We told you about this experiment at Slate a couple of days ago. The idea is to have one group of people limit themselves to the web and one group to limit themselves to newspapers. After a couple of days, who would feel better informed.

Here’s a case for newspapers from one of the participants I haven’t seen before, and it’s one that is definitely difficult for the web to match due to the number of choices available.

But even in our fractured media world, it still is satisfying to feel that you share with people you know a baseline of common information that comes from reading the newspaper—and, obviously, it doesn’t matter whether that paper is delivered to your door or downloaded on your Kindle.

Interesting take, but you could also flip it around and say that you could share a common baseline of non-information. And that is not good.

Matthew Hindman contends that the web is actually consolidating news around just a few sources. Even though it’s easy for anyone to publish, users’ tendencies to click on one of the first few links returned by Google means that it’s becoming more and more difficult to attract readers. The numbers back up what he was saying.

Not only that, but people are paying more and more attention to national and international sources than local sources.

While much of their national and international content may be syndicated, papers like these provide regional and local coverage that the New York Times and Washington Post cannot. When Web users rely on hyperlinks, or they return time and again to a few widely-read sources, they receive little exposure to local news. To that extent, they disengage from the world around them and take in only the high-profile stories that national media see fit to produce.

There’s a little bit of an, “oh well, we’ve been defeated” tone to this article. Maybe I’m being overly optimistic, but I think there’s plenty of opportunity to be heard. At least your chances are better than they were when the only way you could have a voice was to own a printing press.

When all we had was print, radio and television, there was not long tail.

Jack Lail as more.

Trace isn’t going to mention it here, but something happened over the last couple of days that we’d be silly not to recognize. She broke a national story over at her own blog, Newscoma.

The details of the story, the discussion over the issues, etc.–we’ll leave that over to her blog where it belongs. In fact, there are already over one hundred comments on her post along with several trackbacks from other bloggers who have linked to it, so there’s no need in rehashing any of that here.

What I think we should recognize here is that Trace is actually out there doing all of the things that we talk about here. She’s walking the walk. Without working for a newspaper, she broke a story (a big one) on her very own site. And other people are doing this every day too.

Have there been some instances of big media outlets stealing her thunder a little bit? Sure there have. That was pointed out yesterday as well. But there has also been recognition for her by some bigger media outlets too. And this is just one story. What if she breaks another one in the next week or month?

Just one person.

It can be done! Trace is doing it! It’s great to see! And on a personal note, I’m very proud of her for pulling it off! I’m sure there are plenty of papers in her area who would love to have broken a story like that!

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Frannie Boyle went to work as an intern at The Philadelphia Bulletin. By the end of the day, the paper was gone.

So people are saying that print journalism is seeing its last days. I never would have disagreed with that point, but I also never would have thought that I’d actually be standing at a paper’s deathbed while it took its final breath.

Monday was my first day as an CN intern for the Philadelphia Bulletin, and it was my last day. Just minutes before I was about to turn in my first article (on the new Birthright in Coatesville, PA), the publisher Tom Rice called the staff together and announced the end of the Philly Bulletin.

You can read about her day at Vandy Right.

H/T Post Politics

This sounds like a business meeting, probably not having much to do with journalism. It’s probably not much different than record executives or movie moguls meeting to try to curb piracy or discuss delivery models for their products. But it’s still worth noting.

Hopefully they’ll remember that the customer is their friend, not their enemy.

HT to Jack Lail and Michael Silence!

Here’s an interesting opinion piece in the Miami Herald on the difficulties newspaper management is having with social media, especially Twitter. On one hand, they want to encourage engagement. On the other hand, they don’t want to give away the store.

Not only has that horse left the barn, but the barn is burning down. Twitter will be embraced as no less indispensable to reporters than their phones, but it does carry risk — and not the loss of control that news bosses worry about but the illusion of connectedness.

As I’ve said before, I can appreciate how tricky this situation is. How do you find a way to use Twitter and other tools to tease your product without giving away your product? And can you really set up strict guidelines that dictate this, or do you have to trust the common sense of your people?

