Ad Age story beings: :
As the Word of Mouth Marketing Association kicks off its conference today in Orlando, Fla., one hot topic is sure to be the issue of disclosure: Should the ordinary Joes enlisted to spread buzz about products and services tell others that they’re part of a marketing program?
The answer [...]
When the American Press Institute charges $1,500 (hotel not included) for a citizen media workshop on the East Coast and the Media Center offers a forum in London for $795 and New Communications offers one for $895 in Palo Alto, you know the mainstream media is paying attention to the citizen journalism movement.
Ad Age has two articles on new impetus of word of mouth marketing influenced in part by growth of blogs and podcasting:
WORD-OF-MOUTH TREND-TRACKING FIRMS CONSOLIDATE UNDER VNU
BuzzMetrics to Buy Rival Intelliseek
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — The two best-known services for tracking word-of-mouth on blogs and other consumer-generated media are combining to create an entity [...]
Interesting, snarky, fun-to-read profile in New York Magazine by Philip Weiss about Craig Newmark and his craigslist.
About the New York transit strike, we read this:
Scott Anderson, a blogger for the Tribune Company, noticed with sadness that the ride-share space on Newsday.com, a Tribune holding, was empty while Craigslist was going crazy with offers. [...]
Editor & Publisher reports:
“PBS.org will unveil a new blog by longtime new media critic Mark Glaser this week that plans to explore how new forms of digital media are changing American society and culture….”
The article adds:
MediaShift goes live Jan. 18…MediaShift is your guide to the digital media revolution. Mark Glaser hosts, but you’re [...]
As you might know, the Harnisch Foundation under the direction of Ruth Ann Harnisch gave us a substantial gift to start the Center for for Sustainable Journalism at Kennesaw State University. We are up and running. Keep abreast of what is happening at SustainableJournalism.org 
Leonard Witt is the Robert D. Fowler Distinguished Chair in Communication at Kennesaw State University and the chief blogger of PJNet. His academic interests include public and citizen journalism and how to get citizens' voices heard. He has spent most of his professional career as an award-winning journalist.