Twitter Lists, a highly anticipated new feature of the social networking site, is set to be updated from its current beta version and released into the public arena sometime this week, Poynter Online has reported.

The feature will permit users to create and follow themed lists of breaking news feeds, news outlets, specific journalists, niche sources, or indeed any group of related Twitter users. It is expected that the tool will be particularly handy for the news hungry or journalists.

On the Twitter website, project leader Nick Kallen, wrote that the lists are public by default (but can be made private) and are linked from each user's profile. Other Twitter users can then subscribe to other users lists.

Having been tried and tested by various users in beta format already, the feature has so far received a positive response. Many value the way it allows users to discover other users they may have previously overlooked, as well as "blocking out the noise" of users they are not interested in.

After buying The Brooklyn Paper in March, media mogul Rupert Murdoch has annouched that as of today all current subscribers to the New York Post who live in 'selected areas in Brooklyn', will also receive a copy of the community paper as part of a package deal.

In a statement in The Brooklyn Paper yesterday, publisher Celia Weintrob said: "This is what we call a classic win-win... Post readers already enjoy the best newspaper in the city - but now they'll be getting the best local paper in Brooklyn, too."

The announcement comes amidst a general trend toward more regional news sources, with many publications investing more in local information as the profitabilty of it becomes apparent.

All of The Brooklyn Paper's stories already appear online on the NY Post web site.

Source: The Observer

A law passed in Argentina earlier this month placing limits on media ownership, has raised eyebrows over the motivations of the government of President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner, with many arguing she is attempting to restrict press freedom.

The legislation, which at its core prevents ownership of more than 35 per cent of cable and broadcast operations in a single market and requires the renewal of a license every two years, was declared a victory by Fernández for the 'democratization' of media. She said the measure would free up the airwaves and offer a platform for non- profit groups, universities and the government to express themselves.

Supporters argued that it replaces an outdated media system that can be tracked back to 1980, when military dictatorship ruled the country, but many others remain skeptical.

One of the key opponents of the bill, Senator Luis Petcoff Naidenoff of the Radical Civic Union party, argued the aim of the bill was nothing more than to "silence voices" of dissent after Fernández and her husband, former President Nestor Kirchner, began accusing Clarín of bias in covering their policies.

Petcoff Naidenoff's views are supported by the fact that it is indeed Grupo Clarín that will suffer the brunt of the new legislation, now forced to break up its media empire which constitutes of 73 per cent of Argentina's radio, television and cable licences.

According to the latest Certified Audit of Circulation report, Metro US, America's leading daily freesheet, has become the 5th largest circulated newspaper in the country, Reuters has reported. In doing so, the publication has overtaken the Washington Post. The latest figures report a circulation of 590,553 daily copies across New York, Philadelphia, and Boston.

Available Monday through Friday and with content varied city by city, Metro US cites young professionals as its target audience, which it clearly meets considering its number one position among the group, according to the 2009 Scarborough Survey. Among all print publications Metro reaches the highest percentage of adults 18-49 years old.

The publication attributes its unique reach in the market to its flexibility, having recently redesigned the paper to include a weekend edition, and new creative advertising solutions; including glossy and zoned cover wraps, an interactive text poll and editorial sponsorships.

Pelle Tornberg, Founder and CEO of SeaBay Media, explains that: "Our free papers provide the Twittering, blogging, and Facebooking generation with something new and different, quick news and bite-size information, which means they can keep up to speed in a 20-minute commute".

The Wall Street Journal is closing its Boston bureau, it was widely reported yesterday. Journal managing editor Robert Thomson said in a memo to colleagues that "the economic background to the closure is painfully obvious to us all." He added that "an investigative function" would remain but that the core reporting team would be disbanded.

The nine reporters affected will be able to apply for openings elsewhere in the paper, Thomson said. The investigations group, several of who were part of a team awarded a Pulitzer Prize in 2007 for a series of articles about stock-option backdating, will remain in Boston. According to a WSJ article yesterday, the reporters in Boston tend to cover "mutual-fund firms, education and companies in industries including computer storage and software, retailing and biotechnology," but Boston is no longer home to many of the big companies formerly based there. Coverage will be shifted to the paper's New York headquarters where necessary.

Parent company Dow Jones will keep its Newswires bureau and Marketwatch team in place. Thomson portrayed the closure as an isolated move, saying that "there are no plans, nascent or otherwise, to close any other US or international bureau."

The German coalition, led by recently re-elected Chancellor Angela Merkel, has pledged to try to introduce a form of copyright legislation to help protect the content produced by journalists online, the New York Times is reporting.

The aim is to give German publishers a fighting chance when coming up against Internet giants such as Google, whom they accuse of exploiting content without sharing the profits.

