Help celebrate the 76th anniversary of National Newspaper Week Oct. 2-8.

The annual observance celebrates and emphasizes the impact of newspapers to communities large and small. This year’s theme is “Way to Know!” - Applauding and underscoring newspapers’ role as the leading provider of news in print, online or in palms via mobile devices. Free materials for newspapers are ready to download now at http://www.nationalnewspaperweek.com/

Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, was recognized as a "champion of transparency" Tuesday by the Texas Press Association.

The newspaper group presented the award to Whitmire in recognition of his passage of Senate Bill 308 in the 84th Texas Legislature. The bill applied the state's public information laws to campus police departments at private universities.

Legislation to provide the U.S. Postal Service with the ability to continue to restructure without diminishing mail service is critical in the 114th Congress, as a slow economy and electronic diversion change the mail. That is why the National Newspaper Association welcomed the support of Sens. Jerry Moran, R-KS; Roy Blunt, R-MO and Claire McCaskill, D-MO, as they signed onto S. 2051, the iPOST Act introduced this year by Sen.

In the years before the Web came along and blew up the business model for journalism, the media landscape was much less volatile. If one publisher gained the upper hand on its competitors by dint of innovation or improved strategy, that technique could eventually be rediscovered and replicated in a stable business environment. Not so today. Source: Billy Penn and Knight Foundation want to build ‘Yelp for mobile news’ | Poynter.

Blendle, a Dutch “digital newsstand” that allows readers to pay by the article, is coming to the United States early in 2016, the company announced Dec. 9. Source: Blendle, the Dutch ‘iTunes for news,’ will launch in the U.S. early next year | Poynter.

[[{"type":"media","view_mode":"media_large","fid":"1838","attributes":{"class":"media-image size-full alignleft","typeof":"foaf:Image","style":"","alt":""}}]]As smartphones and other mobile devices have become more widespread, some 21% of Americans now report that they go online “almost constantly,” according to a Pew Research Center survey. Overall, 73% of Americans go online on a daily basis.

Algorithm journalism is now available for everyone. A beta version of Wordsmith, a program that creates journalism from data, was made available by Automated Insights on its website in October, the company announced.But one of the world’s largest news organizations already uses the software to automatically generate some stories – and its standards editor said the ethics of the software has to be carefully considered. “We want to make sure that we’re doing everything the way we should,” Associated Press standards editor Tom Kent said.

Journalists at The Las Vegas Review-Journal described the newsroom as somber and confused on Monday, as a seemingly simple question remained unanswered: Who bought the newspaper for $140 million in cash last week? Source: Reporters in Las Vegas Try to Crack Case of Who Owns Their Newspaper - The New York Times

On the corner of Oakland and Asheville in Hendersonville, N.C.–behind a used-car dealership where banged-up late-model sedans sport “AS IS” stickers and sub-$4,000 price tags–sits an 812-square-foot trailer that houses what just might be the future of local print journalism. The Trailer of Truth, as it’s known in these parts, is world headquarters of the Hendersonville Lightning.

With every ad dollar a struggle to come by, publishers are trying to tap into e-commerce. But while many have found e-commerce hard to pull off, an increasing number are finding there’s money to be made in shoppable gift guides. Source: Publishers' newest revenue scheme: monetized gift guides - Digiday