Grab BagFacebook users can now share links to the content they view online, in this case from two leading U.S. newspapers, among other sites. Summarizes I Want Media from the Reuters article: "Facebook, the No. 2 U.S. social networking site, is entering deals with the New York Times, WashingtonPost.com and other media companies to support a new site feature that allows its users to collect photos, news and videos and paste them onto their profile pages."

I think it's a good thing users can decide which links they want to share, because the last thing Web users need are more tools for tracking their digital footprints. Not that I'm hiding anything, but just as nobody needs their search data released, so too should browsing history only be shared upon consent. 

A related story from Editor and Publisher says the NY Daily Sun announced a partnership Tuesday with Inform Technologies LLC, which helps publishing companies develop online products and will work on the NYSun.com Web site. "According to a statement," the article continues, "Inform’s algorithmic information tagging system will embed links on the Sun’s Web site to related information and articles on the internet, information on the paper’s affiliate brands and archives, and other multimedia sites. According to a statement, Inform’s algorithmic information tagging system will embed links on the Sun’s Web site to related information and articles on the internet, information on the paper’s affiliate brands and archives, and other multimedia sites."

IWM also reports on the readership and circulation uproar: While U.S. newspapers are losing readers fast (Bloomberg), the NY Post, owned of course by Rupert Murdoch, beat its rival the NY Daily News in the local circulation battle (Crain's); Forbes.com's Louis Hau says this face-off could set the bar, since the Post and Daily News are doing what Hau recommends local papers do. Which is, as Jim Romenesko quotes: "Emphasize local coverage, run stories you can't get anywhere else, keep them short, have a point of view, serve up sports, and go tabloid."

Following the great circulation drops, Freakonomics (the blog) asks readers if they, like one who wrote in, are "Web tippers" — that is, if they click ads to support the paper hosting those ads.  This seemed curious to Stephen J. Dubner, since a site like NYTimes.com surely doesn't need the support the same way a smaller site might. (ahem.) And on a "quick hit" note, Dan Blank notices that if you read the headlines the way he does, "Newspaper Circulation: Declines, Falls, then Plunges". Subtle. Nice read, Mr. Blank. 

Dan Blank also comments on the release of new news platform Daylife, as PaidContent reports. Blank quotes the article, then comments: 

“The mission is to gather and organize news in ways that are most relevant to the user. That could be by event, topic, author, geography or other factors. Source pages that show what a journalist writes about or who is quoted are part of the mix.”

What is fascinating to me is the list of investors, which includes Jeff Jarvis, Scott Heiferman, Craig Newmark, Mike Arrington, Dave Winer and others. Quite an impressive roster.

No kidding. And Jarvis, whose post reveals that this project is the same one he couldn't disclose previously, says he'll share more soon.

Editors Weblog interviews Jay Rosen about NewAssignment.net. Rosen speaks (again, or rather, still) to questions surrounding "the middle path" between traditional and citizen journalism, the wiki article started in partnership with Wired News, information verification, news as conversation and cooperation and Rosen's concerns about the project overall.

Back on Rosen's PressThink blog, guest columnist and spin expert Ira Basen of the CBC analyzes and responds to Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper's controversial decision to pick and choose the media outlets with whom he deigns to speak, or as the dek reads: "Harper wanted to see if he could fundamentally change the relationship between his government and the people who cover it. Declaring that the Ottawa gallery was biased against him, he announced that he would speak primarily to local media and other journalists of his own choosing." It's a meaty article, and Basen contrasts Harper and President Bush's parallel media stifling, tying that thread into his conclusion: "In the end, Stephen Harper’s efforts to rollback the press may be more sophisticated and more subtle than the in-your-face tactics employed by the Bush White House. This is Canada after all! But the consequences are no less disturbing."

Haydn Shaughnessy, Mediangler, finds "hidden away in a New York Times article on cross-media ownership is the story about Cox Enterprises new classifieds solution Kudzu.com." Kudzu, he says, could "bring thousands of new businesses online into local classified ads."

Newsbusters rebuts the "blog-bashing" by Richard Berke, assistant managing editor at the New York Times who among other comments, said that the "bad blogs … are the ones that take on the New York Times."