Should journalists enter awards run or sponsored by special interest groups? From fragrance reporting to writing on colorectal disease and the mining industry, just about every reporter wins a prize these days …

With the mainstream media shedding jobs, but universities bumping up their numbers of journalism students, where will these fresh-faced wannabe Lois Lanes find work? Freelance writer Kylar Loussikian looks at the numbers.

Rupert Murdoch’s in town — so senior News Limited staffers need to watch out. It’s been a grim week for newspapers, with three News editors shown the door, and two editorial heavyweights gone from Fairfax.

Charles Lewis, the US-based “godfather of non-profit investigative journalism”, speaks to Matthew Knott about the growing importance of philanthropically funded reporting. And Lewis has some tips on making it work …

Crikey’s got our mitts on a juicy document detailing The Conversation’s planned expansion into the US market. An Indian version of the site is on the way too. Is this world domination for editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan?

Voters punish Julia Gillard for bad news, but Tony Abbott seems to share in the spoils of good policy announcements.

Seven of Metro Media Publishing’s eight eastern titles will close. Only the 148-year-old Dandenong Journal will remain open for business.

Following the death of Yothu Yindi frontman Yunupingu, media outlets are left wrestling with the question of whether or not to publish his first name.

Crikey publishing director director Marina Go had a front-row seat to the women’s magazine war of the 1980s and ’90s. The TV portrayal may differ from actual events.

The V8 Supercar racing series flew journalists to America to cover an event. It’s not the first time they’ve done it, and other sports like the AFL are also putting journalists on planes to maximise coverage.

The Guardian launched its Australian website to much fanfare today. It’s an impressive showing, but questions about the site’s long-term sustainability remain.

The popular ABC show is a ratings winner and counters the nastiness that dominates other current affairs programming. But has Aunty gone too far to give its subjects a golden glow?

How much power do the nation’s tabloid editors really wield when it comes to influencing our electoral process? Plenty, if you believe political operatives. Not only for what’s in print but how they influence the agenda for the rest of the day. For Labor it’s a lost cause.

The Obama administration is engaged in a war on investigative journalism, backed by national security laws. The internet may free up information, but it also aids government surveillance.

Fairfax columnist Mike Carlton is a staunch defender of the ABC, but not last night’s Australian Story program on 2GB’s Ray Hadley. He plans to lodge a formal complaint.

Freelancers have been among the victims of Fairfax’s consolidation drive, with regular contributors describing the payment system as a “shemozzle”.

Chinese-language newspapers are blatantly stealing copy from Australian publications. They say they want to expose good work to non-English speakers, but freelancer Sian Powell isn’t buying it.

Crikey examines how media and culture organisations fared in this year’s budget. The ABC and SBS are smiling — and the ghost of Simon Crean lives on.

PolitiFact Australia’s launch has been marred by controversy over one of the site’s first rulings. Was Labor wrong to say penalty rights can’t be “stripped away”?

Australian publishing assets are dragging News Corp down, and hiving them off can’t come soon enough for shareholders. Plus, some shareholders want to ditch chairman Rupert Murdoch.

Social media has inspired much of the protest movement in Turkey. Now the government wants to unplug the networks. Good luck, writes Turkish-Australian academic Erdem Koc.

Charles Lewis, the US-based “godfather of non-profit investigative journalism”, speaks to Matthew Knott about the growing importance of philanthropically funded reporting. And Lewis has some tips on making it work …

The sacrifice by Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who unleashed the National Security Agency surveillance scandal, will not be in vain.

A culture of secrecy, unaccountability and outsourcing created the conditions for the Obama administration’s mass internet surveillance programs.

Crikey’s got our mitts on a juicy document detailing The Conversation’s planned expansion into the US market. An Indian version of the site is on the way too. Is this world domination for editor-in-chief Andrew Jaspan?

Two major revelations have exposed the extent of the Obama Administration’s mass surveillance of phone and internet use.

An upstart political party has taken aim at Google for banning it from using its logo or the word “opium” in its online ads, while another activist group is fighting with Facebook over claims of censorship.