“G” = Google in this case.

Jack Lail tweeted a link to this video of Google’s Eric Schmidt. You can check out the video here, but make sure you click over and read Steve Outing’s comments on it as they are insightful.

From John Robinson on newspapers.

We aren’t really supposed to be popular. We are supposed to chronicle the life of the community and help people to participate best in their democracy. Sometimes, these things make you unpopular.

Here’s a great post I saw linked on Twitter by @patrickbeeson. It describes the thought process that went into the redesign of the Evansville Courier & Press, a Scripps paper.

The new site presents readers with links to related content at the end of each story – where readers have finished with one task and are ready to be guided to another.

There are some great things to consider here when thinking about your own site, and it’s interesting to see the “why” behind the decisions in the redesign.

I’m one of the lucky ones because I still have a job. So many journalists right now have been laid off, furloughed, bought out or are sitting on the cusp that it’s hard to keep up with the magnitude of it all. When this is your chosen profession, for some of us, it’s like waiting on the other shoe to drop.

And, unfortunately, it can take an emotional toll.

For people in management, especially those like myself who wavers in the middle area where you have people below you and then owners/publishers above you, the best thing I can tell you is that when that wave hits of “Oh no, more layoffs” and wondering if you are on the list, it’s honestly hard to keep focused.

I’ve been thinking about the best way for those of us who keep waiting, where there will be no buyouts (with just a trip to the unemployment line) and I’ve attempted to compile a list of common sense ideas to maintain our sanity. Believe me, so much of what we are doing is hit or miss and I’m the first to admit I’ve made some mighty mistakes along the way but I’ve had a few good ideas. If you work in news anyway, that may be a questionable statement, but here are a few ideas:

1. FOCUS ON WRITING THE NEWS: If you are reporter, challenge yourself to just keep your head in writing news. It’s overwhelming to think about all that’s going on in the big offices that are making decisions about your future, but keep going after the next big story.
2. START LEARNING NEW TECHNOLOGY: I’m constantly trying to learn new technology and sometimes it is daunting. Find what you are good with and consistently work toward building your brand, which is you, online. Also start networking with other people you find to be interesting and that you might want to talk to in the future. Remember, no one is going to do this for you. I have learned to that there are times I’m going to have to ask for help as I’m not 100 percent what I’m doing.
3. YOUR GREATEST STRENGTHS MAY ALSO BE  YOU GREATEST WEAKNESSES: This is a tough one, I know. What are you good at? At the smaller paper I work at, we layout, we write stories, we handle customers, we don’t have a beat. If you don’t have the luxury of being just one kind of writer/reporter, find out what you do the best. My best assets are crime news, features, networking with community leaders and editorials. I’m not as good at copy editing. The same goes with what you may be looking at online. What is your strengths as you delve into the online world. Do you blog well? Are you more of an analyst than a story teller. Are you more comfortable on a social network?
4. IF YOU GET FIRED, WHAT’S YOUR NEXT MOVE?: Are you ready for that shoe to drop. Many of us will not get a buyout so what will you do next? Have you put any thought into it?
5. DON’T DWELL ON WHAT YOU CAN’T FIX:  The bottom line is that it’s the economy for most of us. Don’t lose yourself in a wave of emotional turmoil, although that’s easier to say than it is to actually put into practice. It’s is extremely difficult to think that you might be losing your job, and most people I know have a passion for what there chosen career and could be making money doing something else, quite frankly. Don’t let your passion for your craft dissipate because of the situation at hand. The best thing may to focus on is how you are moving to the next level. Determine what that next level is.

These are just a few things. Mark Potts at the Recovering Journalist has one of the best lists I’ve even read about Life After Journalism and is a must read.

The bottom line is that those of us who are left are fortunate to have a job, but there is also the reality that we haven’t seen what’s next. To say there isn’t a level of fear of the unknown would be disingenuous. These are turbulent  times for those of us who have had to take on more responsibilities with the addition of knowing that more layoffs are coming.

Are you ready?

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