Washington, DC, will get another around-the-clock news network next month, albeit a somewhat unconventional one.

Al Jazeera English will begin broadcasting in the nation’s capital on July 1. It’s now only carried 24 hours a day in Toledo, OH, and Burlington, VT. Although the network has journalists in the US, cable providers have almost entirely ignoredit, making Al Jazeera English unavailable to most American consumers.

A Zogby International poll conducted in April foundthat nearly three in 10 (29%) US consumers said they would watch Al Jazeera if available.

At a time when newspapers are trying to turn online readership into advertising revenue, 17 of the top 30 US newspaper Web sites saw a year-over-year decline in the time users spent on site in May, according to Nielsen data reported by Editor & Publisher.

NYTimes.com, USAToday.com, WashingtonPost.com, and the online edition of the Chicago Sun-Times all saw decreases in the average per-person time on their sites last month.

There were exceptions. SFGate.com (the Web site of the San Francisco Chronicle), Boston.com, and the Web site of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, all saw increases in the same category.

The Associated Press reported June 21 that expanded Federal Trade Commission authority over paid blog posts is “expected to be approved late this summer.” The revised guidelines would require bloggers to back up marketers’ claims made on site, as well as to disclose payment or compensation.

Marketing and PR professionals told PRWeek two months ago that such revisions could be unenforceable and place unwieldy expectations on marketers.

Publications are cutting summer issues in response to the recession and the traditionally slower summer advertising climate.

The Wall Street Journal reported June 17 that Newsweek will cut an issue this August. Meanwhile, the New York Post reportedthat Crain Communications is dropping five issues from the publishing schedules of Crain’s New York Business and Crain’s Chicago Business. The company is also reviewing whether to trim issues of the company’s Cleveland- and Detroit-centric business titles, according to the Post.

The Web is dominating other media as consumers’ news venue of choice, according to a Zogby Interactive survey.

The Internet is considered the most reliable source of news by 40% of adults, followed by TV at 17%, newspapers at 16%, and radio at 13%, according to the poll, which contacted 3,030 US adults.

But once on the Web, nearly half (49%) of respondents said national newspaper Web sites were important to them, followed by 43% who preferred TV Web sites. Blogs were picked by 28% of respondents.

According to The Knight Foundation, American newspapers have cut 10,000 journalists from their newsrooms in the past 10 years. Across the country newspapers are struggling to develop successful business models in the growing stronghold of digital media. In an effort to stanch the decline of high-caliber investigative journalism that requires resources not afforded the average blogger, the foundation has announced a $15-million initiative to endow projects developing new economic models for investigative reporting on digital platforms.

“We’re awash in information, yet it seems to be getting harder to find good investigative reporting,” Eric Newton, Knight Foundation’s VP for journalism, said in a statement.

Through grants offered by the foundation he hopes to “help pioneer models that help keep this important journalism flowing.”

Some recipients of the grants include the Center for Investigative Reporting, News 21, Boston University, and Investigative Reporters and Editors.

Who would want to buy a newspaper right now? If it’s The Boston Globe, at least three people, according to a report in that newspaper.

The three prospective bidders are Stephen Pagliuca, a private equity executive and Boston Celtics co-owner; Jack Connors, founder of what is now the Hill Holliday advertising agency; and Stephen Taylor, former EVP at the newspaper and a cousin of former Globe publishers.

The Globe, and corporate parent The New York Times Co., are preparing to cut employee wages by 23% after the Globe’s largest union voted down millions of dollars in concessions.

The recession, the declining financial fortunes of newspapers, and the troubles of the automobile industry are no deterrent for brothers Mark and Gary Stern, who told the Associated Press (AP) on June 9 that they plan to launch a Detroit-based daily newspaper within 60 days. The Sterns published daily newspapers in Detroit, New York, and Minneapolis when those cities’ major newspapers went on strike, according to the AP.

The Detroit Daily Press will appeal to older readers and those who prefer home print delivery, Mark Stern told the AP. The outlet will also have a Web site with summaries of news items, he added.

The Detroit Free Press and The Detroit News, both run by the Detroit Media Partnership, downscaled home delivery to four times a week in March.

The Tribune Co., which has instituted widespread job and content cuts across its media properties, could find itself under new management soon, according to a report in its namesake Chicago Tribune. Although a plan for the company to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy is still taking shape, control of the company could transfer from billionaire Sam Zell to a group of large banks and investors that hold $8.6 billion in debt, the Tribune reports.

Zell’s management of the media conglomerate, which hired Edelman for support when it filed for bankruptcy last year, has often drawn the ire of journalists.

Add Disney’s ESPN the Magazine to the list of outlets that will soon ask readers to pay for content. In August, the magazine will close its espnthemag.com Web site and move its content into the subscription ESPN Insider service, according to BusinessWeek columnist Jon Fine. He also reports that ad pages in the magazine fell nearly 32% during the year’s first quarter.

Meanwhile, Reuters reports that the Philadelphia Inquirer and Philadelphia Daily News will also charge for content by the end of the year. Arianna Huffington, however, told WowOWow.com this week that her Huffington Post, which will soon launch technology- and New York-focused pages, will stick to an advertiser-supported model.