Ex-NY Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger dies

Former New York Times publisher Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, who led the newspaper to new levels of influence and profit amid some of the most significant moments in 20th-century journalism, died Saturday. He was 86.
Sulzberger, who went by the nickname “Punch” and served with the Marine Corps in World War II and Korea before joining the Times staff as a reporter, died at his home in Southampton, N.Y., after a long illness, his family announced.
During his three-decade-long tenure, the newspaper won 31 Pulitzer prizes, published the Pentagon Papers and won a libel case victory in New York Times vs. Sullivan that established important First Amendment protections for the press.
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Old fashioned newspaper war looming in New Orleans

When The Times-Picayune decided to print three days a week, a nearby publication saw a chance to expand in the newspaper's backyard and fill a void that for some in the New Orleans area is as much a part of the morning routine as beignets and French coffee.
The Advocate of Baton Rouge, a family-owned daily published 70 miles north, will begin a daily New Orleans edition Monday, setting up an old-fashioned newspaper war. The battle for print readers comes even as more people get their news online and from cellphones, generally from newspaper websites. The move will be closely watched by a struggling industry.
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Fox News apologizes after live car chase ends with driver shooting himself in the head

Fox News has issued an on air apology for its live broadcast of a car chase in Phoenix, Arizona, that ended with the driver shooting himself in the head.
In the footage Fox News aired on Friday afternoon, the driver pulls over, gets out of the car and runs erratically down a dirt road. Eventually, he pulls out what appears to be a gun, holds it up to his head and falls forward on the ground.
Host Shepard Smith immediately starts yelling “get if off, get it off,” until the network cuts to commercial. After the show resumed, Smith issued an apology on the air.
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Eric Morrison named Sun Media’s new vice president of editorial

Eric Morrison has been named Sun Media’s new vice president of editorial and will lead the company in a reorganization of news operations on all platforms, Quebecor Media Inc. said today in a release.

Morrison is a veteran news executive, bringing with him years of experience from Canadian Press and CTV.

"Eric Morrison is one of Canada's most experienced news executives and is uniquely qualified to shape a modern, national newsgathering operation," Sun Media president and CEO Pierre Karl Peladeau said in the release. "This is an important step in Sun Media's drive to deliver high-quality news to Canadians, both in the multimedia environment and via our established newspapers, which continue to be the foundation of our operations."

Morrison cited the Sun Media newspapers’ commitment to community in the release. “Creating an effective news organization that will build on the strengths of the Sun Media network is an exciting mission," Morrison said.

Morrison was president of Canadian Press until June 2011, when he stepped down after 14 years at the head of the newswire service.  His resignation came at what CP called “the completion of a rigorous two year process for an historical reinvention of the news agency” that had included a change in ownership and a change to a for-profit business model. "He was the driving force behind technological innovations in areas such as web, mobile and video, which transformed CP into a multimedia news agency,” a statement from the board said at the time of Morrison’s resignation. “He was passionate about delivering on the organization's core mission of providing trusted, round-the-clock, real-time news and information in English and French for all media platforms."

The Quebecor release today also noted restructuring that would be taking place in the advertising and industrial branches of Sun Media.,

Terence Corcoran's sane comment on the Margaret Wente issue

"What we have in the Wente case is journalism ethics imposed by university academics in a field — journalism — that is a trade rather than an academic discipline, and through public editors that respond to ideological attacks. Ms. Wente, I suspect, now knows something of what it felt like during the Cultural Revolution in China, when ideological enforcers roamed the country to impose their views and expose running-dogs, remove people from their jobs and purge them from the system," Terence Corcoran writes in the National Post.
The whole column
 Blog exchanges between Terence Corcoran and blogger Carole Winio