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This article discusses the continued decline of available jobs for cartoonists in the U.S. Frequent reorganizations are not unusual in the news industry but, unlike reporters, photographers and editors, editorial cartoon jobs are increasingly left unfilled or are eliminated entirely after a cartoonist leaves a paper. Media consolidation, newspapers folding, tightening budgets--all have contributed to the erosion of viable outlets. Bottom-line mentality and a concern for slipping circulation can drive publishers and editors to fear controversy of any sort. many editors would rather not risk irritating readers to begin with and quickly fold when uproar somehow manages to land on their desk. Far worse, at least to some cartoonists, is the editor who insists on watering down the commentary in order to be equal and balanced, altering content to such a degree the point of the cartoon is lost. Given the job market, it is the rare cartoonist indeed who resigns on principle. More often they are pushed out. One bright spot over the years has been family-owned papers that, whatever their circulation, often had a local cartoonist on staff as a matter of civic pride. Yet even among independent papers with a long tradition of editorial cartooning, the squeeze is on. Whether or not they can find a full-time job, most cartoonists still continue to draw. I he majority of people getting published today have cobbled together a career of sorts, freelancing, doing cartoons on the side, or working for a newspaper or magazine in other capacities with the opportunity to get in an occasional cartoon. Even if they have been cut loose by a paper, many scrape by with freelance work while continuing to provide material for their syndicate. A few have never worked for a newspaper, instead building up a full-time job through syndication.

This article features the latimes.com, the redesigned Web site of Los Angeles Times newspaper. Perhaps the most significant turning point in this new venture came this summer 2005, when editors who had spent their careers on the print side were asked to venture into the digital world of journalism and think about how to attract more readers. Even after an earlier, much-publicized redesign, latimes.com looked like the paper did. The front-page stories of the newspaper, mostly foreign and national news became lead stories on the homepage of the latimes.com. Web visitors could find little on the site that was not lifted directly from the paper's pages. Latimes.com, which is fifth among U.S. newspaper sites in the number of visitors it draws, generates revenues that run into the tens of millions of dollars and draws 5.5 million unique viewers a month.

This article focuses on several components of a transparent newsroom. In Open News Meetings, The Spokesman-Review's daily news meetings are open to all news staff and to the public. Visitors make appointments with the editor's executive assistant. This brings newsroom staff together with readers who have an interest in contributing to daily news decisions. Moreover, in Part-Time Ombudsman, the paper contracts with a local college professor for op-ed columns once or twice a month. Ombudsman reports to the editorial page editor. The contract arrangement provides periodic, independent review of Spokesman-Review journalism and gives readers a place to take complaints for independent review and response. Much of his work never appears in print as he facilitates communication between disgruntled readers and staff.

This article offers insights on the status of the media market in various countries. In Mexico, even Reforma, the popular among the newspapers in the country, is no match for The New York Times newspaper. However, the publishing is trying, and so are Mexican journalists on many papers and magazines, despite a weak economy, persistent poverty, shifting standards, implicit and explicit journalistic corruption, and an audience that often seems mugged by television soaps and unable or unwilling to read. In Tokyo, a problem facing news agencies is not on circulation, rather on its stultification. In this country, the political and journalistic poverty is a poverty of the imagination. In China, there was a lack of real jobs in Chinese journalism. In others, particularly in Western Europe, editors and producers have some of the same worries, but hardly the angst. Journalism in Europe, particularly in England, Germany and France, still retains much of the verve and excitement of the Great Game. American journalists are sometimes viewed as taking themselves just seriously in places where sell papers remains the object of the game. In Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union, journalists are trying to develop standards for reporting in societies where, for more than 50 years, no real reporting existed at all. In those places, young men and women with an inclination towards journalism often have found themselves shunted into government-ministry jobs or to obscure niches in academia.

This article presents a narrative of the author's experience with newspaper job interviews. The only job I have ever wanted was to draw political cartoons for a living and that is what I do. I am that rare creature, the editorial cartoonist who can make a full-time living solely from syndication. Nonetheless, I do not have what I really want: a job at a newspaper, where I would work with editors and journalists on cartoons on the state and local issues that resonate strongly with readers. My cartoons are fairly well known since they are published in more than a hundred papers. As a result, I have been interviewed three times for positions at major U.S. newspapers. Those close hiring calls serve as parables for the state of the industry. In 1995, the Patriot-News flew me to the Pennsylvania capital to meet for lunch with the paper's features editor, editor in chief, and publisher. I left the meeting feeling positive about my chances. The features editor informed me that rather than hire an editorial cartoonist they have decided to go with a sports-writer. The Patriot-News already had 6 sportswriters on staff. But such are the mysterious priorities of editors and publishers. Around the same time an opening occurred at the Asbury Park Press. The executive editor worked his way down a list of boilerplate questions, everything went satisfactorily until he asked if the paper will see protesters yelling about a cartoon that I drew. I said it is not my intention to offend readers but if an idea is worth expressing, I do not think I should self-censor because of that possibility. I knew I had blown what should have been a simple no. But taking a job under impossible conditions would invariably get me fired. I still dream and wait for the telephone to ring with the news that a paper wants to talk to me and, maybe this time, actually hire me.

The author ponders on the demise of journalism and the significance of the newsroom of the newspaper "The Republican" in Springfield, Massachusetts. He asserts that the market for clear and sharp writing about current events is unlikely to disappear. He claims that editorial leaders at majority of daily papers in the U.S. failed to keep up with the pace of technological change. He adds that solid reporting and realistic storytelling are thriving despite varied methods used to deliver journalistic work.

The section introduces a series of articles on news reporting and journalism including how news organizations look for ways to unlock the mysteries of how to connect with reluctant consumers. "Voices" periodical has built reputation on showing teens as they really are, not how someone wants them to be or thinks they should be. Among the myths on young adult newspaper readership is that publishers used to cling to the notion that people acquired the newspaper habit as the got older. Publishers can connect with Pennsylvania State University students by hiring a young staff to publish "Blue," a weekly youth-oriented wraparound section and figuring out how to market the product. To compete with the Internet and have a chance at attracting young people, newspapers must offer a combination of goods such as authentic and edgy news coverage, more international news and stories with more young voices. There is an extensive research done by Gannett Company Inc. and points to approaches some Gannett papers have taken to attract young readers. It was evident that if students were going to write for a newspaper, they had to learn and read one.