Back for the weekend: a passel of journalism reads

(via Flickr: jj_pappas423)

I know, I know: I've fallen behind on weekend reads. I could offer up numerous excuses, but won't bore you. Instead, on to things you'd hate to have missed:

"FCC Report Recommends Targeting Government Ads Toward Local News" (Nieman Journalism Lab): The big news for the week was the release -- finally -- of the Federal Communications Commission's report on how the media are faring in the Internet age. The quick answer is not so well if the medium happens to be local. Nieman sees a lot of same-old, same-old in the report, but notes one new idea: Why not ensure that advertising regularly done by the federal government (e.g., armed forces recruitment ads) gets into local-market hands. Over at Poynter, assessment of the report is about the same: Where's the wow factor?

"Time to Bring Back a P.M. News Product" (Reflections of a Newsosaur): So here's a "wow" idea, courtesy of Alan Mutter: Newspaper publishers might be able to grow revenue and readers through an evening e-newsletter (delivered by tablet or smartphone) that capitalizes on what seems to be a growing habit among wired consumers of sitting down with their devices for quiet time in the evening.

"Take a Lesson from B2B Media's Experience" (Newspaper Death Watch): Another idea for publishers, courtesy of Paul Gillin, is to get to know readers as well as their colleagues in the business-to-business segment seem to. The latter's relationship, says Gillin, allows better matching of advertiser with prospective buyer, leading to "warm" sales leads that beget essential revenue.

"Online Advertising Explodes to $31B, But Publishers Getting Squeezed?" (VentureBeat): Lest we think all is rosy as the pace of online ad spending picks up, there comes word that publishers have made available so much inventory online that they've depressed the price they can command for the space.

Video interlude: One speaker was an overwhelming hit at Personal Democracy Forum 2011 earlier in the week, judging from comments in the Twitterverse. Here's one reaction, complete with the video of Jim Gilliam's presentation. (Take the time to watch it.)

Short takes:

• "How the Crowd Saved Our Company" (Digital First): Journal Register Co. CEO John Paton posts on his blog the presentation he delivered this week to the 10th International Newsroom Summit of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, offering a progress report on his company's "digital first" strategy.
• "BxB with Deb Galant of Baristanet: Authentically Local" (Storify): Block by Block, which offers information and networking for and about hyperlocal and community news publishing, held a Twitter chat with the co-founder of Baristanet about a new endeavor, Authentically Local, which aims to counter corporate infiltration in the neighborhood (think AOL's Patch). The chat was collected on Storify.
• "A USC Annenberg Thesis Project" (Entrepreneurial Journalism): This is a monstrously long and deep dive, but worth the time if you want an exhaustive look at what's happening in journalism today, as reported by (successful) master's candidate Kim Nowacki.
• "What I Learned in Joplin" (the deadline): And if you haven't yet read the Twitter observations by the New York Times' Brian Stelter of the tornado devastation he saw in Joplin, Mo., here it is.

Corrections, smartphones, paywalls: Read!

(via Flickr: jj_pappas423)

Another good weekend for reading:

"The Wrong Stuff" (Media Bugs): MediaBugs, a 2009 grant winner in the Knight News Challenge, an initiative of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, just expanded to the national stage as a place where errors can be brought to the attention of the media in the hopes of having them corrected. As founder Scott Rosenberg once explained, news operations are horrible at admitting they got something wrong, oftentimes leaving readers, listeners or viewers apoplectic. So with the Knight grant he created a website in the San Francisco Bay area where those mistakes could be reported and tracked, ratcheting up the public pressure to make things right. (Think SeeClickFix, but not for potholes.) Now Rosenberg is attempting to do the same on a national scale -- and none too soon, judging from the survey MediaBugs did of the corrections practices of some 40 national newspaper and cable TV operations.

"Mary Meeker: Smartphones Will Surpass PC Shipments in Two Years" (TechCrunch): Morgan Stanley is back with more data on smartphone adoption, indicating their sales will move past laptop and desktop computers combined by 2012 and skyrocket from there. And newspaper publishers are beginning to pay attention (pdf), with near-unanimous agreement by respondents in a just-released Audit Bureau of Circulations survey that the public will be relying more and more on mobile devices -- not only smartphones but tablets and e-readers too.

Rap interlude: Take a listen to this catchy rap ode to NPR's shows and personalities.

"The Content Project: Building an 'EZ Pass' for Paid Content" (eMedia Vitals): This online newsletter, which describes itself as serving print media executives wanting to move their businesses online, offers a look at one idea for generating new news revenue: a system of à la carte options for paid content that might include things like day passes, annual subscriptions and metered access. Registration creates a credit card-backed electronic payment account that will buy access to the content on any website that participates in the project. Say organizers, "The key to making this work is making it as simple as possible for users" -- like the EZ Pass many motorists use to pay road tolls.

"Seven Reasons Newspapers Are Not Rebounding Financially" (Poynter Online): Rick Edmonds, who follows the business end of the news business, writes about the challenges still facing newspapers, despite the deep cost-cutting of staffs and news hole during the recession. But as he takes stock through three quarters of 2010, the scary point No. 6 on his list says alot: "The 'death spiral' cycle continues."

"Jim VandeHei Talks Politico Pro" (Columbia Journalism Review): Despite the above, Politico, the website and newspaper covering Capitol Hill in D.C., has big plans for a pricey news service that will deliver deeper looks at policy and politics to subscribers. It's among a handful of such plans by media companies -- including behemoth Bloomberg -- to offer everything under the sun to those who crave (and can pay for ) it.

Geeky interlude: The New York Times on Nov. 14 put online a companion graphic to a print story that allowed readers to "fix" the U.S. budget deficit. The blog 10,000 Words takes a look under the hood in the graphic's creation.