Voters punish Julia Gillard for bad news, but Tony Abbott seems to share in the spoils of good policy announcements.

Following the death of Yothu Yindi frontman Yunupingu, media outlets are left wrestling with the question of whether or not to publish his first name.

The Attorney-General’s Department has admitted data retention will be “trivially easy” to avoid and that intelligence services want to be able to break into encrypted internet systems like Tor.

The Guardian launched its Australian website to much fanfare today. It’s an impressive showing, but questions about the site’s long-term sustainability remain.

How much power do the nation’s tabloid editors really wield when it comes to influencing our electoral process? Plenty, if you believe political operatives. Not only for what’s in print but how they influence the agenda for the rest of the day. For Labor it’s a lost cause.

ASIC has been revealed as the agency behind the blocking of a Melbourne education website, using a hitherto-unused internet censorship power.

Crikey examines how media and culture organisations fared in this year’s budget. The ABC and SBS are smiling — and the ghost of Simon Crean lives on.

PolitiFact Australia’s launch has been marred by controversy over one of the site’s first rulings. Was Labor wrong to say penalty rights can’t be “stripped away”?

US agencies are grappling with the same technological challenges as British and Australian agencies but have the advantage of being able to act beyond the law.

The UK and US appear to have diverged on the issue of internet surveillance, and that has serious implications for the efforts of Australia’s security establishment to impose data retention.

This week the How Fast Is the NBN website has got both Liberal politicians and the media up in arms about its accuracy. But the site’s creator, James Brotchie, defends the speeds shown.

Why are stories sponsored by the Russian government running in supplements in Fairfax newspapers? Melbourne freelance journalist Sasha Petrova, who speaks Russian, asks some questions.

Christopher Pearson was many things; a commentator for The Australian, a long luncher, an Adelaide Cheshire cat, a committed Maoist, a comeback Catholic. We remember Pearson, who died last weekend.

Rupert Murdoch’s in town — so senior News Limited staffers need to watch out. It’s been a grim week for newspapers, with three News editors shown the door, and two editorial heavyweights gone from Fairfax.

Every publisher in the country is releasing at least one political book this year, and although they vary in style, there’s really only one overarching theme: “What the F-ck is Wrong with the Labor Party?”

Voters punish Julia Gillard for bad news, but Tony Abbott seems to share in the spoils of good policy announcements.

Seven of Metro Media Publishing’s eight eastern titles will close. Only the 148-year-old Dandenong Journal will remain open for business.

Following the death of Yothu Yindi frontman Yunupingu, media outlets are left wrestling with the question of whether or not to publish his first name.

Crikey publishing director director Marina Go had a front-row seat to the women’s magazine war of the 1980s and ’90s. The TV portrayal may differ from actual events.

The V8 Supercar racing series flew journalists to America to cover an event. It’s not the first time they’ve done it, and other sports like the AFL are also putting journalists on planes to maximise coverage.

How much power do the nation’s tabloid editors really wield when it comes to influencing our electoral process? Plenty, if you believe political operatives. Not only for what’s in print but how they influence the agenda for the rest of the day. For Labor it’s a lost cause.

Freelancers have been among the victims of Fairfax’s consolidation drive, with regular contributors describing the payment system as a “shemozzle”.

Chinese-language newspapers are blatantly stealing copy from Australian publications. They say they want to expose good work to non-English speakers, but freelancer Sian Powell isn’t buying it.

The latest Audit Bureau of Circulations results show massive drops in print circulation and reveal, finally, how many readers are paying for the Herald Sun online. Hint: it’s not very many.

Australian publishing assets are dragging News Corp down, and hiving them off can’t come soon enough for shareholders. Plus, some shareholders want to ditch chairman Rupert Murdoch.

Sydney University tasked students with planting stories in rival student paper Tharunka as part of an assignment, leaving students outraged.

Sycophantic journos at anti-News Limited have fallen in line to praise their colleague Nick Cater’s new book to the skies. It’s a Culture clash that deserves greater scrutiny.

