These are some of the things that have caught my attention lately. It’s a more eclectic mix than just the news business, but then so’s life:

• Broadcasters refuse to air Gaza charity appeal | The Guardian – "The BBC has decided not to broadcast the DEC's public appeal to raise funds for Gaza. The BBC decision was made because of question marks about the delivery of aid in a volatile situation and also to avoid any risk of compromising public confidence in the BBC's impartiality in the context of an ongoing news story. However, the BBC will of course continue to report the humanitarian story in Gaza."
• The Death Of Newspapers? Here Comes The Rise Of The Printed Blog | paidContent – The Political Blog will be published twice a day. In addition to the $15,000 in self-funding, Karp wants to sell 200 ads an issue and charge $5- to $10 for classifieds. Business ads would go for $15- to $25 with the promise of reaching 1,000 readers. Karp figures that will be enough to earn a weekly profit of $750 to $1,500.
• London Lite position unclear | Newspaper Innovation – The Alexander Lebedev Evening Standard deal apparently does not include the sale of London Lite. But the paper actually uses resources from the Evening Standard. This means that with this support – and without joint advertising – oprating London Lite will be more expensive. The way out – except closing down the paper – would be that Lite teams up with free morning paper Metro.
• The Echo Chamber | The Sun – Tabloid Lies – "The mission of this blog from the outset has been to show people the lies told in The Sun in the hope of turning tabloid readers away from this newspaper.

  Often we will hear people 'defend' that tabloid on the basis that no-one believes their nonsense.

  We humbly beg to differ on this point, not least because there are plenty of news outlets willing to repeat their nonsense, and not all of their readers realise that The Sun is the sole source of what they are reading (if The Sun is listed as a source at all)."

• As Hamas Continues to Fire Iranian-made Rockets, The Israel Project Begins TV Ad Campaign to Prevent War with Iran | The Israel Project – Political advertising: “Imagine Washington, D.C. under missile attack from nearby Baltimore.

  Since 2005, Israel has been targeted by 8,000 rocket and missile attacks from Hamas and Hezbollah.

  Iran has helped fund, train and arm these terrorist groups.

  A nuclear Iran is a threat to peace, emboldens extremists …and could give nuclear materials to terrorists with the ability to strike — anywhere.

  The world’s leaders can peacefully prevent a nuclear Iran. The time to act is now.”

• The Well-Oiled Arab Propaganda Machine | Israel National News – One side: "Israel Resource News Agency Director David Bedein says that the war in Gaza wasn’t only a war of weapons but also was a war of words… The Arabs in Gaza display photos of dead bodies, burn victims, and destroyed houses while also encouraging their own people to become martyrs. Some of these techniques were used in the Vietnam War, says Bedein.

  Bedein says that the way to gain sympathy for Israel is to work with the press and inform them. The press is being manipulated. He says that the PA has over 30 manuals on how to distort facts for the news and how to present their case to America’s congress, the European Union and other political officials."

• Ofcom framing a digital content strategy in a vacuum | Martin Belam – I wanted to do a blog post for tomorrow morning that looked at all the sections of the 127 page Ofcom PDF that dealt with the most important emerging trends involved with Internet delivery of content to an ever more interactive British audience.

  Below is a table of what I was looking for, and how many references to each concept I found in the 'Putting Viewers First' document.

• Secretary of State’s speech to the Oxford Media Convention – "We must break a culture where jobs in the media go to the people whose parents have contacts for internships or where they can afford to support people in unpaid positions." Unlike, say, politics…
• Russian newspaper to seek arms licenses for its journalists | RIA Novosti – The Novaya Gazeta newspaper will ask Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) to issue arms licenses to its staff after one of its journalists was shot in broad daylight in downtown Moscow, a co-owner of the daily said on Thursday.

  Novaya Gazeta journalist Anastasia Baburova, 25, died on Monday hours after being shot by an unknown gunman, who also killed lawyer Stanislav Markelov. Investigative journalist Anna Politkovskaya, who also worked for newspaper, was gunned down in an elevator in her Moscow apartment building in October 2006.

  "We will address an unusual request to the Federal Security Service: If you are unable to ensure our security, let our journalists have firearms," Alexander Lebedev said.