Tuesday squibs

About 60 open browser windows. Let’s do something with them, shall we? (Note: There may be additional installments throughout the evening.)

• Citizen journalist. Only those without a sense of humour won’t get at least a chuckle out of this piece of Guardian satire.
• 10 Ways Newspapers Can Improve Comments. Suddenly comments are the talk of at least part of the media blogosphere, which has led to Derek Powazek’s oh-so-commonsensical list. As a bonus, there’s this: “Imagine what we could do if we could get past the easy stuff.” Hear, hear.
• Journalists leaving newspapers because of culture and corporate. Pat Thornton explains why the industry loses some good young folk and some of the commenters seem to go out of their way to prove the point. An aside: I don’t think this is necessarily a web-related phenomenon. Bright, frustrated young journos have always left newspapers to find better ways of doing what it is they want to do. This may be another case of the ‘net accelerating an existing trend.
• Flawed thinking. The equation is not that there is equal value in photos and video, and other wise observations from Zac Echola.
• NAA: Newspaper Sites’ Q2 Traffic Up 12.2 Percent Over ‘07; Numbers Are Flat Compared To Q1. Uh oh.
• Online Viewing Leads 20 Percent To Skip Primetime Shows On TV: Report. At least the newspaper ox is not the only one being gored. An aside: Earlier this year, I decided something had to give when it comes to media consumption. Bye bye TV.
• It’s Time for the 50-50 Club. Plumbing the reality behind the furore over the Zell formula of a 50-50 ads-to-news split. Where I used to work a 50-50 split would have been heaven. Instead, we went from 60-40 to 65-35 and were heading for 70-30.
• A survival guide for sub editors and other curmudgeons. Excellent career advice for those in the rapidly disappearing role of sub editors (copy editors on this side of the pond). Actually, good advice for any journalist at a large publication who would like shot at having the pay cheques continue until retirement.
• Stand and fight! Colin Mulvaney captures the spirit that’s coming from hundreds of journalists across the blogopshere: “The reality is there are no comfort zones left. From now on, it is survival of the fittest. Game on.”
• Why more newspaper cuts may lie ahead. Alan Mutter says we may not have seen the end of newspaper cuts as newspapers struggle to maintain profitability levels. That, writes Paul Gillin, is a problem: “By propping up their profits, newspaper companies are only setting themselves up for a harder fall. Troubled companies can choose to either invest in product development and try to build new businesses or manage their cash cows down into the ground. Mutter’s analysis suggests that publishing executives have already made that choice.” See also: Ken Doctor’s Nine Questions on Newspapers’ 2Q Reports. Note: I need to dig out Phil Meyer’s book on the Vanishing Newspaper, which, as I remember it, now seems to have been highly prophetic.