Female writers have stormed back into contention for the Miles Franklin — this year it’s the men left off the shortlist. So is it reactionism or simply a stellar year for women authors?

More funding for political parties will do nothing to curb the growth in donations — and will only benefit media proprietors taking ad dollars. Our man in Canberra tests the claims.

Television will again be the key battleground for the 2013 election, and creatives are busy working to briefs. The Power Index asks: who’s behind them?

The live odds ban is a debacle presided over by broadcasters, the gambling industry, sports administrators and politicians. And it’s not a healthy sign, write Bernard Keane and Glenn Dyer.

Australia’s female cricket team has won a pay rise that means some players will be able to quit their day jobs. But other female athletes struggle to balance training with work.

Metro Media Publishing, battling a sea of red ink in its suite of former Fairfax suburban mastheads, is slashing staff costs. A sell-off could also be on the cards.

The fashion industry is demanding ever-thinner models. But Crikey publishing director and former women’s magazine editor Marina Go says jutting bones and hollowed cheeks are bad for business.

Fairfax journalist Paddy Manning fears the incursion of The Australian Financial Review in The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age. He writes scathingly of his employer for Crikey.

The real issue with the offensive Ford ads is not that they were leaked to the internet. It’s that they were created at all, writes Crikey publisher Marina Go.

The Ten Network is in deep despair with an enormous job for new CEO Hamish McLennan ahead. So why is the company firing off legal letters around commentary of its woes?

The furore over drug use in (male) sports creates an opportunity for women — ignored by the media and sponsors — to win more attention. Crikey publisher and Netball Australia director Marina Go makes the case.

A funny ad promoting Dick Smith Foods has been rejected for early-evening broadcast by the Advertising Standards Board. The entrepreneur says he’ll fight the attempt at censorship.

What were the 10 worst public relations disasters of 2012? Well, it depends on what you classify as PR — and how the company/person/show is faring publicly once the scandal has died down.

A new Australia Day ad campaign from McDonald’s features plenty of ockerisms — but not much ethnic diversity, writes Greg Dickson.

Debt-plagued Fairfax has moved to a full sale of profitable Kiwi classifieds site Trade Me. Was it the right move, as the company seeks to pay down debt in a troubled market? Myriam Robin and Matthew Knott report.

Fairfax’s The Australian Financial Review will adopt the same subscription strategy online as The New York Times — but will it have the same positive impact?

The Advertising Standards Board has moved into the online sphere, with a number of high-profile Facebook incidents in recent months. SmartCompany’s Cara Waters examines the difficulties.

Crikey got its mitts on the latest media buying data — and it doesn’t make for pretty reading for print publishers. Foxtel and digital titles, however, have plenty to crow about.

Not merely did The Australian Financial Review ad woes continue over the weekend, it found itself scooped on its key area of coverage, write Glenn Dyer and Bernard Keane.

Nine’s owners CVC and Goldman Sachs lost big in yesterday’s deal. Crikey intern Nicholas McCallum breaks down what happened, and who now owns the former “number one” TV network.

Radio National on a Sunday morning is not where you would normally expect a debate over the Prime Minister’s cleavage. But commentator Grace Collier kicked off a panel discussion with it yesterday morning.

6PR shock jock Howard Sattler quizzed the Prime Minister on whether her long-term partner was gay. It’s not the first time Sattler has courted controversy, writes Crikey intern Joanna Robin.

Voters punish Julia Gillard for bad news, but Tony Abbott seems to share in the spoils of good policy announcements.

Four Corners fingered the Chinese for sleuthing on Canberra’s new security headquarters. But the truth is probably much less strange than the fiction of some alarmists.

Several radio stations have yanked advertising spots blasting the network failures of regular advertiser and corporate partner Vodafone.

The nightly TV news remains the key battleground for the federal election. So who are the all-powerful news directors who oversee their stations’ coverage of the election campaign at Seven, Nine and the ABC? The Power Index talks to them — as well as some well-placed insiders — to see how they’ll cover election 2013.