MONDAY'S LINKS: Singleton's Gamble, Justice Kennedy Scraps With Editorialists

By: David Hirschman Singleton Contemplates Another Big Risk
William Dean Singleton's track record of buying large metropolitan newspapers that face competitive challenges. could be continued with a bid for the The Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News.

With Knight Papers Available It's the Chance of a Lifetime
Business opportunity: Owners sought for profitable hometown newspapers in 11 American cities. Owners will instantly become prominent citizens. Political and economic influence will follow. Great chance to leave a mark on the world.

Supreme Court Justice Kennedy Slams Editorial Writers
Last week, Justice Anthony Kennedy addressed the American Society of International Law in Washington. In response to a question about how the organization could enhance public understanding of the role of foreign law in Supreme Court opinions -- a controversial topic of late -- Kennedy replied: "One thing you can do is suggest to editorial writers that they read the opinions before they write their editorials."


Papers, Websites in Scrape on Stories
Not only is advertising moving from newspapers to the Internet, but newspaper stories increasingly are migrating as well. Whether they like it or not, newspaper publishers are seeing stories, or "content" as it is called in the Internet world, culled by outside parties for use on their Web sites and for their own profit.

Mobile, Ala. Newspaper Changes Name to 'Press-Register'
Alabama's oldest newspaper changed its name from Mobile Register to Press-Register on Sunday to reflect its coverage of the entire southwest corner of the state.

Akron Agonizes Over Sale of Knight's Onetime Flagship Journal
As a dozen Knight Ridder Inc. newspapers await their fate on the auction block, few cities are likely to have a more wrenching transition than the former tire- making capital of Akron, Ohio. The Akron Beacon Journal was once the flagship newspaper of John S. Knight, the publisher and Pulitzer Prize-winning editorialist who died in 1981

Stop the Presses
The New York Times is ditching its hallowed stock quotes and putting them online. Now they should make the whole paper digital, writes James Kramer.

Sulzberger: Jury Still Out on TimesSelect
"It is a bet," Sulzberger said. "But it's a bet on the value of judgement, the value of insight, the value of experience. I remember calling [Friedman] and talking to him about this. He said, 'Arthur, I gotta tell you, it's going to cut my audience way back, but we've got to do it.' In fact all of our columnists came to that place."

What the Domenench Debacle Can Teach Newspaper Dotcoms
"Newspaper.coms that are beginning that conversation shouldn't fear bloggers dropping gigabytes of criticism their way," writes Robert Niles. "If bloggers are complaining, that means they're still reading. Publishers should fear, instead, the calm silence of an apathetic Web that doesn't read your site anymore. Ben Domenech was a lousy hire. Not because he was a blogger, not because he was opinionated. He was a lousy hire because his history of work online revealed a dishonest, shallow writer who added bluster, rather than insight, to his pages."