who matter, we are still "the gold standard," as one reader put it. That comment is both a pat on the back, and a challenge to continue at that level. We're raising the bar on our coverage, to make it sharper. Nobody is asking you to work harder, but we all need to work smarter.

Reasons for optimism: The economy will bounce back. Ignore the bloggers (who obviously are trying in vain to steal our readers and our advertisers), ignore the obits for Old Media, ignore the negatives and the craziness that this economy has created. The people in the Depression bounced back, and so will all of us who are going through this crisis. I cannot repeat this often enough: Variety is in profit, which means we're here to stay.

In conclusion: Call our exiting colleagues, just to check in. This is hard for all of us, but it's harder for them.

Be sensitive to co-workers. Doom-&-gloom helps no one. It may make you feel better to talk about your darkest fears, but it might make them feel worse.

If you have questions, ask me. If you want to ask through someone else, anonymously, that's fine. If I can answer the questions, I will, either individually or at the next editorial meeting.

You guys are doing great work. I am constantly impressed with your level of professionalism, hard work, ethics and good humor. As responsibilities and pressures have increased, you have all shown amazing grace. You should be very proud of yourselves. Which may be the most important paragraph here. (Oh, no, I buried the lede...)

Thanks.

Tim

Jon Venables could be murdered by vengeful vigilantes if his new identity is revealed, the judge who granted his anonymity warned last night.

MPs from all parties yesterday condemned media speculation over the reasons that Jon Venables has been returned to prison.

Questions were last night raised about the monitoring of the online activity of sex offenders after it emerged that a convicted rapist was able to use the social networking site Facebook to befriend a vulnerable teenager he then raped and murdered.

The prompt "#ImTiredOfSeeing" is the most talked about topic on Twitter on the morning of March 9.

Industry tracker comScore on Monday reported that US online video viewing at YouTube climbed 50 percent in January as compared to the same month a year earlier.

While launching an experimental visualization tool called Google Public Data Explorer in Google Labs, Google set about finding the most searched for public data search queries in the US.

Citymag.org
Topping the finalists list with 10 or more nominations are Texas Monthly, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia magazines. Winners will be announced in June.

NYTimes.com Media Decoder
Film reviewer Todd McCarthy and theater critic David Rooney were cut as a cost-saving measure, says Variety president Neil Stiles. || "On the Media": Variety pulls a negative review after an advertiser complains.

Barrons.com | WashingtonPost.com
A recent Washington Post Co. filing discloses that the Department of Education has been conducting a "Program Review" of Kaplan University's main offices in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. "The Post business desk seemed not to notice any of this, but Post investors might want to," write Barron's journalists in their second column item. || Howard Kurtz was asked about this in today's chat.

Broadcasting & Cable
Instead, the FCC is trying to figure out what, if anything, the government needs to do to preserve some of their traditional public-service functions in a world being deconstructed by new media, writes John Eggerton. He does a Q&A with the FCC's Steven Waldman.

> Beacon Journal union OKs contract with 2.11% pay cut
> Baltimore blogger sues to get press pass from gov
> WPer on getting Pentagon shooter's brother to talk
> "Gawker seems to have a love-hate relationship with me"
> LAT editor on A1 "Alice" ad: "It wasn't my decision"
> Honolulu journos rally to save jobs in Star-Bulletin sale
> Gary, Ind. paper accuses rival of lying on billboard
> Network news starts doing less with less | Related
> Recalling the 1945 murder of a Minneapolis muckraker
> Bob Greene: USPS deserves praise for Mauldin stamp
> Wife of Boston Herald's Carr wants students to sober up
> Pogue leads biz journos in number of Twitter followers

Capitol Weekly
"Jerry Brown frequently called reporters on the phone or confronted them in person to complain about their stories or try to shape them or both," writes John Howard. "Part of the ritual of a new reporter assigned to the Capitol included a meeting with Brown." || New York Times: Mike Royko and "Governor Moonbeam."

From: James Warren
Date: Mon, Mar 8, 2010 at 10:26 AM
Subject: Announcement from Jim Warren
To: [Chicago Reader staff]

I'm leaving the Reader, taking on enhanced duties with the Chicago News Cooperative and pursuing other intriguing journalism opportunities.

I will always be grateful for the confidence shown by Richard Gilbert and Michael Bogdan of Atalaya Capital when hiring me as President and Publisher. As you know, Richard was serving as temporary head of the enterprise when I took this great opportunity. The CEO position was vacant and it was always a possibility that when filled, it might make sense for that person to assemble his or her own team.

As I analyzed the needs of the Reader at this important moment in its history, I've decided to step aside and facilitate that process. The paper needs a corporate team working in lockstep, especially at a time of great financial need.

There are important nuts and bolts matters with which the paper must deal, while it bloodlessly confronts content issues and its overall place in a competitive, fragmented media marketplace. But whatever the specific distribution, sales and marketing tactics to be honed, my brief time has underscored that a very elusive commodity is found in abundance at the Reader: an underlying passion among the editorial and sales staff both for what they do and for Chicago.

This is a media world in which, for all too many, jobs have become just that, jobs. For only a dwindling minority is their daily labor a calling. That is the case for many of those I've had the fortune to spend time with here.

I thank you for your commitment and wish you, Marty Petty and her team a great future. I'd love to hear from you if I can be of help. All the very, very best.

Media Matters
Joe Strupp says evidence suggests that the newspaper did, including the Suffolk County county executive's own admission that he urged Newsday to reassign one of the reporters.

Cincinnati Enquirer
"In an attempt to track down content parasites, The Enquirer and Cincinnati.Com now employ technology that scours the media landscape for illegal use of our content," writes Tom Callinan. "In recent weeks, we have sent warnings to several blogs, Web sites and radio stations."

Forbes.com
Of the $368 billion marketers plan to spend this year, 32.5% will go toward digital and 30.3% to print, according to Outsell. The research firm says ad spending for print magazines will rise this year by 1.9%. "Marketers are telling us they're giving this print category some serious attention," says an Outsell veep.