Monday squibs

Some of what the ‘net is saying about media and journalism.

• Amazon snaps up Digital Photography Review. Smart shopping. DPReview is the best of several sites offering indepth reviews of digital cameras. It also shows high-quality work by dedicated folk gets noticed and has some pay-off (although terms haven’t been announced).
• New, searchable index of more than 5,000 vintage LA news photos. A searchable UCLA archive of historical photos, going back as far as 1914, from the LA Times and LA Daily News. Great use of both archives and the ‘net.
• Google Maps from spreadsheets. Andy Dickinson is getting his head around the possibilities for generating Google maps and found this helpful tool. Sigh. One more thing to learn.
• Market Boom. If you’re going to the market, don’t go that way. There’s a sniper… that’s from episode 27 of Hometown Baghdad, the riveting series of short videos following four young Iraqis. If you haven’t seen any of it, you really should go look.
• Attention News Execs, Ever Heard of R&D? Len Witt throws out an idea or two for newspaper publishers, and the Newspaper Guild, too.
• Are Traditional Media Companies Like The Detroit Auto Industry? Scott Karp finds parallels aplenty.
• Dow Jones and Bill Gates. J.D. Lasica has an interesting idea: Bill Gates should purchase the Wall Street Journal and let it run as a public trust. Gates would make for a better owner than Rupert Murdoch, he says.