Where commercial media are consolidating and slashing newsroom jobs, vibrant local journalism nonprofits are popping up across the country to fill the gaps. But they’ve hit one big bureaucratic snag with the IRS. And PBS talk-show host Tavis Smiley turned to the Media Mobilizing Project to help organize and document his series on poverty in America.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) made it clear to Comcast and NBC that the proposed merger of the two companies should not simply be rubber-stamped. And online newspaper San Francisco Public Press is about to launch its first print edition with the help of more than 50 journalists and other nonprofit groups.

The Local Community Radio Act of 2009, just introduced in Congress, could dramatically alter the radio landscape. And it’s been a bad couple of weeks for newspapers, but the most devastating blow was the closing of the 150-year-old Rocky Mountain News.

Forget about collecting trading cards for sports figures. The hot items this year are Media Heroes trading cards. And the news for newspapers has been brutal, as a sagging economy and plummeting advertising sales take their toll on news staff and content.