Whilst the document laying out its policies says: "the Internet cannot be a copyright-free zone," the coalition does support a more aggressive approach to helping resolve the issues currently faced by the news media.

Axel Springer, owner of the newspapers Bild and Die Welt, welcomed the plan and said it could be employed to help build new online business models.

Allbritton Communication Co., owner of popular political news website, Politico, is to launch a website next spring that will cover local news in the Washington area, AFP is reporting.

In a memo released to staff yesterday, chief executive Robert Allbritton confirmed the venture, which will the run by ex-WashingtonPost.com editor, Jim Brady. Allbritton said the website "will harness the power of the Web, social media and new technology to connect Washingtonians with each other and with the information that matters most in their family, civic and work lives.

"This is an exciting moment for me personally," Allbritton wrote. "I grew up in Washington and in the media business. I see nothing but more change -- creative, vital and, yes, profitable -- in the years ahead."

The website, which has not yet been named, will merge the current WJLA.com and News8.net to focus wholly on local news, and will employ a start-up staff of more that 50 people. It has also been reported that the site will share content with two local television stations also owned by Allbritton.

Morocco blocked the distribution of El Paí­s on Saturday after the Spanish daily reproduced two cartoons considered to "undermine the institution of the monarchy," reports AFP.

The first image, by French cartoonist, Jean Plantu, was originally printed in Le Monde last Thursday, and depicts 'a hand reaching out of a Moroccan flag to create a child-like drawing of a funny face wearing a crown'. The cartoon also resulted in a ban on distribution of Le Monde in Morocco on both Thursday and Friday.

The second sketch was initially published by Moroccan paper Akhbar al Yaoum Casablanca in September by local cartoonist, Gueddar Khalid. The image alluded to the recent marriage of Moroccan Prince Moulay Ismail, a cousin of King Mohammed VI, to a German convert to Islam.

"We have no problem with any Spanish newspaper, but will not allow El Paí­s, as we did not allow Le Monde, to violate the Moroccan monarchy," said government spokesman, Khalid Naciri. "The role of the press is not to provoke," said the minister, adding that: "We do not force anyone to love this country, but to respect it."

French Minister for Culture and Communication Frédéric Mitterrand officially launched the program "Mon journal offert" « My free newspaper » yesterday, which offers readers aged between 18 and 24 a free yearly subscription to a newspaper of their choice.

It had been known for some time that the French government has been considering a proposal to offer free newspapers to youths as part of wider scheme to help boost newspaper readership and attempt to bail out the industry.

The French press is among the least profitable in Europe, bound by limited sales points, strong unions, the highest printing costs in Europe and a distribution monopoly. The control of the latter is particularly constricting and it was announced this morning that no French newspapers would be on sale in kiosks today due to a 24-hour strike staged by France's number one distributor Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne.

Readership in France is especially low among young people and according to a government study, only 10 per cent of those aged 15 to 24 read a paid-for newspaper daily in 2007, down from 20 per cent a decade earlier.

Following trade union SGLCE-CGT's call for employees of Nouvelles Messageries de la Presse Parisienne (NMPP), France's number one press distribution company, to stage a 24 hour strike, the majority of the country's national daily newspapers will today be absent from newsstands where they are normally sold, Le Monde has reported.

The industrial action was the latest in a series of strikes in protest against NMPP's 'Defi 2010' plan, which will involve the closure of the Combs-la-Ville magazine distribution centre, bringing with it a significant number of job losses and the proposed modernisation of the current printing press within the sector.

The majority of dailies, including Libération, La Croix, La Tribune, France-Soir and L'Equipe, are still running their websites as usual. Some publications have taken extra measures to ensure that news reaches their readers, with L'Humanité having produced a special electronic edition for today and Echos granting free access to the whole of its website, including areas normally only open to subscribers, for 24 hours.

As of the 24 November, an all new integrated print and online planning currency, Locally Connected, will be available in the UK, MediaWeek has reported. The launch comes after the successful completion of a recent project between the regional publishers' trade body, the Newspaper Society, JICREG, the Joint Industry Committee for Regional Press Research, and the ABC.

Locally Connected, which has been in the process of development since 2006, has been monitored by The Newspaper Society to ensure that it meets the standards and requirements of prospective agencies, media owners, the IPA and ISBA.

Using a combination of audited web traffic data, survey data and statistical analysis, the new planning currency will make trading ads to a postcode level through print data alone a thing of the past and bring local news to a wider audience - across a multimedia platform. According to David Fordham, president of the Newspaper Society and Chief Executive of Iliffe News and Media, Locally Connected will "give advertisers a unique and powerful cross-media planning tool that demonstrates how they can effectively target the UK's local communities online as well as in print."