News

Hearst-Argyle Television senior vp for news Fred Young has a message for the rising chorus of officials telling TV broadcasters to move, and soon, off the spectrum they’ve used for decades: Look at the example of WDSU in New Orleans, and think about whether it’s smart to take away TV signals that are a lifeline for many people. Beginning two days before Hurricane Katrina laid waste to the city...

NEW YORK: A fund set up to raise money for staffers at The Times-Picayune in New Orleans has brought in $22,000 in donations in just two weeks, according to organizers. The effort, aimed at raising money for employees of the paper who have been severely impacted by Hurricane Katrina, is being run by a group of former Times-Picayune employees. "I would guess that it is close to 40 different...

The government threat to journalistic privilege is now as great as it has been since the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press began its annual Homefront Confidential report six years ago. The report, which studies how the war on terrorism has affected access to information, rates several categories according to a scale that mimics the color-coded threat level of the Department of Homeland...

DISASTER has a way of bringing out the best and the worst instincts in the news media. It is a grand thing that during the most terrible days of Hurricane Katrina, many reporters found their gag reflex and stopped swallowing pat excuses from public officials. But the media's willingness to report thinly attributed rumors may also have contributed to a kind of cultural wreckage that will not clean...

Projects that contribute to media development in rural areas are eligible for a US$20,000 award. October 1 is the deadline to apply for the Prize for Rural Communication, organized by UNESCO and the International Program for the Development of Communication (IPDC). The goal is to honor efforts to improve communication in every way, particularly through local newspapers, radio and TV programs...

The fact that most of those left behind in the New Orleans flood were poor and black is being treated by the press as a stunning revelation -- "A National Shame," as Newsweek's cover put it. But not exactly a national secret. "Apparently none of these ace reporters has ever set foot in Washington's Anacostia district, or South Central Los Angeles, or the trailer parks of rural Arkansas," writes...

THE ONLINE VERSION OF THE New York Times today intends to launch a paid service, TimesSelect, which will put some of the paper's most popular voices--including David Brooks, Maureen Dowd, and Nicholas Kristof--behind a paid wall. Access to these and other columnists, plus exclusive features and the Times's archives, now requires either $7.95 per month or $49.49 per year. TimesSelect is available...

Debates about the compact vs broadsheet had been raging in the newspaper world for a while. But when a newspaper of the stature of the Guardian underwent a metamorphosis last week, many finally woke up from their stupor. The which-is-better debate is changing tack now to has-the-future-begun-to-take-shape. This graphic is for free use. To use it on a website, just save the image and use it on your...

NEW DELHI, September 19: Rediff has emerged as the most popular portal of choice, according to the findings of Portal Perception Study 2004-05. About 36.8 per cent of users surveyed said Rediff was their most favourite portal. The maximum number of users in New Delhi (40 per cent), Kolkata (40 per cent) and Chennai (35 per cent) favoured Rediff. Yahoo India was second placed in the popularity...

What exactly is Alan Rusbridger trying to do with the Guardian, or "theguardian", as its masthead has it? On Monday, readers had their first sight of the new Berliner format, which is a shrunken broadsheet or a puffed-up tabloid, depending on how you look at it. But the biggest interest, for many, will be in how, if at all, Rusbridger changes the editorial content. The Times (of which more later)...