MONDAY'S LINKS: 'Sun-Times' VT Flub, Online Growth Falters, 'Bomb Iran'

By: E&P Staff In today's links, signs that the growth of online advertising might not be enough to save newspapers, changing ideas about acceptable journalistic practices at the Philadelphia Inquirer, and the Washington Post Company's CEO thinks it would be a mistake for New York Times shareholders to try to force the company to drop its two-tier stock system.

***

-- Wall Street Journal: What should worry those who care about the New York Times is not the nature of the criticism by shareholders but the proposed remedy, writes Washington Post Co. CEO Donald Graham.

-- New York Times: At The Philadelphia Inquirer, everything -- even a joint venture with an advertiser that in other times might have raised questions about editorial integrity -- is being rethought.

-- Wall Street Journal: Even with all the grim news the newspaper industry has faced in recent years, publishers have consoled themselves that they have a lifeline. If they could switch content away from print and onto the Internet -- bringing advertisers with them -- they could save their businesses. Last week, that lifeline began looking frayed.

-- Reuters: "My sense is this is a real red flag for the [newspaper] industry," said Ken Doctor, a media analyst for Outsell Inc. "Rapid online growth appears to be dimming. That's a big problem."

-- CNet: YouTube deletes video of McCain singing 'Bomb Iran.'

-- Washington Post: "Journalism is about searching for answers. But what happens when there are no answers?" asks Howard Kurtz.

-- Marketwatch: I'm not buying the Chicago Sun-Times' explanation for its error in covering the Virginia Tech massacre, writes Jon Friedman.