Dial tones for debtors

MediaNews Group, doing business under the name Affiliated Media, is set to enter bankruptcy court on March 4. Before it does, it has made a few requests of the judge in the case. First, the company doesn't want to have to sign checks "Debtor-in Possesion." Second, and more important to people working in the chain's newsrooms, it wants to keep the phones and the Internet working.

From the Denver Daily:

MediaNews asked Judge Kevin J. Carey in a 23-page brief that “the debtor (MediaNews) cannot continue its operations without the continued services of the utility provider. Any disruption of the utility services supplied by the utility provider, for even a brief period, would be extremely costly to the debtor and harmful to its business.”

(Found via Westword)

Google comes calling

The new Google Voice offers a host of useful tools for journalists, Poynter says. Here's the Google page with an overview. The service is only available by invitation, but the wait is supposed to be relatively short.