Quick Hits: LeDuff in Motown, the Times in Baghdad, Strupp's Top 10

Baby, it's cold outside: A tough winter in Detroit

Cozying up by the fire on Xmas eve, a few quick-reads for all the news business junkies out there:

LeDuff in Motown: Charlie LeDuff was a New York Times reporter in 2002 when he agreed to come and speak to my journalism students about his coverage of ground zero in the days and weeks following 9/11. To say he was a hit with my students is an understatement; they surrounded him afterward and clamored for his autograph. Journalist as rock star.

But now LeDuff is back in his hometown of Motown, and the Weekly Standard's Matt Labash has a great piece on the city, LeDuff and the terrific work he's doing for the Detroit News. Why did LeDuff, once a rising star at the Times, return to a dying city to work at the News? Read Labash's story.

The Times in Baghdad: Fewer and fewer major news organizations are willing to spend the money to maintain a full bureau in Baghdad any more. But Vanity Fair's Seth Mnookin has a terrific piece about how the Times still spends $3 million a year for a bureau to cover what he calls "the most important story no one wants to read." You'll want to read Mnookin's story.

Strupp's Top 10: Every year, Editor & Publisher does a top 10 list of the year's biggest newspaper industry stories. The excellent Joe Strupp does the honors this year, and his list, not surprisingly, is dead-on. From layoffs to lost editors, Strupp covers it all in a year those of us in the news biz would rather forget. "Let's hope 2009 fares better," Strupp writes. Hear, hear.

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