The ProJo's parent company, A.H. Belo, has been skewered over the last 24 hours after sending a memo to employees at its flagship paper, the Dallas Morning News, announcing that some editors at the paper will start reporting directly to managers who oversee advertising - blurring the traditional line between business and editorial.

The Providence Journal, buffeted by declining circulation and advertising revenue, has re-hired three laid-off copy editors to do part-time, sporadic work.

John Hill, president of the Providence Newspaper Guild, says he does not read the move as a sign of a marked improvement in the paper's financial health - but rather, an attempt to bolster a department particularly overworked in the wake of layoffs in the fall of 2008 and spring of 2009.

In case you missed it, the Providence Business News had an interesting piece a couple of days back on signs of a shift in the local TV news race:

PROVIDENCE – The 11 p.m. newscast on WPRI-TV CBS 12 garnered the most viewers in the key November ratings period for the first time since 1993 this year, dethroning longtime leader WJAR-TV NBC 10.

ProJo executive editor Tom Heslin, in a question-and-answer session after a speech before good-government group Common Cause Rhode Island a few weeks ago, suggested that the paper would consider charging for content. Everyone in the industry, he noted, is weighing the move amid major declines in revenue.

Now, a report from Bloomberg News that ProJo parent company A.

A new Politico piece recalls that Bishop Tobin's clash with Patrick Kennedy is not his first public lashing of a pol for his position on abortion. In 2007, he penned a piece in the diocesan newspaper Rhode Island Catholic taking on Rudy Giuliani and - in an aside - Senator Jack Reed:

"I have no idea why I received an invitation to Giuliani’s fundraiser.

An interesting controversy brewing over Newsweek's new Sarah Palin cover. The image, of Palin in running shorts next to an American flag, accompanies an article titled "How Do You Solve a Problem Like Sarah?: She's Bad News for the GOP, and for Everybody Else, Too."

The photo originally appeared in Runner's World. And Palin has labeled Newsweek's use of the picture "sexist and oh-so-expected by now" on her blog.

Some musings on media happenings over the weekend:

• The White House may be shunning Fox News, but its surrogates are still pushing the administration's line. Rhode Island's senior senator, Jack Reed, was on Fox News Sunday this weekend doing battle with Rudy Giuliani over Attorney General Eric Holder's decision to try some of the alleged 9/11 terrorists in civilian court.

Frank Williams, retired Supreme Court chief justice, went on the radio and television yesterday and spoke with the Associated Press in a bid to squelch talk of an inappropriate relationship with his former driver and her daughter. The notable exception in his media tour: the Providence Journal.

The paper reported that Williams wanted veto power over the reporter who would sit down with him.

Rhody's Congressional delegation was in the spotlight this weekend. First, Senator Jack Reed was on CBS' Face the Nation doing battle with Republican Senator Lindsey Graham, of South Carolina, on health care reform. Reed voiced support for a public option, while acknowledging an "active debate" on alternatives to a straight public option: an opt-out provision for states and a trigger that would allow the public option to kick in if private insurers are unable to meet certain metrics for care.

There has been near unanimous support, in the media, for a law making its way through Congress that would protect journalists from revealing confidential sources. And this scribe is inclined to cheer on the bill. But there's an interesting contrary view at Slate from Jack Shafer who notes that the proposed law is not an out-and-out shield: it would simply force the government to show why reporters should be required to testify about sources - a hurdle, he suggests, that is quite surmountable.

I've written a cover story for today's Phoenix on a topic that has fascinated me for years: the lifestyle center. It is a faux Main Street - essentially the mall, gone outdoors - that raises all sorts of interesting questions about public and private space.

With the real Main Street in decline, can we really form community in a place built around brand identity? Is there something odd about living in a condo above the Gap with a view of Cold Stone Creamery? Should we be concerned that the new public square doesn't allow for anti-war protest or, even, skateboarding? Or should we be embracing a walkable, green space in the heart of sprawling suburbia?

Republican victories in gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia yesterday were striped across the nation's newspapers this morning. The GOP and some in the press were quick to label the results a rebuke to Obama.

Late-breaking results of a special Congressional election in upstate New York that went to the Dems has clouded the picture, though.

The new elizabethroberts.org is downright Obama-like in look and feel, with a tagline - "restoring hope in Rhode Island" - to match. Providence City Councilman and would-be mayoral candidate John Lombardi's site, unveiled earlier this year, also emulates the president's new media politics.

Look for more of the same, as Rhode Island gears up for its first true social-media election next year.

The chatter around the ProJo in recent weeks was that finances at the paper's Dallas-based parent company, A.H. Belo, might brighten a wee bit with the third-quarter earnings report. Those numbers were released today and, well, they could've been worse. From the Providence Business News:

DALLAS – The Providence Journal’s parent company, A.