— The New York Times profiles a one-time homeless-shelter operator who now lives in one. It says the number of people in homeless shelters because of foreclosures is on the rise, but the numbers are pretty sketchy and sourced to advocates, though there’s probably no getting around that.
— Speaking of the Times, its journalism is about to get diluted. The paper says it will slash its newsroom by 100 people over the next couple of months. Some of its readers plead in comments: “Charge us!” If the paper doesn’t have the guts to say its report has value worth paying for in whatever format, it ought to at least enable online-only readers who want to support its journalism to somehow do so, whether its in the form of membership programs or a lowly PayPal tip jar.
Let’s say the paper saves about $20 million a year killing those 100 positions (the headcount cut is 8 percent and the Times‘s newsroom budget is somewhere around $200 million a year). It could keep those journalists by getting 5 percent of its 17 million online readers to give it just $25 apiece.
— The AtlanticWire has a nice roundup of reaction to the prospect that the Obama administration is finally fed up with the financial industry. I’d guess Yves Smith has the best answer here in saying she doubts it: “The Administration has been an absolutely shameless backer of the banksters’ interests.”
Ryan Chittum is a former Wall Street Journal reporter, and deputy editor of The Audit, CJR’s business section. If you see notable business journalism, give him a heads-up at rc2538@columbia.edu. Follow him on Twitter at @ryanchittum.