Saturday squibs

Much interesting stuff out there:

• Tips for left-eyed photographers. Being right-eyed, I’d never thought about this. Joe MacNally has, though, and provides lots of tips in a somewhat lengthy but interesting video. Right-eyed folk might get a thing or two out of it, too.
• Europe 2008: 125 titles. Who knew there were 125 freesheets in Europe, 23 of them in Spain? Nice little map that shows shows how the free dailies have spread.
• Newspapers read like local-lite. The headline doesn’t really capture the flavour or centre of Peggy Drexler’s column on what newspapers risk losing as they are changed by technology. It’s a thoughtful, elegiac piece. I’m not as pessimistic about the long-term future, but this is an important piece to keep in front of us as we move forward. Via Bill at The Idea Factory.
• The Most Influential Media Writing of 2007. An interesting list (little of which relates directly to journalism), from which I’ve drawn a few more titles for my reading list as I keep trying to figure this whole internet age thing out.
• From Blog to Narrative: Josh Benton Throws Us a Curve. Roy Peter Clark reports on the “Benton Curve of Journalism,” an intriguing theory that puts both blogging at narrative journalism at the top of the “interestingness” curve. I almost totally buy into the idea.
• Your Guide to the Mobile Web. Mark Glaser’s latest overview takes us into the mobile world, which is developing slowly but surely as a major platform.
• Prepare for war: Why ABC rule change will mean big changes for US papers. John Duncan is really, really not impressed with Audit Bureau of Circulation changes. How unimpressed? “Quietly and without much fuss, ABC, the Audit Bureau of Circulations, just killed itself. And it may well take newspapers with it.”
• My Ten Point Plan to Reinvent The Newspaper Business. The first one: “Get out of the newspaper business.” Interesting read.
• National Magazine Award Finalists: Where To Find 2007′s Best Articles. Another post that will fill up the reading list.
• Photoshop CS3: Output Sharpening. Tech stuff. Lots of tips an techniques for bringing back the sharpness that gets lost in the image capture process.
• Criticize CanWest, get sued. The Canadian publisher spends some time filing legal documents.