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IN FEBRUARY 2006, THE SARASOTA HERALD-TRIBUNE was at the peak of its power and influence, or so it must have seemed to the hundreds of reporters, editors, ad sellers and [...]

The article discusses the so-called alternative or underground newspapers in the U.S. and states the difficulty in defining what these really are. It notes as to how alternative press is established and points out that it has grown old with its original audience. It compares the conventional newspapers with that of their alternative counterpart in terms of the contents. It focuses as well on the different things these alternative newspapers bring particularly when it comes to news coverage, their editors and their interest in featuring unknown writers and publishing long articles. Moreover, it presents the reason why their editors are becoming uneasy despite the fact these have become respectable.

Discusses problems at 'The New York Times' following the resignation of reporter Jayson Blair under charges of plagiarism and fabrication. Contentious meeting of the newspaper's staff; Resentment of many staffers over the management style of executive editor Howell Raines; Implications of the incident for U.S. journalism; How the Blair incident highlights a general erosion of public trust in the media; Issue of race; Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr.'s defense of Raines; Outlook.

The changes have been anything but conservative at Canada's unabashedly right-wing national daily. After months of speculation that CanWest Global Communications Corp. was set to fold its perennially money-losing National Post, the paper was granted a reprieve. Ken Whyte, editor-in-chief, and Martin Newland, his deputy--the duo behind the Post's cheeky mixture of agenda-driven news, pointed commentary and unapologetic fluff, have left to pursue unspecified "opportunities." Leonard Asper, CanWest chief executive, announced a three-year plan to make the paper profitable and appointed his older brother David to oversee the flagship. Matthew Fraser, a media commentator and journalism professor with no previous management experience, was named editor-in-chief. More and more Post reporters have been showing up on TV screens, and the content of the chain's daily papers across the country has become increasingly standardized--a trend that seems sure to intensify as the company struggles to get out from under a $3.6-billion debt load.

Comments on the fraudulent reporting of black 'New York Times' reporter Jayson Blair, who resigned. How publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. encouraged staffers to be candid; Topic of quota systems in newsrooms; Implications of hiring underqualified people; The rising pressures to relax standards; Ideology of diversity and its impact on coverage; Issue of credibility.

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.