Morning Links: February 9, 2009

By Joshua Benton @jbenton Feb. 9, 2009, 8:17 a.m.

— Jack Lail has a few brief videos from an ONA Nashville conference on comments and using social media as journalists.

— It’s a week old, but this Wall Street Journal article details what happens when a web site decides to give its audience the choice to turn off ads.

— Chris Anderson gives a preview of his upcoming book on business models based on free products.

Joshua Benton is the senior writer and former director of Nieman Lab. You can reach him via email (joshua_benton@harvard.edu) or Twitter DM (@jbenton).

POSTED Feb. 9, 2009, 8:17 a.m.

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Sophie Culpepper

The California Google deal could leave out news startups and the smallest publishers

“We don’t know whether or how this nonprofit and its fund will operate, and likely won’t for some months (nonprofit governance is many things, but fast is not one of them).”

Joshua Benton

With an expansion on the way, Ken Doctor’s Lookout thinks it has some answers to the local news crisis

After finding success — and a Pulitzer Prize — in Santa Cruz, Lookout aims to replicate its model in Oregon. “All of these playbooks are at least partially written. You sometimes hear people say, ‘Nobody’s figured it out yet.’ But this is all about execution.”

Mathias Felipe de Lima Santos

Big tech is painting itself as journalism’s savior. We should tread carefully.

“We set out to explore how big tech’s ‘philanthrocapitalism’ could be reshaping the news industry, focusing on countries in the Global South…Our findings suggest an emerging web of dependency between cash-strapped newsrooms and Silicon Valley’s deep pockets.”