Vanishing Americana

This website predicts that film cameras are at #13 of 25 things that will vanish from America.

At #23 is Newspaper Classifieds

The classifieds thing, I can see. Given some of the scary numbers the last few days from the newspaper industry, a few papers all together will cease to exist. The film camera on the other hand, will shrink and in time become a coveted form of art because of the limited number of people that know how to use film and traditional printing well.

Social Media: What the...

A great slide presentation about what social media is, can be and might become. Pay attention to trends and try to predict for potentials.

Found via Danny Holland

What's after convergence? Mobile Media

1 million iPhones sold over the weekend. I'm planning on picking one up myself in September. Too bad Apple went with AT&T, but I can't wait until 2011 for the market to open up. The media landscape will be vastly different by that time.

Interactive Narratives

The site has been re-launched with a new design and easier ways to search for content. Haven't had a chance to peruse too much, but will be a good source to find good ideas to borrow and use.

Video-journalism site funded by donations

Don't know if it will work or not, but hell it's worth a shot. Especially if they are doing coverage of very important issues that people "need" and "want" to be informed about. Time will tell.

Disney and the interactive Blu-ray

Looks like Disney is seeing an opportunity to be innovative with some technology to use the Internet with Blu-ray DVDs. Further evidence of the impending convergence. I like the line from Mr. Chapek – “We don’t rely on the consumer to have our vision for us.”

Open letter to Craigslist

Some good ideas in this one asking Craigslist to help keep local professional journalism alive. We can only hope that Craig and Jim actually read it.

Foreshadowing your own demise

A designer at the Mercury News shot a series of carnage photos after a few rounds of layofffs at the paper and posted them on Flickr. Everyone found solace and some humor in the midst of all the chaos. Well, the ax felled his job as well.

This made me throw up a little in my mouth

Alan Mutter figures the companies have lost a cumulative $49.7 billion in market capitalization in 3 1/2 years, vaporizing 51% of shareholder value since Dec. 31. 2004.

Found via Romenesko

Why doesn't this guy live here?!

A group of private investors is still very interested in buying the Baltimore Sun, adding that they would take less of a profit and –GET THIS!!!– invest in newsgathering.

Sweet Jesus! What a concept! Maybe there are a few people smart enough to make some newspapers work. God knows that most of the clowns running around buying up everything on a maxed out credit card are not doing the worker bees any favors.

The dying Two-Newspaper-Town

A business columnist at the Rocky Mountain News talks about how the News gets a bad rap concerning circulation numbers in Denver and that the landscape of the biz will not allow for the JOA papers to continue.

MediaNews is in the hurt locker with the collection agencies (financial backers that are already reeling from the housing debacle) as we speak. The completion of the Scripps split is final but there is not nearly the debt burden if any at all for the newspaper side. So the notion that The Denver Post will outlive the News could be a losing bet.

Sue happy in the US, but funny

A former journalist turned lawyer is suing the newspaper he subscribed to because the layoffs and cutbacks will create an inferior product and he would not have renewed his subscription if that had been disclosed.

Go get 'em!!

Found via Fading to Black

A J-skool graduate thinking smart

"Fight the war, don't sweat the battle." That's her approach to the deluge of negative news (especially in the last week) about the newspaper biz.

Why even have titles anymore?

John Temple, editor, publisher and president of the Rocky Mountain News, writes about the new process of producing news in this time of "somewhere in between the old and new days."

As I read about all the types of coverage and types of mediums used I only recognized two names from the photo staff producing visual content from the field out of the seven or more identified in the blog post. All the others were from other parts of the newsroom. Starting to look like a convergent newsroom in Denver, where you need to know how to do everything when it comes to reporting the news.

Some help from the newspaper Gods

Two charitable organizations are funding projects to find a way to keep newspapers viable, despite double digit declines in revenue percentages while cutting the staff that produces the content. Let's hope they find some brilliant people to create a way for one of the most important aspects of freedom in this country.

Time spent on "newspaper" sites down

Wonder what the cause is? Is it not enough time to spend reading because people work two and three jobs? Or is it because the content presented and published just isn't of interest or decent quality with the blood letting in the industry?

Time's Top 50 Websites

A breakdown of Time's Top 50 sites and the type of advertising –if they have any– used. Google may just take over the world at any moment. They are going to beat down comScore and Neilsen too.

Found via Journerdism

MacGyver to the rescue of newspapers

Damn skippy!

'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.