The New York Times is attempting a lengthy task: ID’ing every person at the Boston Marathon finish line.

If you or someone you know was there, you might be able to help. Just head here and fill in the blank forms, and a Times editor will be in contact with you:

Over the past several days, Times reporters and editors have been working on identifying and telling the stories of the people in the image above, a frame from video recorded at the moment of the first explosion at the Boston Marathon. We have found many of the people seen here, but would like your help in identifying more.

The execs at The New York Times are apparently high on one day providing a cheaper subscription. The latest big name to tout the idea was Paul Smurl, vice president of NYTimes.com paid products.

Journalism.UK reports that Smurl told those gathered at the Digital Media Europe conference that the cheaper version could be priced as little as $10 or less. ”One of the things we are interested in is an entry-level product, as we’ve only penetrated a portion of users,” explained Smurl.

This is the second time we’ve heard about this low-priced version of the Times. In February, Denise Warren, the Times’ chief advertising officer and general manager of nytimes.com, broached the subject by claiming that the company is testing a cheaper version.

The only catch to this Low! Low! Low! discount price? It wouldn’t be the full Times. It’d be scaled down to several sections, like Theater and Home & Garden. You know, the sections no one reads. Kidding! There is no word on what sections the less expensive Times would include.

The New York Times said Monday’s op-ed by a Guantanamo Bay inmate “was an easy call to publish,” stemming early criticism by those on the conservative right.

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“The value of today’s piece by the Guantanamo detainee is obvious and it was an easy call to publish it,” Eileen Murphy, a Times spokeswoman, told us in an email. “Guantanamo is run by the United States and these hunger strikes are happening.  Readers have a right to know, in fact we would argue, they need to know about them.”

The Times published on Monday an op-ed by Samir Naji al Hasan Moqbel, an 11-year inmate at Guantanamo Bay. The Yemeni national dictated the details of his harsh treatment and ongoing hunger strike through a translator.

On Fox Nation, the aggregation site renowned for its hard-nosed reporting and indelible racial sensitivity, a link to the op-ed bore the headline, “NYT Publishes Op-Ed From Gitmo Terrorist.” Had they read the piece, they’d see in the third paragraph — as HuffPost Media astutely pointed out — the so-called “terrorist” says “I have never been charged with any crime.” Including, among those zero crimes charged, terrorism.

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In a New Republic piece titled “Get Rich or Deny Trying,” a former advisor to President Obama is quoted saying “There’s only one paper the president reads, that’s The New York Times.” Now before all you haters (Mitt, you’re turning red man, try breathing) blast Big O, let’s think this through.

Is it possible that the president only reads the Times? In an interview with Rolling Stone last year, Obama said he reads the Times, but also The Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal. As The Huffington Post notes, this was the second time Obama mentioned perusing those three papers. Obama has also admitted that he enjoyed magazines like The New Yorker and The Atlantic. He even mentioned FishbowlNY as a “Great blog run by ruggedly handsome dudes who can throw fantastic spirals.”* 

It certainly doesn’t seem like Obama limits his paper intake to the Times. He has mentioned WaPo and WSJ and the quote in the New Republic is from an anonymous ex-advisor. However, that probably doesn’t matter. Haters, as they say, are going to hate. The media will cry that the White House has a Times bias and Republicans are going to fire up the rage machine. But give the president some credit: At least we know he can read. That’s more than we could say about George W. 

* - This is not true.
[Image: Business Insider]

A slew of changes to some New York Times foreign desks has been announced. Pay attention now, because there are quite a few. Below are the highlights, followed by a massive Times memo that gives more details.

• Steve Erlanger is succeeding John Burns as London bureau chief. Burns will remain chief foreign correspondent, but move on to sports coverage.
• Alissa Rubin is departing as Kabul bureau chief to take over as Paris bureau chief. Rod Nordland will succeed her in Afghanistan.
• Rachel Donadio is departing her role as Rome bureau chief. The Times hasn’t indicated what she’s doing next yet. Jim Yardley is replacing her.
• Alison Smale is succeeding Nick Kulish as Berlin bureau chief. Kulish is moving on to East Africa, where he’ll cover for Jeffrey Gettleman, who is on book leave. 

And now for the note.

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Nothing says more about your ability as a journalist than the content of your clips. The  published articles you submit to perspective employers can make or break your chances, and simply deciding which material to include can be a daunting challenge in itself. Fortunately, there are certain techniques that will help your writing portfolio stand out from the crowd.

Christy Karras, a veteran freelancer who has written for Time, Forbes Asia, and The New York Times told Mediabistro that she tends to choose stories she believes show off her writing and editing skills.

“That could be a deeply analytic magazine feature on the finances of a major city-state that shows my ability to digest complex information and write about it in an engaging way, it could be a news story on a crackdown in the Gulf that shows an editor how well sourced I am in an environment that might not be very friendly to journalists, or it could be a feature profile that I think displays some narrative chops,” she said. “It just depends on the message I’d like to get to the individual editor.”

For more, read 6 Tips for Submitting Freelance Writing Clips [Mediabistro AvantGuild subscription required]

– Nicholas Braun

The full version of this article is  exclusively available to Mediabistro AvantGuild subscribers. If you’re not a member yet, register now for as little as $55 a year for access to hundreds of articles like this one, discounts on Mediabistro seminars and workshops, and all sorts of other bonuses.

NYU’s blog The Local: East Village, is moving on. The New York Times has ended its partnership with the hyperlocal site and so it has found a new home at New York magazine.

As part of the move, Nieman Journalism Lab reports that the blog will change its name to Bedford + Bowery and begin covering the LES and a few Brooklyn neighborhoods (Williamsburg, Greenpoint, and Bushwick), as well as the East Village. Bedford + Bowery will also embrace larger scale angles, making it decidedly less local.

The small stories won’t completely disappear, however, because that’s one reason New York agreed to partner up. Ben Williams, editorial director of NYMag.com, said having a hyperlocal site on hand could help because those small items could turn into big ones. “A feeder is a good way to look at it, definitely,” he told Nieman.

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We think Margaret Sullivan, the New York Times’ public editor, is great. In The Nation’s new profile of her, that sentiment gets echoed. Over and over again. In fact, Sullivan might be the most beloved person in media right now. Think we’re crazy? Maybe we are. Or maybe we’re so sane we just blew your mind. See below for some Sullivan love from The Nation’s piece.

Greg Mitchell, author of the profile:

Sullivan, on the other hand [compared to previous public editors], is able to cover so much, so often, because unlike her predecessors, she has used her blog at the paper’s main website regularly—making good on one of her first promises to readers after taking the job.

Jay Rosen:

What strikes me is that she’s determined to participate in the online conversation about the Times and its brand of journalism. The previous public editors did not see this as important. One result: she is on top of things a lot more quickly.

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