Saturday squibs

Enough depressing business news: here are some posts about what really matters — the journalism — that you might like to tuck into.

• The People Formerly Known as the Employers. Mark Deuze, author of the outstanding book Media Work, calls attention to what may be the prime danger of the internet age of journalism: the end of supportive employment. (Okay, that barely covers his point, but it should be enough of a tease to get you to go and read.)
• Croatia Car bomb kills Nacional editor. A reminder that whatever the problems there are with journalism in North America, they pale alongside what’s happening in other parts of the world.
• If newspapers dropped their print product. After this week’s conference on reinventing the news business, Alan Mutter picked up on one idea and pointed out that newspapers may be able to shed 60 per cent of their costs by killing print, but they also kill 90 per cent of their advertising revenue. Cory Bergman blogged that, which has led Tim Windsor, in the comments, to argue that it’s possible even now for a smaller-staffed newspaper to be online only. Fascinating discussion. Related: Tim’s post wrapping up some of the comments and ideas from the New Business Models for News conference.
• In E-mail, ABC News President Tells Staff … All Print Subs Canceled. ABC cuts costs in a number of areas, including magazine and newspaper subscriptions. David Westin wrote “we will cancel all subscriptions (newspaper and magazine) for executives and production employees and move them to on-line.” Why not? Online is free.
• How should Newspapers use Twitter? Tom Cheredar with a few thoughts, and some crowd-sourced feedback, on the role of Twitter for newspapers. My own thoughts? Media has to do whatever it takes: the readers will figure out how they want to follow/consume.
• Canon Vixia HF10. I already have a HD camera I don’t use nearly enough, but that doesn’t stop the techno lust from rising just a little.
• We Media Game Changers Awards. One of two sites I’ll be spending some time with, pursuing links. The other is Tom Abate’s Geeks, Freaks & Deadlines (scroll down for links).
• Only peace protects freedoms in post-9/11 world. One more site I’ll be spending some time reading: Reporters Without Borders’s annual Press Freedom report. It’s important: something needs to happen to stop sh*t like this: Afghan journalist gets 20 years jail for blasphemy.