Tonight marks the first official presidential campaign debate between President Barack Obama and Governor Mitt Romney. It’s taking place in Denver (at 9 p.m. Eastern, or 6 p.m. Pacific), but since you likely haven’t snagged a seat, your options for viewing are plentiful this election year. You may not have determined who you’re voting for let alone figured out how you’re watching the debates. Here are five options for where to watch tonight’s Q&A and interact with others watching.
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Twitter announced yesterday it will allow users to further personalize their Twitter page with a header photo behind their userpic and bio.

The move is reminiscent of Facebook’s cover photo, but played a bit differently since it includes your info and short bio all centered over top of it. The header photos will apparently follow you and be visible even on mobile phones or tablets. Honestly, it’s not really something most users will look at, since many people read Twitter through readers or their phone or their own stream, but it’s another way to brand yourself to people following your organization or looking at your profile for the first time, so why not take advantage of it?

Here are a few quick examples to inspire you of how journalists and news organizations are already using the space:

@WashingtonPost

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Consider this today’s State of the Newspaper roundup as a few interesting numbers and tidbits  about The Washington Post, The Boston Globe and The New York Times are making the rounds.

WaPo’s digital revenue declined in Q1

According to PaidContent, The Washington Post newspaper division — which includes WaPo and Slate — lost $22.6 million for the first quarter. In the same quarter last year, they lost $12.8 million. Of that loss for 2012, here’s the breakdown for digital loss:

• Digital revenue slipped 7 percent
• online display ad revenue dropped 11 percent year over year
• Online classified ad revenue was down 1 percent Read more

The Washington Post this week launched Personal Post, a news aggregator that suggests Post stories based on a user’s browsing habits on washingtonpost.com.

It uses the technology that powers Trove, an aggregator that was built by the paper last year. Trove aggregates headlines from around the Web, and not just washingtonpost.com.

My initial suggestions upon loading Personal Post up for the first time were accurate for someone like me who lives in the Washington area and happens to work in the political media: Post Local, Crime, PostPolitics, Opinions, and Erik Wemple (a media critic at the Post). Read more

There are spam comments, flaming comments, troll comments … and then there are just plain old boring comments.

Nick Denton. (Photo by Dave Winer)

It’s a problem that faces many news websites.

So Nick Denton, the influential head of Gawker Media, said at a conference hosted by Advertising Age on Tuesday that his company was developing a product to rid his sites of comments he considers boring.

“I would like an AT&T engineer who has an explanation for why AT&T’s data coverage is weak in New York and San Francisco to feel comfortable in our comment environment,” he said.

Indeed, the comment sections of articles are often used for official responses and the like. But that’s often the exception. Read more