Thomas Frank, Easy Chair columnist for Harper’s Magazine, and Bob Davis, editor of the Anniston Star, in Anniston, Ala., have been honored as opinion journalists of the year by the Association of Opinion Journalists (AOJ). About Frank, the judges noted a labor-related piece, saying, "“Only a writer with the talent and dexterity of Thomas Frank could keep a reader engaged for 2,500 words on the difficulty he had finding his way inside the Wisconsin Capitol building to report on the struggle to save collective bargaining." They praised Davis for columns with a sense of place and a "voice is always that of a thoughtful Alabama Southern gentleman who's considered all arguments."

In a survey that looked primarily at how people are consuming mobile news, some questions revealed how U.S. adults feel about professional journalists -- and the results are encouraging. Asked, for instance, if they agreed or disagreed that professional journalists play an important role in our society, 74.2 percent of mobile news users and 71.7 percent of non-users agreed.

A publisher in Pasadena, CA, who started hiring workers in India to write local stories five years ago has launched a business to help other local publishers start outsourcing. His new company, Journtent, will pay writers, mostly from the Philippines and Mexico, to watch and transcribe livestreams of the community meetings and then write stories.

On a New York City radio program Monday, Paul Ercolino criticized the media for using graphic images of his brother, who was shot to death outside the Empire State Building on Friday. "The horrific journalism that’s going on surrounding my brother — and the scalding headlines and the pictures that were in the New York Post and The New York Times that my family had to see and endure, to see those pictures that were the most horrific pictures. They gave Osama bin Laden more respect and dignity than my brother, sprawled out over the — with blood coming from him. So I would just make a plea to everyone who’s out there that are reading these stories. There’s a family behind, grieving and dying for one of their own right now and we need all your support," he said.