On November 30, the Tampa Bay Times published a sympathetic profile of Spring Hill, FL resident Gretchen Molannen: "
Persistent genital arousal disorder brings woman agony, not ecstasy." Her condition, also known as PGAD, is a rare sexual disorder (not recognized by the DSM,) '
characterized by spontaneous, persistent, unwanted sexual arousal unrelated to feelings of sexual desire.' The Times reported that Ms. Molannen's condition had virtually destroyed her personal and professional life and led to several suicide attempts. One day after the article was published,
she successfully committed suicide.
[more inside]
posted by zarq
on Dec 7, 2012 -
40 comments
Why did one newspaper, in a story copied by several other UK newspapers, somewhat
underestimate the number of adult cod in the North Sea by a factor of...
posted by Wordshore
on Sep 29, 2012 -
66 comments
"
I, Polina Marinova, have resigned as the editor-in-chief from The Red & Black, the student newspaper covering the University of Georgia. The Red & Black’s top editors, design staff, photo staff and reporters walked out of the newspaper building this afternoon."
The mass departure follows a
memo of staff expectations issued by the board of directors of the newspaper, which is independent of the university. Among the "expectations" issued by the board to which Marinova objected was that the newspaper's coverage find a balance of "GOOD" (human interest pieces directly relating to the UGA student audience) and "BAD" (explained in the board's memo as "Content that catches people or organizations doing bad things. I guess this is 'journalism'."). This was followed by a final note to "[i]f in question, have more GOOD than BAD." Marinova also alleged that students no longer have final approval in the content of the newspaper, writing that
"[r]ecently, editors have felt pressure to assign stories they didn't agree with, take 'grip and grin' photos and compromise the design of the paper." [more inside]
posted by ctab
on Aug 15, 2012 -
84 comments
Long before the Web, The Boston Globe had a “homepage” of sorts – its old storefront downtown. Taking advantage of its location in a heavily trafficked block of Newspaper Row, the young daily brought the news to Bostonians in a whole new way: handwritten signs.
posted by Trurl
on May 24, 2011 -
8 comments
How To Save Media Jason Ponti from Technology Review offers some suggestions as to how traditional print publishers might save themselves from becoming irrelevant.
posted by reenum
on Oct 12, 2009 -
30 comments
Google CEO Eric Schmidt gave a
talk at the Newspaper Association of America convention on April 9, 2009 in San Diego. He speaks about how Google and newspapers might co-exist in the future.
[more inside]
posted by reenum
on Oct 4, 2009 -
78 comments
In a new essay entitled
Build the Wall, David Simon (who was a
Baltimore Sun reporter before he produced
The Wire) argues that if the larger newspaper industry is to survive, The New York Times and Washington Post must start charging readers for access to their websites (preferably done as a single action in concert with each other) —
John Gruber,
Dave Winer, and the folks at Gawker
disagree, and Steven Berlin Johnson argues that while the future for newspapers might be quite bleak,
the future for journalism and high quality analysis is actually quite bright. Meanwhile, the Times
is currently doing market research to see if it's readers would be willing to pay $5 a month for online access, and the Associated Press
announced it's intent to build a new news DRM system that will enable users to “
consume, mash up and share AP content based on rights”.
posted by dyslexictraveler
on Jul 24, 2009 -
128 comments
Can nonprofit news models save journalism? The advertising-supported, for-profit institutional model of journalism (
skip this ad) is
on the wane. Except for a few large and successful outlets, investment in comprehensive reporting has suffered from a shrinking bottom line, even as the hoped-for development of
citizen journalism has been generally underwhelming. But
some see a
solution taking shape in
not-for-profit, independent, citizen-supported online news organizations that would employ skilled professional journalists. Pointing to the encouraging recent growth of
NPR and
PBS as news outlets, many industry thinkers are starting to agree that "
The only way to save journalism is to develop a new model that finds profit in truth, vigilance, and social responsibility." Editors are beginning to experiment with models like that of
Paul Stieger's
ProPublica (a sort of reporting clearinghouse),
Geoff Dougherty's
ChiTown Daily News, The NYC
Center for an Urban Future's
City Limits, and
Scott Lewis' Voice of San Diego. Great idea -
will it work?
posted by Miko
on Nov 23, 2008 -
35 comments
Edinburgh's Scotsman newspaper has launched a digital archive covering all editions from 1817-1950.
There are several stories with an
American slant which may be something that interests you. There is coverage on such things as the hanging of the notorious bodysnatchers
Burke and Hare.
Unfortunately, after viewing the free archives it is a paysite, but I still think it's worth a look as there is easily a couple of hours of interesting reading on the free articles that are included.
The set-up and look of this site is brilliant as well.
posted by ClanvidHorse
on Jun 4, 2005 -
9 comments
Dalai Llama Misses Sex, Shoots Guns This is the finest tabloid newspaper headline
evar. Remember Peter Falk, in Tom Wolfe's
Bonfire of the Vanities, admiring the rhythmic and sadistic anticlimax of the headline: 'Scalp Grandma, then rob her' ? This is better.
Should I have worked on the school paper instead of playing bass? I could have been a contender.
via fark.
posted by crunchburger
on Aug 2, 2003 -
16 comments
New US paper aims at Afghan war truth What do you do when you are fed up with the biased and slanted coverage that the major news organizations are giving the "war on terroirsm"? Start your own newspaper of course.
"A newspaper aimed at providing news of the war in Afghanistan is to be launched this month. Its editors argue that the mainstream media in the US are not providing a full picture of the war and its effects. "
posted by futureproof
on Apr 5, 2002 -
25 comments
Sneak peek at the new look for the Wall Street Journal "Print buyers were presented with non-disclosure agreements when shown the pages...No media buyer was shown the front page, redesigned for the first time since the 1944." Pretty esoteric subject, but still remarkable how much influence the "look and feel " of a newspaper can have on its reader. Hard to imagine the WSJ looking different. It must be a very tough
endeavor to get right. (IMHO the recently revamped Int Herald Tribune looks way messier and more confusing than before.)
posted by Voyageman
on Mar 25, 2002 -
17 comments
'Is media bias real?', part two: Left-leaning media criticism folks
FAIR have produced a report detailing some examples of of publishers, advertisers, and government officials killing stories they don't like and placing stories they do. What about the Chinese Wall between the business of news and the actual newsgathering? To quote a CBS news producer on the distinction between entertainment and news, "That line was over a long, long time ago....That line is long gone."
posted by snarkout
on Feb 25, 2001 -
18 comments
