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03 May 2011 23:27

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Biz: Newspaper pulse check: Why one paper’s circulation skyrocketed

  • The newspaper is doing OK right now. Not great, just OK. In the past six months, that gray newsprint behemoth did OK, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation, with the top two papers gaining some ground and most of the top five staying roughly in the same order. However, the way that the group analyzed the data changed this time around — deciding, instead of focusing just on paid circulation, to emphasize “average circulation,” which includes separate editions under the umbrella of a certain brand. The numbers caused one paper to rocket into the top five and one to fall out. See if you can guess by the numbers below:
  • 2.1 million daily circulation for the top-ranked Wall Street Journal
  • 1.8 million average daily circulation for the still-second-place USA Today
  • 916,911 average daily circulation for the freshly-paywalled New York Times
  • 605k average daily circulation for the Los Angeles Times
  • 577k average daily circulation for the San Jose Mercury News
  • 550k average daily circulation for the Washington Post source
  • » A few things of note: If you guessed that the San Jose Mercury News benefited greatly from the change in data, you’re correct — MediaNews treats each newspaper on this page as an “edition” of the Mercury News (which seems a little number-inflating). Other notes: This data covers the daily circulation for the past six months — a period which only includes a tiny bit of the New York Times’ post-paywall circulation (so come back in six months to see if it was a success). But e-editions are doing quite well, especially for the Wall Street Journal and Detroit Free Press. One last thing: The numbers only cover paid newspapers, not free ones. (photo by Brent D. Payne)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 21:15

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World: Second try: The White House blows pretty major Bin Laden facts

  • yesterday Reports pushed forth by the White House suggested that Osama bin Laden had a weapon, and that he used his wife was a human shield, leading to her death.
  • today The White House changed both stories, noting that Bin Laden was unarmed (though others weren’t) and his wife was in fact not even killed, but just shot in the leg. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 20:39

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World: UCLA researchers figured out where Osama was two years ago

  • The theory was basically that if you’re going to try and survive, you’re going to a region with a low extinction rate: a large town. We hypothesized he wouldn’t be in a small town where people could report on him.
  • UCLA geographer Thomas Gillespie • Describing the hypothesis that he, colleague John Agnew, and a bunch of students used to figure out that Osama bin Laden was hiding out in the general region near Abbottabad, Pakistan — back in 2009, when such a revelation was unexpected and amazing. “Caves are cold, and you can’t see people walking up to them,” Gillepsie noted, though also suggested he should’ve had a more inconspicuous home, instead of a fortress that stuck out like a sore thumb. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 09:41

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U.S.: Birds Point levee blast eases pressure on Mississippi River

  • cause In a controversial move that may have saved a town but Missouri fought against in court (claiming it would hurt farms), officials started blowing holes in the Birds Point levee last night.
  • effect Since the initial blast, the Mississippi River’s level at Cairo, Illinois has gone down a solid foot, lowering the pressure and possibly ensuring that the town may avoid a massive flood. source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 09:15

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U.S., World: White House’s John Brennan: We can take out al-Qaeda now

  • We’re going to try to take advantage of this opportunity we have now with the death of al Qaeda’s leader, bin Laden, to ensure that we’re able to destroy that organization. We’re determined to do so and we believe we can.
  • White House counterterrorism chief John Brennan • Sounding a little boasty by saying that the next plan, post-Bin Laden, is to basically take down all of al-Qaeda. “We believe that we have damaged the organization, degraded its capability and made it much more difficult for it to operate inside of Pakistan as well as beyond,” he continued. Do you guys think he’s right, or just on a bit of a high right now? source
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 01:29

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U.S.: Stay in school and you’re much, much more likely to get a job

  • This is why they tell you to stay in school, kids. Seriously, look at that discrepancy! Of course, the usual causation-correlation disclaimer is in effect here; maybe the kids who graduated college were the ones naturally more predisposed to keeping a job anyway? Nevertheless, this should give pause to any high schoolers considering dropping out. (source: Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis) source
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink

03 May 2011 01:15

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Politics: Mitch Daniels mum on the death of bin Laden

  • NO Mitch Daniels has no comment on bin Laden’s death source
  • » Dodging a softball: Indiana governor and possible presidential candidate Mitch Daniels has made a strange choice in steadfastly refusing to release any statement on the death of Osama bin Laden. When Jennifer Rubin at The Washington Post e-mailed him to ask if he had any response to the news, his staff answered in one word: “No.” This is odd, as the death of the world’s most-wanted man is a) certainly newsworthy enough for a presidential candidate to bother responding to, and b) probably the easiest news for any politician to formulate a response to. You really can’t screw this one up; it’s a slam-dunk! Just say, “I’m glad bin Laden’s dead,” and call it a night. Rubin takes Daniels’ silence as a sign that he’s not serious about running for president, and we think she’s onto something.
Posted by Seth Millstein • 0 Comments • Permalink
 

03 May 2011 00:46

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Tech: Sony gaming site hacked: Stop us if you’ve heard this one before

  • 24.5M number of Sony Online Entertainment users possibly affected by ANOTHER hack job
  • 20k number of credit card numbers that could’ve been exposed to evil hackers
  • off the status of the network, which means that Sony has TWO online gaming networks offline source
  • » Somebody has a security problem: While Sony Online Entertainment isn’t the juggernaut that the PlayStation Network is (and Sony says the financial data they possibly stole was old), it nonetheless makes the company look incredibly bad. This hack, by the way, happened roughly two weeks ago, around the same time as the PSN hack. Who wants to bet that they got hacked because of the way they handled the Geohot mess? Raise your hand. (via @The_CopyEditor)
Posted by Ernie Smith • 0 Comments • Permalink
 
 
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