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Articles by Ryan Chittum | Email the Author
The Louisiana newspaper war
The Advocate picks up 23,500 readers in less than three months in New Orleans
By Ryan Chittum Dec 21, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The Baton Rouge Advocate is making a run at a weakened Times-Picayune in New Orleans. The paper, which started a... More
Hearst buckles under advertiser pressure
The Times Union caves after reader-response post dinged real estate agents
By Ryan Chittum Dec 19, 2012 at 03:00 PM
It's been a long time since we've seen anything as craven as the Albany Times-Union's capitulation to real estate agents... More
Audit Notes: Instaflim-flam, off the Hamster Wheel, Hulu
The New York Times raises questions about a CEO’s sworn testimony
By Ryan Chittum Dec 18, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The New York Times's Nick Bilton reports that Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom appears to have misled regulators asking about Facebook's... More
Bloomberg on the impacts of inequality
One longtime McDonald’s worker’s story says a lot about the economy
By Ryan Chittum Dec 17, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Bloomberg has an excellent story on low-wage work and inequality, comparing a longtime McDonald's worker to the company's CEO, who... More
Audit Notes: Amazon’s shell company, The Lens, Plain Dealer cuts
Reuters unwinds how the online retail giant avoided taxes via Luxembourg
By Ryan Chittum Dec 14, 2012 at 11:00 AM
Reuters has a nice investigation into Amazon's vigorous tax avoidance, and this time it's not about sales taxes. The wire... More
Paywall illogic
Steve Buttry distorts our arguments—and the evidence
By Ryan Chittum Dec 13, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Followers of the hot ‘n heavy paywall debate—all seven of you—may find it hard to believe, but there’s plenty of... More
Audit Notes: paying for news edition
NYT cuts would surely have been much worse without its paywall
By Ryan Chittum Dec 5, 2012 at 02:12 PM
The New York Times, after a weak third quarter, is cutting 30 senior editors positions. "Senior editor" can mean a... More
Audit Notes: News Corp./Wall Street Journal edition
Gerard Baker takes the reins of The Wall Street Journal
By Ryan Chittum Dec 4, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Robert Thomson will become CEO of the news-focused News Corp. (the other new company will be called Fox Group) after... More
Anti-paywall dead-enders
Why worry about evidence when you can argue against straw men?
By Ryan Chittum Dec 3, 2012 at 06:50 AM
In 1944, Lt. Hiroo Onoda was sent by the Japanese Army to the remote Philippine Island of Lubang with instructions... More
Audit Notes: pyramid people, Disney and ABC, no USA Today paywall
Roddy Boyd digs into a diet-shake pyramid scheme
By Ryan Chittum Nov 30, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The investigative journalist Roddy Boyd has some excellent reporting on a multilevel marketing company (read: pyramid scheme) called ViSalus: ViSalus... More
Hot air Rises Above on CNBC
An anchor pins a minor dip in stocks on the TV appearance of a minor politician
By Ryan Chittum Nov 30, 2012 at 12:41 AM
Rise Above, if you're among the 99.95 percent of the country who don't watch CNBC on a given day, is... More
Audit Notes: WaPo on Avandia, giving away the store, plutocrats
Report shows how drug research is corrupted by corporate money
By Ryan Chittum Nov 29, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The Washington Post's Peter Whoriskey has another outstanding story in his series on the Avandia drug scandal at GlaxoSmithKline and... More
Audit Notes: FT’s Fairhead is out; BofA CEO stonewalls; Rent a Quote
But Pearson says the paper is not for sale.
By Ryan Chittum Nov 28, 2012 at 06:50 AM
FT Group CEO Rona Fairhead got denied the top job at Pearson and so is stepping down as chairman and... More
Amazon sharecroppers
The Seattle Times on the hometown giant’s uneasy relationship with its merchants
By Ryan Chittum Nov 27, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The Seattle Times has another good story on Amazon, this time reporting on the hometown giant's lopsided relationship with its... More
Audit Notes: not Fortune tellers; Foursquare, two million; Big Ten
The magazine’s picks for future Apple and Microsoft CEOs go awry immediately
By Ryan Chittum Nov 23, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Fortune peered into its crystal ball for the October 29 issue and came up with four "best bets" on who's... More
Audit Notes: the free model, Coulson and Brooks, another DOJ stunt
A musician writes a compelling business argument against Pandora
By Ryan Chittum Nov 21, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The free model isn't just a failure for newspapers. It doesn't work in music either, as this terrific Pitchfork piece... More
Rise Above, CNBC’s move into advocacy
Corporate America’s house organ starts an anti-political political campaign
By Ryan Chittum Nov 20, 2012 at 02:57 PM
Any time you see Wall Street CEOs and CNBC campaigning for what they call the common good, it's worth raising... More
Audit Notes: marginal taxes, a redesign for core readers, Murdoch
An NYT’s anecdote’s confusion goes uncorrected
By Ryan Chittum Nov 20, 2012 at 06:50 AM
The New York Times flubs some reporting on how investors and well off people are bracing for higher tax rates:... More
Audit Notes: hustled, Brauchli fallout, NYT’s Walmart impact
ProPublica connects the dots on a former Countrywide executive named in a DOJ lawsuit
By Ryan Chittum Nov 19, 2012 at 06:50 AM
ProPublica's Paul Kiel reports (with an assist from TheStreet) that the JPMorgan Chase executive in charge of its program to... More
Audit Notes: Papacare, Post problem, trade reporting
Forbes finds Papa John’s Obamacare math doesn’t add up
By Ryan Chittum Nov 16, 2012 at 03:08 AM
Papa John's CEO John Schnatter has been carping for some time that Obamacare will add 10 to 14 cents to... More
#Realtalk: This isn’t another ‘golden age’ for print - But it is one for media
Social media in smaller markets - How three social media managers deal with smaller markets and more local coverage.
A rally for laid-off Sun-Times photogs - A protest Thursday morning drew about 150 picketers to the newspaper’s headquarters
Reporting, or illegal hacking - Scripps reporters are accused of violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act
Exchange Watch: California Dreaming - Low healthcare premiums on the West Coast were trumpeted as a big, good-news Obamacare story. But: “Compared to what?”
Oops! LAX TSA officer shamed a BoingBoing writer’s daughter
And he used his media clout to make it a thing
Can ladymags do serious journalism?
Some people don’t seem to think so
Atlantic launches weekly iPhone mag
The paid product its prez teased a few months back has arrived
The usefulness of pie charts, in two pie charts
Business Insider launched an excellent attack against pie charts. But if all those words are bogging you down, WaPo has a simpler version
CJR's Guide to Online News Startups
Uptown Messenger – Hyperlocal news for a neighborhood in New Orleans
Who Owns What
The Business of Digital Journalism
A report from the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism
Questions and exercises for journalism students.
