InkBlots

The “Mississippi: Believe It,” crafted and executed by the fine folks at Jackson’s Cirlot Agency, has earned the attention of The New York Times.

After a little more than a year at the helm, John Newhouse resigned as publisher of The Clarion-Ledger Tuesday. No reason was immediately given, but Newhouse, who came to the Jackson daily from Louisiana, was praised by executive editor Ronnie Agnew for his responsiveness and leadership after Hurricane Katrina. The storm hit Mississippi just days after Newhouse arrived in August 2005. He took the reins of the paper from Michael Craft, another former Louisiana publisher for Gannett who retired last year.

The Jackson Free Press wags are predictably atwitter over the development.

Amy McCullough has joined The Greenwood Commonwealth as a general assignment reporter…the Jackson State University PR department has been poaching a few of The Clarion-Ledger’s staff lately, it appears.

The Student Press Law Center reports: Almost half of the press run of the University of Southern Mississippi’s student newspaper disappeared from racks last week, but editors say the police are relunctant to investigate the theft because the newspaper is free.

In other Student Printz news, The Hattiesburg American profiles David McRaney, the USM editor whose been earning a lot of ink for himself these days.

Mobile blogger Rob Holbert opines over the precipitous dip in circulation for the Press-Register, which he says oustripped the national trend by seeing its numbers fall 5 percent in six months. He also notes an uphill battle in Pascagoula/Gautier, where The Mississippi Press is still trying to recover from last year’s devastating hurricane.

For the record, the Press’ 2006 Statement of Ownership recorded daily circ at 19,095, about 6 percent off its pre-hurricane levels.

This is getting to be a habit. The city of Jackson will pay The Mississippi Link more than $45,000 to settle a lawsuit with the newspaper.