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On this celebratory day in New York, as the New York Yankees prepare to parade down the Canyon of Heroes downtown, Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven welcomed Jackson Taylor to the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu.

Jackson, the director of the PEN American Center's Prison Writing Program, stopped by the Menu to talk about the program's contests and mentoring and its upcoming projects. "Writing is a skill, and it can be practiced," he said. "And, unlike many skills, writing well is useful and it's useful in almost any avenue of education, employment or daily life. And it's also a skill the generates other skills. So that's why we very much believe in our work."

As he explained his program's work, Jackson said he is in the midst of looking for funding for it, specifically to pay for postage for the approximately 5,000 writing packets mailed to prisoners who request them every year. You can learn more about the program here.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

FishbowlNY editor Amanda Ernst joined the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast this morning, where she and hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven talked about the media layoffs and other big industry news.

Of course, Amanda wanted to talk about news of layoffs at Time Inc. and Forbes over the past two weeks. It's the same layoff story we heard last year, as companies from all industries plan for next year and cut waste in the fourth quarter, she said. Still, it makes for a pretty uncertain work environment for those across the industry.

Jason wanted to talk about Glenn Beck and his effect on the best-seller list. Seems that every thriller that Beck mentions on his show becomes a best seller, Jason explained. "It's such a big thing for publishers," he said. "They are looking for options. Book reviews are closing right and left, and the idea that this Conservative talk show host has become the go-to place for thrillers is really kind of amazing."

Also discussed: Twitter vs. cable news on election night.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

Yesterday was all about advertising, but today's mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast was all about publishing. Hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven welcomed Bloomsbury Press publisher Peter Ginna, who discussed the biggest publishing news of the moment, starting with the reported pricing war between Walmart, Target and Amazon.

"As of now, that discount is confined to I think 10 titles and is more about getting attention and pulling people's eyeballs away from Walmart or Amazon or whoever the competitor is," Ginna said. "The concern that publishers have is if this is going to establish in the consumer's mind that that's what a best-selling hard cover book is worth."

Ginna also gave some advice to people looking to break into publishing: "I think the most important thing for anybody going into the industry now is to really learn as much as you can and, to the extent that you can, master social media. That's going to be the most important channel that publishers have to sell books. And that's one of the other areas that we've been struggling with."

Ginna also recently launched a blog himself. "I know that in the future we're not going to be able to rely on newspaper print reviews and authors on television and subway ads, which are really, really expensive. So we need other ways of communicating with the public. So this is my attempt to at least experiment with a way of doing that," he said.

You can read Ginna's blog Dr. Syntax at www.doctorsyntax.net.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

If you've ever wondered what goes on inside an advertising agency, today's mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast is one for you.

This morning, hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven welcomed Alain Sylvain, the managing director of New York-based agency Redscout, who discussed a new video series initiative his company is launching with PSFK that seeks to innovate account planning.

What is account planning, you ask? "Planning is really a function within agencies...that was designed to enhance the development of ads," Alain explained. "It was meant to enhance it with the voice of the consumer. It was an effort to make the creative development more tapped into what consumers really wanted and really felt...But over the years the role of planning and the role of planners has been a little unclear."

The new video series seeks to answer questions that agencies and planners have about planning. In the broader sense, Jason and Matt were wondering if planning could help the struggling media world of magazines, newspapers and books. Alain said he believed there was still a way to update the current approach to long-form content, from books to feature length articles. "You will see a lot of former journalists go into planning," Alain said. "What you won't see is planners going into publishing...But if I was a young planner frustrated at an agency, I would definitely consider going to work for a publishing house. It's basically the same discipline."

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

It's November, and the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast is getting into the holiday spirit already with guest Paul Malmont, a novelist and founder of Operation Warrior Library, a literary supply chain sending free books to American soldiers overseas.

Malmont chatted with hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven about Operation Warrior Library:

"It's a real non-political way for us to just help out," he said. "No matter how any of us feel about the war, we're all trying to help soldiers who are friends and neighbors get through the day over there. And these books go right there and they get passed around for weeks and months on end from one person to another so they stay in circulation and they help pass the time."

