'Til Debt Do Us Part

Not to be a doom and gloomer with the recent posts, but......

Editor & Publisher story about how newspaper debt is strangling the industry and the cost cutting might not help in the long run.

Twitter's got a competitor - PLURK

It's a bit more interactive and visual, but the biggest catch is the karma points. Based on your use and other's feedback on your use you gain or lose karma points. An interesting way to try and keep it real and away from the spammers, I guess. We'll see if it works. I'll probably stick with Twitter for a bit longer though.

Newspaper cuts on a map

Here's a nifty Google map with known staff reductions at US newspapers. Kind of ugly and sick to look at, but basically where there's a higher population there's a higher reduction of staff. The number of those cut the last 13 months is staggering.

Found via cyberjournalist.net

Are you kidding me? $3.50?

Sad to learn some very pertinent information about the company that owns the paper I work for from a blogger in the company rather than our own management. It's pathetic that management doesn't have the stomach to pull everyone into a quick meeting and explain what is going to happen when the company is split into to separate companies. Thankfully there are bloggers out there digging up the information and sharing it, if only a few are finding it.

Romenesko's Impact on Journalism

The Poynter blogger has definitely changed the landscape. But in some respects I wonder how much damage he's done as well. I mean, I get all kinds of information about the progressing downfall of the industry on his blog that has helped me form the notion that like the Titanic, the orchestra is going to continue to play as the ship sinks into the abyss.

Lazy Bastards

A fantastic post about how we read online and what studies have shown about reading habits. Near the end is a caveat about how reading a print product will never go away because it is a different style of reading.