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The NYT’s $150 million-a-year paywall
Growth slows sharply, but digital-subscriber revenue is propping up the paper
By Ryan Chittum Aug 1, 2013 at 01:27 PM
The New York Times's once-torrid paywall growth continued to slow in the second quarter, adding 23,000 digital-only subscribers. That's the... More
Audit Notes: The unbanked, Paolo Pellegrini, a debt collector pauses
The NYT on the minor mishaps keep people out of the banking system
By Ryan Chittum Aug 1, 2013 at 06:50 AM
You've read a lot about how Big Data can save the world and all that. You don't read much (at... More
A Big Mac miss by The Huffington Post
Poor reporting on a “study” by a Kansas undergrad
By Ryan Chittum Jul 31, 2013 at 11:00 AM
The Huffington Post reports that McDonald's could double its workers wages by raising the price of a Big Mac by... More
John Stossel’s poor logic on minimum wages and jobs
Fox host fails to explain away Australia’s high wages and low unemployment
By Ryan Chittum Jul 30, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Fox Business's John Stossel is a long-time opponent of the minimum wage. I don't mean he opposes raising the minimum... More
Audit Notes: Robot truckers, Larry Summers, Detroit not America’s future
Computers take on a last haven of blue-collar jobs
By Ryan Chittum Jul 29, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The Wall Street Journal's Dennis Berman has an excellent piece on the future of the truck driver, whom he notes... More
Audit Notes: Meredith Whitney’s press, Steve Forbes, revolving door
An aversion to the press, proclaimed amidst a press tour
By Ryan Chittum Jul 26, 2013 at 11:00 AM
Michael Aneiro of Barron's watches Meredith Whitney, the discredited Cassandra of the municipal-bond market, on CNBC. Whitney has been popping... More
Minimum sense on the minimum wage
A WSJ op-ed from a front group for low-wage employers gets it very wrong
By Ryan Chittum Jul 26, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Minimum-wage earners make nearly a third less than minimum-wage earners did 45 years ago. But it's "intellectually bankrupt" to point... More
Sympathy for the Walmart flack
How the PR-afflicted colossus pushes its “jobs” narrative on a credulous press
By Ryan Chittum Jul 24, 2013 at 06:56 AM
On some level you have to feel a little bad for the Walmart flack. You try polishing the image of... More
The revolving door spins for Robert Khuzami
Former SEC enforcement chief lands a $5 million a year gig
By Ryan Chittum Jul 23, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Robert Khuzami made the big bucks as Deutsche Bank's general counsel for the Americas during the subprime securitization orgy, which... More
Audit Notes: Noonan and Morris on the IRS, free Internet, Guardian gains
The Woodward and Bernstein of the bogus Tea Party tax scandal
By Ryan Chittum Jul 22, 2013 at 06:50 AM
At this point, the right's Woodward and Bernstein are Peggy Noonan and Dick Morris, and that says about all you... More
Art Laffer + PR blitz = press failure
The media types up the retail lobby’s propaganda
By Ryan Chittum Jul 19, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Here's the headline of a USA Today op-ed in Thursday's paper: Arthur B. Laffer: Collect more sales taxes Say what?... More
Roddy Boyd exposes a hedge-fund fraud
A scam for the social-media age
By Ryan Chittum Jul 18, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Roddy Boyd has the business read of the week with his dynamite investigation into Anthony Davian, the social-media loving hedge-fund... More
Elizabeth Warren, the antidote to CNBC
The senator schools the talking heads on bank regulation
By Ryan Chittum Jul 17, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Elizabeth Warren on CNBC is my kind of TV: The plain-spoken brilliance of the Okie-gone-Harvard versus the savvy hectoring of... More
A McDonald’s own-goal on wages
Accidentally exposing the fallacy of its own personal-finance advice to workers
By Ryan Chittum Jul 16, 2013 at 11:15 AM
In her book Pound Foolish: Exposing the Dark Side of the Personal Finance Industry, Helaine Olen writes about how the... More
Wall Street asset-strips Tribune’s newspapers
A Ken Doctor scoop shows a planned spinoff endangering the papers’ future
By Ryan Chittum Jul 15, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Tribune Company, which emerged from bankruptcy six months ago, announced last week that it will spin off its declining newspapers... More
Fortune’s Nina Easton plumps for Walmart in DC
Retail employment is a zero-sum game
By Ryan Chittum Jul 12, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The argument that if a company doesn't get its way, X number of jobs will disappear is an old canard... More
The OC launches a newspaper war in the LBC
Aaron Kushner’s Orange County Register starts a daily Long Beach edition
By Ryan Chittum Jul 11, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Aaron Kushner, the newspaper industry's almost impossibly contrarian would-be savior, is launching a newspaper war with the MediaNews-owned Press-Telegram in... More
Reuters feeds the robots two-second scoops
The New York AG probes the selling of early access to market-moving information
By Ryan Chittum Jul 10, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The University of Michigan's market-moving reports on consumer confidence used to only be available via a $4,750 annual subscription paid... More
Geithner cashes in on Wall Street
Deutsche Bank, recipient of $8.5 billion bailout, coughs up $200,000 for a speech
By Ryan Chittum Jul 9, 2013 at 06:50 AM
The Financial Times reports that former Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner—Wall Street's (main) man in the Obama White House—is already cashing... More
Audit Notes: Amazon watch, the Capitalist Tool, WSJ and Pinochet
NYT finds the dominant bookseller reining in the discounts in some areas
By Ryan Chittum Jul 8, 2013 at 06:50 AM
Amazon has long employed predatory pricing to establish market dominance. And in Monopoly 101, cornering a market allows you to... More
Woman’s work - The twisted reality of an Italian freelancer in Syria
Sourcing Trayvon Martin ‘photos’ from stormfront - Not a good idea, Business Insider
Elizabeth Warren, the antidote to CNBC - The senator schools the talking heads on bank regulation
Art Laffer + PR blitz = press failure - The media types up the retail lobby’s propaganda
Reuters’s global warming about-face - A survey shows the newswire ran 50 percent fewer stories on climate change after hiring a “skeptic”
Barack Obama: ‘those old times aren’t coming back’
“It used to be there were local newspapers everywhere. If you wanted to be a journalist, you could really make a good living working for your hometown paper”
The Guardian’s editor opens up on Reddit
Alan Rusbridger, editor of The Guardian, answered questions in an Ask Me Anything
The (almost) lost speech of Justice Anthony Kennedy
How his insightful remarks about the Constitution inadvertently make the case for a Supreme Court “media pool”
Fox News sues TVEyes for copyright infringement
Says subscription service sells access to its content without permission nor compensation
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
ACEsTooHigh.com – Reporting on the science, education, and policy surrounding childhood trauma
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
