Labor Day weekend reading

(via Flickr: jj_pappas423)

It's a three-day weekend, so there's more time for reading. Here, with a Labor Day theme, are some gems:

"Most 'Re-employed' Workers Say They're Overqualified for Their New Job" (Pew Research Center): The folks at Pew have come up with some interesting statistics in this national survey, conducted in May and released on Thursday:

• A quarter of the U.S. labor force -- or 36 million of the 139 million currently employed -- faced unemployment at least once during the recession that began in December 2007.
• A third of those cut loose from jobs during the recession received a pink slip more than once; 16 percent found themselves out of work three or more times.
• Only 4 in 10 of those who found a new job say they're earning more now than in their former position; just 28 percent say their current benefits are better.
• More than half of the newly re-employed say their household is worse off financially than before the recession; 35 percent say they've had to make "major changes" in lifestyle.
• A quarter of the re-employed went from full-time jobs to part-time ones.
• While out of work, 6 in 10 of the re-employed thought about switching fields; 4 in 10 considered relocating to an area where jobs seemed more plentiful.

The survey's release preceded by a day the government's report on the U.S. labor picture for August, which showed a slight uptick in the jobless rate, to 9.6 percent. The number of long-term unemployed (six months or more) declined in August, to 6.2 million from 6.5 million, or about 42 percent of the jobless, vs. almost 45 percent in July. The median time unemployed also dropped, to just under 20 weeks, from nearly 23 weeks in July. (Incidentally, the payroll category that includes print journalists -- so-called publishing/except Internet -- saw a slight gain in jobs: to 761,600 in August from 761,300 the month before.)

"Warning: Why Cheaper Money Won't Mean More Jobs" (Talking Points Memo): The political blog featured a post by Robert Reich, Bill Clinton's labor secretary, that throws cold water on the idea that getting money into the hands of consumers and small businesses will grease the wheels of the economy. Neither is in a position to borrow, no matter how cheap the money may be, Reich says. Only large companies would benefit if the Fed made money cheaper, and "they're already sitting on mountains of money." As a result, he says,

If Bernanke and company make it even cheaper to borrow, they'll be subsidizing a third corporate strategy for creating more profits but fewer jobs -- mergers and acquisitions.

And we all know that M&As usually seek economies of scale that endanger jobs.

Labor Day video interlude No. 1.

"What the Spot.Us Community Thinks of Objectivity" (MediaShift IdeaLab): There seems to be a lot of discussion of late as to whether reporters ought to routinely include a kind of confessional sidebar to the stories they write, to alert readers to viewpoints and experiences that might color their work. (Honestly, though, the talk isn't all that new.) Spot.Us, the website that allows reporters to pitch story ideas for funding, surveyed its "community" -- supporters and funders -- to see where they stood on objectivity in journalism.

Nearly 45 percent of the respondents agreed with the statement that "objectivity is possible but difficult," but almost 28 percent said they believed "transparency is the new objectivity." Said one respondent about the latter, "... reporters ought to reveal their biases in each story as part of the narrative so as to partially disarm whatever criticism of bias they may receive. Doing so will provide a better service to the public and will create better journalism."

Be sure to read the smattering of comments from respondents at the end. They're pretty interesting.

"A Journalist Laughs at the Thought that his Layoff Anniversary Is Worth a Story, But..." (Poynter Online): Broadcaster Michael Goldfarb interviews himself about his layoff five years ago from public radio station WBUR in Boston and the slow rebuilding of his professional life as a freelance journalist and author. His conclusion: "I commit as much journalism today as I ever did" -- but he now earns 50 percent less doing it.

Labor Day video interlude No. 2.

"All the Men That's Fit to Print" (The NYTPicker): In case you missed it, a discussion of gender inequality in the obituary pages of the New York Times, by the internal blog that keeps a critical eye on the paper. Interestingly, a Google search turned up a posting to an online version of a Macmillan Encyclopedia of Death and Dying (2003) article, "Gender Discrimination after Death," by Robin D. Moremen, that cites numerous academic studies, dating from 1977, that looked at newspaper obituary pages to determine whether men received "greater public recognition after death than women." The answer, not surprisingly, was yes: more obituaries, longer obituaries and obituaries usually accompanied by a photograph.

It's the weekend: Time to read

(via Flickr: jj_pappas423)

For your reading (and listening) pleasure this weekend:

"Americans Are Dumping Cable TV, but Execs Say Economics to Blame" (Advertising Age): This article caught my eye because of something I had read earlier from DigiDave, the twentysomething new-media thinker who says he favors online options like Hulu to a "giant box in the corner collecting dust." When you think about it, TV watching (cable or broadcast) is pretty passive -- accepting the programming someone else has determined will be shown at a particular point in time. TV execs apparently fear the revolution playing out in print media that has destroyed the business model as it has given voice to "the people formerly known as the audience." So they're creating new online video options, available through subscription, to stay relevant. Interesting statistic quoted: that just 42 percent of Americans see landline phones and TV sets as "essential," according to a survey by the Pew Research Center. And only 30 percent of 18- to 29-year-olds would agree.

