Late Friday squibs

Seeing as things seem to be going well on the server, I might as well keep blogging. So: a few more interesting items from today’s reading:

• All the news that’s fit to … view. Chicago Tribune tech columnist Steve Johnson watches his newspaper, raises some questions about video and lauds the approach taken by Slate. I don’t totally buy his argument, but I agree with this: “Video is not the answer to print journalism’s woes. But asking the same of your video that you do of your print pieces — originality, creativity, a certain catchiness — will at least qualify it to be part of the answer.” Via Digital Rangefinder.
• MNPW: How to teach a cat to fetch (or training your newsroom). Melissa Worden’s wrap-up on a recent multimedia training session has two things going for it: (a) it’s a great report and (b) it includes links to a very funny video that cat owners will appreciate.
• WIP: Wrap Up. And speaking of wrap-ups, Melissa Lyttle’s report from the Women in Photojournalism conference is also great and heavy laden with links worth following. (Note: If you’re not reading Melissa’s blog and enjoying her stunning photojournalism, you really should be.)
• Grab a camera and VJ. Sound advice for video journalists: the form is wide open. Go shoot.
• Access hidden Preview features through Automator. This is cool: if you have a Mac, you can batch scale photos for the web (and other uses) using Automator and Preview, both which come free with Apple computers. There’s apparently much more in there for unlocking Preview features that aren’t readily evident.