Save the Media

Some great posts I’ve been reading from other blogs have been piling up in my delicious bookmarks, so it is time for more short takes.

Sobering news on switch to digital? So if so many people are getting their news on the Web, why don’t newspapers just stop the presses. As we all know, it’s because ad revenue on the Web is nothing compared to what even today’s struggling newspapers can bring in. Alan D. Mutter at Reflections of a Newsosaur tells us just how little it is.  He quotes analyst Tom Corbett, of Morningstar, who calculated that for every $1 of print ads publishers lost in the first nine months of 2008, they recaptured just 1.7 cents in online ad revenue. Wow! So what do we do? See the next item.

Reinvent ourselves: Newspapers are in dire circumstances, and even with best efforts many will close, I think. Many more journalists will lose jobs. As an industry, we should have started transitioning to the Web and changing our business plans years ago. OK, we didn’t. What do we do now? Reinvent. A great post by Joshua Benton at the Nieman Journalism Lab blog explains newspapers need to think like Twitter, not GM. Best takeaway:  We must “Reinvent ourselves.” Not: “Cut back on our staff a bit more every few months and hope the current business model can survive.” Not: “Maintain a belief that we had a good product, damn it, a valuable product, and there will always be someone who wants it.” Couldn’t have said it better myself.

Why journalists must get on Twitter: Beat Blogging warns: Avoid Twitter at your own peril. The post also offers insight into Twitter’s value for journalists:  Twitter can help journalists find sources, get news tips, connect with people, crowd source. And if you missed them, my own tips for journalists on Twitter, my absolute favorite social-networking tool.

OK, lots of doom and gloom. Next item is for fun …

Stat crazy: If you’re like me and love finding out odd stats about your blog, this post at SEO by the Sea is for you. It offers links to a range of sites where you can check such things as whether your blog is visible in China or being plaigarized. Is all this necessary? No. But it’s fun. And, no, my blog isn’t censored in China (at least if the link proves accurate.)

– Gina

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