Recently launched non-profit investigative news organization The Texas Tribune has brought on former AOL exec and Examiner.com CEO Michael Sherrod to serve as its first publisher.

Sherrod was named CEO of Examiner.com in February 2008, where he helped relaunch the brand. Prior to that, he spent eight years at AOL, where he last worked as VP and GM of Community Operations and Network Integration. He’s also worked for Ancestry.com, DigitalCity.com, The Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Dallas Business Courier, and launched his own company, Sherrod Publishing Co. Sherrod has been serving on the Texas Tribune’s board as well.

“As a Tribune board member, Sherrod has consistently provided sound advice regarding approaching challenges, raising funds, promoting membership development and much more,” the company said today.

“Michael was courted by many media organizations, much larger than ours,” said the Texas Tribune’s editor and CEO Evan Smith. “I’m humbled that he’s chosen to become publisher of the Texas Tribune.”

Full release, after the jump

Previously: 4 Questions For Texas Tribune’s Evan Smith

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You might say that the impact of “citizen journalism” on 2009 started with US Airways Flight 1549 crashing into the Hudson River, and the pictures of the plane hitting Twitter before any news outlets had them. And of course the role that Twitter played in helping Americans find out about protests in Iran after its election, proving that the micro-blogging tool could be used for something other than hourly updates about mundane activities. It may have peaked with MissTearah and the Fort Hood shootings, when news outlets realized that you can’t trust eyewitness accounts for your entire network of information.

But if all we had to go on was Twitter, than it would be the Year of Microblogging. Some consider bloggers to be citizen journalists because they work outside the spectrum of traditional news organizations, with all the pros and cons that it entails. Below, we take a look at what citizen journalism in 2009 might mean for the New Year.

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PRNewser: Should news organizations like The New York Times release the names of staffers who are laid off when they know the media will report on them either way?

Folio: Industry group the Magazine Publishers of America has eliminated 5 positions or 14 percent of its overall workforce.

Denver Busines Journal: Rick Blair has officially been named CEO of Clarity Digital Group and Examiner.com, after serving as interim CEO since March.

Vanity Fair: Putting Stephen Colbert on the cover of a magazine seems like a surefire way to boost newsstand sales. Not so with Jon Stewart.

Deadline Hollywood: Nikki Finke‘s blog amassed more unique visitors last month than Variety and The Hollywood Reporter combined.

The Daily Show: Turns out Gretchen Carlson isn’t a dumb blonde after all, she just plays one on TV.

Editor and Publisher: Are women editors leaving the news workplace on purpose? And how do we get them back?

MediaElites: The Baltimore Sun blog just up and quit pretending it cared about John Stamos’ extortion case.

BayNewser: Isn’t it about time we start wondering why Google News always ranks Examiner.com articles so high?

FishbowlDC: Freedom Communications, the publisher of a number of newspapers including The O.C. Register filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection today.

GalleyCat: Today, Infobase Publishing acquired the World Almanac imprint, purchasing the imprint from Weekly Reader Publishing Group for an undisclosed sum.

Paid Content: Examiner.com, which is owned by billionaire Philip Anschutz has purchased citizen journalism Web site NowPublic.

Associated Press: A recent survey conducted by the Associated Press Managing Editors show that massive staff cuts at newspapers across the U.S. have mostly targeted staffers between the ages of 18 to 35. These cuts may make it even more difficult for the industry to adapt and remain relevant in the age of digital media.

Online News Association: The finalists for the 2009 Online Journalism Awards were announced yesterday.