Bivings Group Names Top Ten Newspaper.coms

The Bivings Group, in a follow-up to its July report, released a list of the Group's favorite newspaper Web sites. The 10 best were chosen from the top 100 newspapers (by print circulation) -- the basis of their report, "American Newspapers and the Internet: Threat or Opportunity."

The Bivings Group list is worth checking out -- well-reasoned explanations of why these sites made the list, good recommendations/best practices from them and more. Also check out the July report.

Separately, Howard Owens made his own top 10 list. Also a worthy read.

L.A. Times: It's Not Journalism

The Los Angeles Times today published an editorial commenting on Google's new commenting program, wherein Google allows newsmakers to comment on news articles that directly involve them. (See this August 9 Digital Edge blog entry for more.)

"The feature implies that the stories aggregated by Google News are incomplete -- possibly because of limited space, but also possibly because of bias, neglect or ignorance. News organizations have their flaws, and the added comments on Google may demonstrate that. But Google's effort may have a happier side effect: It may illustrate why journalism is more than just aggregating information -- and why Google News isn't really its competition after all," Times editors wrote.

The editorial also included a few sentences that really got under Robert Niles' (of Online Journalism Review) skin. Included (from the editorial): "Many publishers consider the Internet, and Google in particular, a greater threat to their livelihoods than Osama bin Laden." 

In response, Online Journalism Reviews' Robert Niles ripped apart the editorial for a number of reasons, including the sentence I cited above. But he does also agree with several of L.A. Times' points toward the end of its editorial.

I won't try to paraphrase Niles' piece here -- it's too good for that. Just head over there.