Recently, Operation Warrior Library learned that audiobooks were in demand. The foundation contacted GalleyCat, whose readers helped collect 1,500 audiobooks to send overseas. Up next: Operation Warrior Library for Kids.

Learn more about the Warrior Library here.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

Boo! It's Halloween eve on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, and hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven opened the show with some scary news about The Wall Street Journal's closure of its Boston bureau.

"This unit in particular was working on longer form investigative pieces, and there's just not too many outlets for that anymore," Jason said. "And to watch them lose some resources at a paper that is doing better than other papers is kind of scary. People are worried about the future of investigative journalism."

Also discussed: WPP's earnings and Walmart's book pricing battle with Target and Amazon.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

It was a social media Thursday on the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, as hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven welcomed Jürgen Fauth, co-founder of a social networking site for writers, Fictionaut.

The goal of Fictionaut is to get established and emerging writers to publish stories and interact with each other. "Publishing isn't really the problem any more," Fauth said about the world of writing and online publishing today. "So we figured, what if we had a site where anybody could come on a publish their stories? What would happen? The problem then becomes filtering. How do you find anything?"

The answer was using social media tools like favorites and collaborative filtering to allow the best stories rise to the top. The most successful writers on Fictionaut are those who post stories and then engage with the community, Fauth said. However, there's still no money in it for writers, just exposure. "It's a frustrating process for a young writer to get your short story out there," he said. "The marketplace for finding an agent for your short story collections is very difficult. Everyone says there is no market for them...I'd love it if Fictionaut could be a place for people to read more of them."

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

Today on the media- bistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast, hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven discussed the day's biggest media headlines, including news that Politico is launching a local news Web site to compete with The Washington Post. Can this new venture bring down the venerable D.C.-based paper, even as it struggles to cover local news?

Jason and Matt agreed that new business models are desperately needed, and Politico, a successful political Web site, may be on to something by focusing on a new niche. "I think it could work, especially with the metro reporting. It's definitely hemorrhaging at newspapers today," Jason said.

Another big headline on this rainy Wednesday involved Sarah Palin. After filing her last financial reports with the state of Alaska, we have learned that she has already earned $1.25 million in an advance on her book, Going Rogue. "This is not chump change, this book," Jason said.

And here's some other interesting Palin news: there are two parody books -- both called Going Rouge -- coming out the same day as Palin's book: a coloring book for kids and a collection of essays critical of Palin by The Nation.

Also discussed on the podcast: New York Times publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. comparing print media to the Titanic. Fun!

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

It was a literary day on the media- bistro.com Morning Media Menu podcast today, as hosts Jason Boog of GalleyCat and AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven welcomed David Daley, the founder of short story Web site FiveChapters.com.

Daley, a former features editor at Details who has also done work for McSweeney's and The Journal News, founded Five Chapters in 2006 to serialize unpublished short stories. The site features each story in five parts over the course of one week, from Monday through Friday.

"I'm looking for standalone short stories because you want people to feel like they've read something complete over the course of the week," Daley said, explaining his selections for Five Chapters. "And sometimes when you're excerpting from a novel it doesn't have that feeling of completeness."

In talking about the growth of blogs and online publications, Daley said the Internet has democratized the format, "allowing someone like me to run a literary journal," but it has also taken the money out of the picture. Many of the places that used to publish short fiction no longer do, Daley said, leaving writers few options for making money.

Also discussed: recent media layoffs like those to come soon at Forbes magazine, and how they are affecting the industry.

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.

Host Jason Boog of GalleyCat returned to the mediabistro.com Morning Media Menu today after a short absence, eager to talk about the day's biggest media headlines with AgencySpy's Matt Van Hoven.

The biggest news of the day: ESPN's Steve Phillips' affair with a younger staff member and his firing over the weekend.

Another big story: New York Times executive editor Bill Keller's mention of an "impending" Apple Tablet, which has been long-awaited by the technology and publishing industries. Will this new device and the Barnes & Noble Nook lead to the demise of the Kindle?

You can listen to all the past podcasts at BlogTalkRadio.com/mediabistro and call in at 646-929-0321.