Bullets cannot be recalled

Spotty posting this week due to a flurry of meetings. Hence, some of these are a little dated, but still important.

• Can newspapers, in their current state, get people to pay for online editions?
   
• Jarvis: Journalism is a verb.
   
• A response from Tim Oren: There is another side of this. If the media owners have skated by for years based on their oligopolistic control of the distribution function, then so have the practitioners of journalism. Swaddled by the lack of competition, a J-school degree and an attitude have become a substitute for knowing the beat ... Reportage will now be held to account by both audience and those reported upon, and it's high time. Welcome to competition, lads.
     
• Oodle, a classifieds aggregator, test launches in Dallas, Philly and Chicago. Works very well, but I don't see the business model. Given who's involved, there must be one. Friendly advice though, guys: Cowboy hats as an image for Dallas play very well...outside Dallas.
     
• A new-link news company in Bluffton, SC. Some striking similarities to our content model. Link via Dan Gillmor.
   
• I've taken to calling it "wedia" (although I know someone else must have coined the term). Another take: MiniMedia. (Via Steve Rubel.)
     
• Tim Repsher of the Bakersfield Californian has some good advice on newspaper use of wireless text messaging. The first lesson of this medium is that it is not a broadcast.
     
• Gmail at least doubles its space for accounts. Why? John Battelle: Mail = pageviews. Pageviews = profits. Rinse. Repeat. Speaking of which, Google keeps refreshing, so we still have 50 Gmail accounts available. if'n you want one.
     
• The top local websites in the country draw 40% of the adult market to visit. That seems remarkably high. And then again, it doesn't.
     
• Alan Mutter: Online saving the top-line
   
• When newspaper wars were cool.
     
• This article on how newspapers need to adapt to online also notes an online journalism symposium in Austin this week. Wish we'd known.

Comments

[mark fletcher]

The less human interference between a story and the consumer the healthier the story. Too many newspapers today are dishing up stories so processed that they serve no purpose at all. blufftontoday.com looks like a good blend professional journalism and citizen journalism.

More important, though, is the message that local is where the action is. There is a message for independent businesses in their battle with giants like Wal Mart. blufftontoday.com and its ilk could help put the new back into the news business.