Newspapers are generally regarded for their roles in societies as giving citizens a tool to better monitor their governments and other officials, and pushing for progress and promoting free speech. One newspaper in Uganda, operating on the opposite end of the spectrum, has been ordered to stop publishing the names of citizens it says are gay, according to a Reuters report, posted yesterday by the Irish Times.

The newspaper, called Rolling Stone, last month published the names and photos of citizens it said were homosexual, and called on authorities to put them to death. The headline was called "Men of Shame Part II," and followed the publication last month of 100 other people it alleged were gay.

Image: AP, via the Guardian

The Sexual Minorities Uganda group petitioned the country's high court to close the publication, as it was opening up innocent people to discrimination at the least, and violence at the worst, Frank Mugisha, chairman of the group, told Reuters.

Under Ugandan law, homosexuality is outlawed. Several people in the list published by Rolling Stone experienced harassment, according to the Guardian.

The Huffington Post Investigative Fund, the journalism non-profit launched by Ariana Huffington in September 2009, has produced roughly 50 stories since its inception.

Nick Penniman, executive director of the fund, estimated that his editorial staff of nine publish between three and five stories a week. Some are "deep-dive" pieces, requiring months of reporting, while others are "quick-strike" articles that are less in-depth. The fund's articles are posted on their Web site and can be distributed by other news outlets free of charge under a Creative Commons license. in September 2009, has produced roughly 50 stories since its inception.

For more on this story, visit our sister publication, editorsweblog.org.

NewsCred launched in 2008 aiming to use algorithms combined with users' votes to rank news sources by credibility. That didn't work out, and the site is now manoeuvring in another direction, this time offering users a platform to build professionally-looking customised online newspaper sites in just minutes, TechCrunch reported last week.

Users can pick topics they are interested in or choose from a list of categories provided. The stories are then drawn from popular news sites and blogs, aggregated and listed in their appropriate sections.

The news customisation space is already very competitive, and at the top are online giants like Google. Other more "directly competitive" sites include Meehive, according to TechCrunch.

However, NewsCred has something its competitors don't - a unique feature that allows users to put their spin on the news with an "Editorial" section, in which customised news streams are placed next to a blogging element where users can write their own content. The customised newspaper can be shared via Twitter or e-mailed directly from the site, The Next Web reported.

One of the reasons readers are trading online for print that is rarely discussed is that newspaper stories are too long, while online articles are more to-the-point, Michael Kinsley argues in the Atlantic this week.

His reasoning? "Context," which newspapers pride themselves on providing, has become "an invitation to hype," causing readers to go elsewhere to just get the facts. Shorter, more concise articles could cause a boost in print sales, but existing mandatory newsroom rules to give more context may be hurting print, he writes in his column.
"The software industry has a concept known as 'legacy code,' meaning old stuff that is left in software programs, even after they are revised and updated, so that they will still work with older operating systems. The equivalent exists in newspaper stories, which are written to accommodate readers who have just emerged from a coma or a coal mine. Who needs to be told that reforming health care (three words) involves "a sweeping overhaul of the nation's health care system" (nine words)? Who needs to be reminded that Hillary Clinton tried this in her husband's administration without success? Anybody who doesn't know these things already is unlikely to care. (Is, in fact, unlikely to be reading the article)," Kinsley states.