"Newspapers Gone by 2022 Says Futurist" (The Australian): Ross Dawson, a speaker, author and futurist on business and technology, previewed for the newspaper the proclamation he promised to deliver in his closing talk at the Newspaper Publishers Association Future Forum conference in Sydney. (I haven't found a copy of the talk, but here's his blog with "pre-talk primer notes" or talking points.) The story is similar to the one here in the U.S.: Newspapers have been slow to adapt to the now-online world and will become more and more irrelevant unless they move quickly to digital and mobile platforms. An interesting prediction: "By 2020 entry-level devices to read the news will cost less than $10 and often be given away." Cool.

Time for a musical interlude.

"SEO Makes It Too Late for Truth for 'Ground Zero Mosque' " (Poynter Online): Here's a riddle for the Google-ized world: Once a concept has gained momentum online and the search engines are pumping, how do you remake the SEO (search engine optimization) if the concept itself has been debunked? As Kelly McBride, ethics group leader at The Poynter Institute, writes, you can't because Google won't let you. In the case of the Islamic center in Manhattan that raised a stir when news reports mischaracterized it as a mosque at the site of the fallen Twin Towers ("ground zero"), a story can set the record straight. "But what about ongoing coverage? Must you keep using the inaccurate term? Sadly, the answer is yes, according to people familiar with SEO practices," McBride says. "That's because accurate or not, people are searching for the term 'ground zero mosque.' So if you want to reach people who are looking for information, you have to use that term."

"In Battle of the Weeklies, Local Focus Is the Key" (The Bay Citizen): Jonathan Weber, editor in chief of San Francisco's media newcomer, The Bay Citizen, the nonprofit online operation started in May and backed by billionaire financier Warren Hellman, profiles one of the granddaddies in town -- the San Francisco Bay Guardian, an alternative weekly. It's a finely written profile of the alt-weekly's founder and publisher, Bruce Brugmann, a self-described "newspaper guy" who vows never to give up print -- even after 44 years. "We're a valuable resource, kind of irreplaceable," he tells Weber.

"The Economic Outlook and Monetary Policy" (Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System): OK. Set this one aside for a time when you're wide awake. But with all the talk this week of a slowed recovery and a double-dip recession, you might as well get a bird's-eye view of things from Ben Bernanke himself. The Fed chairman, at the group's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., says that while financial conditions "are generally much improved " from a year ago, "growth ... has been too slow and joblessness remains too high." But while the economy is not out of the woods yet, the Fed continues to stand ready to do what it takes to guide the economy forward.

And if you want a look back at an event that signaled the start of everything unwinding, listen here to the NPR Morning Edition story on "How Wall Street Made the Mortgage Crisis Worse."



The report, a collaboration by NPR's Planet Money and the investigative nonprofit ProPublica, is in written form here.

For the nightstand: weekend reading

(via Flickr: jj_pappas423)

In the interest of exercising brain cells this weekend, I offer this worth-reading list:

"Pressure Cooker Journalism" (Newspaper Death Watch): The pace of the online newsroom is leading some to worry about burnout. Blogger Paul Gillin links to the New York Times article about life in the fast lane at Politico in Washington, D.C., and talks about the use of traffic stats to keep the stories coming.

"Increased Worker Productivity Has Destroyed Millions of Jobs, and We Should Be Grateful" (Carpe Diem): Economics Professor Mark Perry posts charts on manufacturing output and jobs to argue that "Any time we can get more output with fewer workers ... it's a sure sign of economic progress and a rising standard of living." (Tell that to the nearly 15 million unemployed, half of whom have been out of work for six months or more. Their standard of living is not rising.)

"The ‘Great Recession’ Earns Its Title" (Economix): Statistics bear out of use of the moniker, even if "great" at first seemed ill-advised.

"No Fed Plans to Give More Support, Bernanke Says" (New York Times): The Fed chairman sees the unemployment rate remaining above 7 percent through 2012, and said it would take “a significant amount of time” to gain back jobs lost in the recession.

And from the Fed's own mouth: "Current Economic Conditions," the so-called Beige Book (Google docs) assessment of the state of the local economy in the 12 Fed districts. Bottom line: the economy continues to improve, but at a s-l-o-w pace.

Pinch me so I feel the recovery

The other day, the local newspaper carried an editorial cartoon by Marshall Ramsey of The Clarion-Ledger, a daily in Mississippi, that was a takeoff on the whole Rep. Joe Wilson flap.

It shows Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke at a podium, as President Obama had been in his Sept. 9 address to Congress on health care. As Ramsey's Bernanke tells the audience "The recession's over," the Joe Wilson line "You lie!" is delivered by a man in the audience with "UNEMPLOYED" emblazoned on his chest.

Yes, those of us who became unemployed in the Great Recession don't yet feel the economy improving.

Of course, Bernanke didn't exactly proclaim the recession over -- the dating of business cycles lies with the National Bureau of Economic Research. But the Fed chairman, speaking to the Brookings Institution, did say that "from a technical perspective, the recession is very likely over at this point."