The Economist on The Newspaper Industry

I know this is not a journalism class. We’re Arts and Technology and Emerging Media and Communications. Traditional journalism is not taught here. However, what is going on in journalism is of interest to us. Opportunities for new content, new relationships, a new work force, are beginning to pop up, and these are of interest to us who create content. Whose to say that the Dallas Morning News or local NPR radio and TV station would not publish or broadcast sketches from Jeffrey Miranda or Kyle Penn’s trials and tribulations as a women’s shoesalesman? Or Christi Nielsen’s About2GetSkinny photography and commentary or Mary Benedicto’s video painting. (Both Christi and Mary are ATEC students.) We must stop thinking 19th and 20th century journalism and look ahead.

The Economist just published an article on The Newspaper Industry that’s worth reading. It will give you a good view of the worldwide newspaper industry, not just the one in the U.S. One telling thought in the story was this: The danger for newspapers is that all their efforts on the internet may only slow their decline. Doing the obvious — having excellent websites and selling ad space on them — may not be enough. The papers with the best chance of seeing their revenues grow are those experimenting with entirely new businesses online and off.”

economist-newspaper-industrycom.pdf (follow link to article)

Discovering the Power of Podcasting.

Jeffrey wrote that after reading some of the book Podcast Solutions he’s beginning to see the power of podcasting and videocasting. I remember such an ah-ha moment, even before there was podcasting, per se, when I stumbled on lectures provided by a site called IT Conversations. What amazed me was that I was listening to an expert in his field I probably would never meet, at a conference I doubt I would ever go to much less pay for, and yet I felt I had a one-on-one conversation with him. He was teaching me what he knew, or about some trend, and I never left my car. It was a profound experience.

From Jeffrey:

As I began reading Podcast Solutions I began to understand this world of podcasting. I now subscribe to Ask A Ninja, which I found to be hillarious and random. Comedy Central: Stand-Up (Video) and NPR: Shuffle are other podcast that I subscribe to. Usually I’m very busy and many things don’t capture my attention for a long time. For instance, I really don’t finish watching the news or reading the paper. I feel I’m chasing and trying to keep up to date. But with podcast now I feel its there for me, waiting whenever I want to, very convinient.

Sprial Frog.

Love the name. It’s coming in December. What is it?

SpiralFrog is a new online music destination, offering ad-supported legal downloads of audio and video content licensed from the catalogs of the world’s major and independent record labels.

Kudos to my Personal News Network, so to speak, as brother Scott sent this to me.

BBC story on Sprial Frog and free legal downloads.

I’m Proud of You Boy.

I attended my daughter’s “mini-school” session last night at the middle school. “Mini-school” is where we get to walk in the shoes of our kids, going to their classes, in the same order they attend. Rather than spend an hour in each class, we get about 10 minutes before we move on to the next.

I sat outside this classroom taking break when an older man and a kid approached to look out the window. He looked haggard, with a worn face and oil-stained fingers. He reminded me of my grandfather, a gas station owner for many decades, although this guy did not smell of Camel cigarettes and gas.

I thought for sure this guy, tall as a bean pole, who wore suspenders with a belt, was the kid’s grandfather, but I was not sure. Obviously very proud of the boy, the man said, as they turned away from a window and headed to the next class, “I’m proud of you boy. Get all the education you can.”

It was a nice reminder, no matter who you are or what your station is in life, to take education seriously. Now, in middle school, or in college, or in grad school. We’re at one of those unique times in human history where the world around us is changing rapidly, and those who are prepared have the best chance of succeeding.

Like that kid.