The Audit
Responding to Shirky on the Washington Post
Transformation is required, and transformation takes investment
By Ryan Chittum Jun 1, 2012 at 01:31 PM
Thanks to Clay Shirky for responding to my piece on the financialization of the Washington Post Company, which during the... More
Audit Notes: the rise of circulation, LAT’s Facebook trend, mobile ads
By Ryan Chittum May 31, 2012 at 08:05 PM
This Ken Doctor piece on how circulation is becoming the most-important revenue stream at newspapers is a must-read: Unexpectedly, newspapers... More
Amazon’s California tax squeeze
A WSJ follow story waters down an LAT scoop from two weeks ago
By Ryan Chittum May 31, 2012 at 11:18 AM
Amazon's long run of not paying collecting state and local sales taxes is coming to an end as legislatures finally... More
WaPo must transform to survive
Clay Shirky disputes The Audit’s take on the Washington Post’s financial future
By Clay Shirky May 31, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Ryan Chittum's "The Washington Post Co.'s Self-Destructive Course" is a blistering attack on the paper's management of its journalistic mission... More
Audit Notes: Google’s stonewalling, Moody’s spin clinic, USDA mortgages
An NYT story on how the company tried to stymie investigators of its Street View program
By Ryan Chittum May 30, 2012 at 09:48 PM
This New York Times story is a few days old, but worth flagging. The paper reports on Google's roguish reaction... More
Audit Notes: Facebook IPO edition
Why the flop matters
By Ryan Chittum May 30, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Joe Nocera glosses over the problem with Facebook's IPO in arguing that we shouldn't care whether its shares plunged after... More
The private-equity problem with Romney and GS Technologies (UPDATED)
Loading up a company with debt to ensure Bain’s own profits
By Ryan Chittum May 25, 2012 at 02:26 PM
It's seriously grating to see an Eton and Oxford-educated ambassador's son who works for the Council on Foreign Relations rant... More
Sorkin’s Glass-Steagall straw man
Of course its repeal contributed, directly and indirectly, to the financial crisis
By Ryan Chittum May 25, 2012 at 06:50 AM
Here's the headline for Andrew Ross Sorkin's column on Tuesday about Glass-Steagall and the financial crisis: Reinstating an Old Rule... More
Audit notes: Buffett on newspapers, Times-Picayune, SEC lets Lehman go
A vow to invest in newspapers and protect them from interference
By Ryan Chittum May 24, 2012 at 05:59 PM
This is the most hopeful thing I've read about the business of newspapers in a long, long time: I'll quote... More
Audit notes: No more daily in New Orleans, McClatchy, private equity
The NYT reports the Times-Picayune will print two or three times a week
By Ryan Chittum May 24, 2012 at 12:21 AM
If ever a town needed a newspaper, it's New Orleans. But David Carr reports that Newhouse is preparing big layoffs... More
Facebook fiasco
The well connected made out while retail investors got hosed
By Ryan Chittum May 23, 2012 at 01:04 PM
We're starting to get a better picture of what happened with Facebook on Friday and in the run-up to its... More
How Gawker wants to monetize comments
Denton’s vision for Gawker Media’s editorial product moves away from posts
By Felix Salmon May 23, 2012 at 11:03 AM
Back in November, I grappled with the fact that online display ads in general, and banner ads in particular, are... More
Audit notes: Facebook disclosure, Facebook value, soft corruption
By Ryan Chittum May 22, 2012 at 05:58 PM
Business Insider's Henry Blodget, who knows a thing or two about analyst/IPO scandals, writes that Facebook and/or its bankers could... More
Audit Notes: Facebook IPO edition
By Ryan Chittum May 21, 2012 at 05:03 PM
I'm happy to say I was wrong (and Felix was right) in guessing that retail investors would jump into Facebook... More
The Chicago Tribune lights up the flame-retardant industry
An outstanding investigation show how chemical companies preserve a toxic cash cow
By Ryan Chittum May 21, 2012 at 11:07 AM
A tremendous Chicago Tribune investigation into flame-retardant chemical manufacturers shows how they push their poisons on an unsuspecting public despite... 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.
