The New York Times‘ resident media guru David Carr seems to think so. Not only did online news orgs come into their own this year — with Twitter becoming a powerful, if flawed, tool for politics and journalism; Gawker hiring real journos for full-time jobs with benefits; and TheWrap.com breaking the biggest media merger story of the year with the Comcast-NBC deal — but, as the columnist wrote, “…black moved a lot of units this year. Just try to imagine this past year in media without President Obama, Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods.”

Sure, maybe the last example isn’t the most positive example of an African American in the national spotlight, but Carr’s point is that 2009 may have been the first year the MSM has focused its eye on more than the goings-on of rich, white men. Small steps, but as the end of this year approaches, we’ll take what we can get.

Read More: After a Year of Ruin, Some Hope –New York Times

Previously: Gawker Offers Writers Full-Time Employment, It’s Official: Comcast Acquires NBCU Stake

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

I Want Media hosted a panel earlier today featuring former Star magazine editor Bonnie Fuller, Gawker chief Nick Denton, The Wall Street Journal‘s deputy managing editor Alan Murray (left), Craigslist.org founder Craig Newmark and Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey.

The discussion, which was supposed to center around the future of the media industry, centered mostly on Twitter. The panelists agreed that they rely on the microblogging site for a lot of their news aggregation.

“I get all of my Wall Street Journal stories from you,” Denton told Murray.

But is Twitter the future of media? Read on to find out what the panelists said.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.