Recommended reading for Jan. 13, 2012

To do great writing, read great writing. Here’s the great writing I’ve been reading this week:

It’s been a while since I’ve typed that. The holidays, kids home from college, catching up on work, yadda yadda. That’s all behind me, and I’ve actually had a chance to do some extracurricular reading.

Here’s the best stuff I came across this week:

A Narrowed Gaze (Columbia Journalism Review) – Former Wall Street Journal staffer Dean Starkman examines business journalism leading up to the financial crisis and asks – to paraphrase Jon Stewart of all people – “How could so many journalists covering a beat so closely miss something so big so completely?” Good question. Starkman is writing a book on the subject, The Watchdog That Didn’t Bark: the Financial Crisis and the Financial Press, due out in fall 2012. Looking forward to it.

How One Bit of Stupidity Could Have Brought Down a Multi-million Dollar Media Company (Shankman.com) – Beware – or be aware of – airplane seatmates. On a plane ride from Florida to NYC, P.R. guy Peter Shankman sat next to a guy whose reading material for the flight was a prospectus for a well-known media company that’s apparently for sale. Shankman doesn’t say which one – but he got an eyeful, and even snapped photos of the prospectus, which he includes with the post (with incriminating material redacted). His lesson: when it comes to confidential information, don’t be stupid. My takeaway as a reporter: be aware of your surroundings, you never know when you might stumble onto the makings of a great scoop.

Unbroken – I’m finally getting around to reading Laura Hillenbrand’s biography of 1936 Olympic standout and World War II hero Louie Zamperini, her follow up to bestseller Seabiscuit. I’m about a third of the way through the book, which showcases the meticulous research and recreation of detail that has become Hillenbrand’s hallmark. Last night I left “Zamp” and two other men in shark-infested waters – can’t wait to see what happens next.

And some industry news:

Can newspapers be tech incubators? (GigaOm) – Why yes, they can, and are, Mathew Ingram writes. He cites the Philadelphia News Network, which just launched the Project Liberty incubator, and Digital First Media, which owns the Detroit News, Denver Post and San Jose Mercury News, which has created a venture capital arm to invest in media startups. Another example: the Oregonian announced today partnerships with 50 Oregon blogs, part of a year-old Oregon News Network community blog project. New bloggers run the gamut from birding to local economics.

NewsRight: a Game Changer for Online Journalism? (Mashable) – Associated Press, The New York Times Co., The Washington Post Co. and more than two dozen other news organizations have started a digital licensing service to “provide authorized access to the best original reporting and related analytics for convenient use across digital platforms.” According to Mashable’s report, the company’s technology will track “websites, blogs and other Internet aggregators to measure the spread of its participants’ content.” In other words, they’re making sure content aggregators, HuffPost and anybody else aren’t ripping off and using what isn’t theirs without paying for it (my analysis).

Tool of the week for journalists – ProPublica’s TimelineSetter (Journalism.co.uk) – A nifty tool for creating beautiful interactive timelines.