Brisbane’s Courier Mail has perfected the art of rumour-based reporting, a formula that consists of stringing together anonymous claims by sources whose own motives are never explored and whose identity is never revealed, writes Terry Towelling.
Media / Print
Leaked: The Lonely Planet website? We’re dubious
An internal Lonely Planet email reveals a rather amusing little prank from the publishing house’s Czech & Slovak Republics guidebook that clearly slipped past the subs.
Which print pubs have the richest readers?
Silicon Valley Insider charts newspapers and magazines with the wealthiest readerships. Wall Street Journal readers are the most cashed-up, while The Atlantic, The Economist and Architectural Digest readers also break the 100k mark.
The 100 best books of the decade
The Times lists its pick for the 100 best books of the noughties, with plenty of controversial picks sure to see the scones flying at your next book club (Twilight? The 9/11 Commission Report? The Da Vinci Code?).
New York Times: The Movie
A documentary filmmaker has taken up residence at the NYT to make a movie based around the paper’s media desk, documenting the journos’ depressing task of reporting on newspaper layoffs and closures, day-in, day-out.
Newsweek go rogue with Palin cover
Newsweek has caused a big stir this week by running a cover photo of Sarah Palin — clad in rather tight running gear — taken from a Runner’s World photoshoot. Palin herself has labelled the move “sexist”. Is it fair to use editorial photos out of context?
The crash of the Brad and Britney economy
The price paid for paparazzi photos by US glossies has plummeting by 31%, according to a survey by The Daily Beast. Has the recession caused the celebrity media bubble to burst, or have celebrities just become more boring?
Sarah Palin’s Going Rogue: the reviews are in…
The most highly-anticipated book of the year, Going Rogue by former Republican VP candidate Sarah Palin is about to hit shelves, and the critics have weighed in. Is it scandalous? Insightful? Coherent? The WSJ wraps the coverage.
Is America’s gay press dead?
Window Media, publisher of the Washington Blade, Southern Voice and other big US LGBT newspapers has filed for bankruptcy, and will cease publishing immediately.
Is Newsweek censoring its letters page?
After running a cover feature on Al Gore, 74% of the letters Newsweek received in response were negative. Yet, according to NewsBusters, the magazine ran only positive letters in its following edition. And it’s not the first time.
Fiction is dead; long live the autobiography!
What’s with the spate of tell-alls, autobiographies and memoirs lately? According to a new book, it’s all about the “democratisation” of authorship: everyone has a story to tell, and it’s now easier than ever to tell it.
Australian newspapers following the US in steep decline
The declining revenues of Australian newspapers will spell trouble locally, just as the same trend has resulted in disaster for many US titles, writes Niki Scevak.
National newspapers fall off a cliff, bury news
Australian newspaper buyers have punished the national papers, The Australian Financial Review and The Australian in the latest audit period, but basically spared the rod on their state-based competitors.
Will Twitter be Time’s Person of the Year?
Twitter is emerging as the hot favourite amongst pundits as the hot favourite to be named Time magazine’s 2009 Person of the Year. We can just see the world’s social media experts wetting themselves already.
Which magazines are Australians reading?
Girl With a Satchel combs through Roy Morgan’s latest readership figures to see which glossies Australians are — and aren’t — reading. Better Homes and Gardens continues to boom, while Cleo has taken a caning.
More revelations from Sarah Palin’s book
The contents of Sarah Palin’s new book, Going Rogue, are beginning to leak out. Amongst the revelations, Palin claims she was hushed-up from speaking on election night and the McCain campaign slugged her with a $500k legal bill.
leaked 
The axe is about to fall at Newsweek
Politico has its hands on an internal memo from Newsweek editor, Jon Meacham, informing staff that about a dozen job are about to be cut.
Andrew Ross-Sorkin: the journalist king of Wall Street
Andrew Ross-Sorkin has built a business journalism empire around his New York Times column, but many of his colleagues think his reputation is undeserved. New York Magazine meets the man behind the column inches.
Rev. Sun Myung Moon and the crisis at the Washington Times
Everything is breaking down at US paper the Washington Times: top execs have been fired, one has disappeared, armed guards are patrolling the offices — and it’s all thanks to cultists the Moonies.
Crikey Says: Fairfax MIA on book imports
While The Australian afforded the issue of book reform appropriate and extensive coverage this morning, the Fairfax broadsheets were missing in action. It’s an absence Australian public life can ill-afford.
Headlines first, research second: how the news really gets written
How do newspapers write those “latest trend” features they’re so fond of? Gawker provides an insight straight from the NYT: devise the “trend” yourself, then find some subjects who fit the mold.
The New Yorker: too big to fail?
While other magazines are shrinking and downsizing, The New Yorker has remained entirely intact, even despite its publisher’s financial woes. What’s the magazine’s secret? It may have something to do with its 60-plus team of staff writers…
Illegal: SMH breaks school league table ban
The Sydney Morning Herald says it’s breaching NSW state law today and risking a $55,000 fine by publishing this article comparing the test results of three Sydney high schools, challenging what it says is an “absurd” ban on giving parents information about the schools childrens’ schools. Subversive or sensationalism?
Why you should never piss-off a sub-editor
Newspaper The Toronto Star recently announced it would be outsourcing some of its sub-editing work. So the paper’s disgruntled subbies have taken a red pen to the publisher’s internal memo announcing the move, proving exactly why they’re needed.
