Genius from The Onion

How Will The End Of Print Journalism Affect Old Loons Who Hoard Newspapers?

5 Ways Newspapersa Botched The Web

This is AWESOME. Kudos to Valleywag!

The 9 to 5

smoke in blue, originally uploaded by Idle Type.

For those of you who didn't already know, I got a new job. Even better, I'm already exerting my influence with a semi-daily feature called "Pauline's Web Picks." Be very afraid.

Also notable: The Cakes and Babies Blog. It's nothing but cakes and babies!

It's the Internet, Stupid!

Sometimes I find it downright amusing at how long it is taking for some media companies, such as newspapers, to get with the program and get on the web. There's so much hand-wringing by the folks in suits about things like blogs and multimedia and online ad revenue. I bet if they actually did some of these things, instead of just going to conferences and talking about them, they might see not only how much fun it is to create content for the web, but how readers, and the almighty advertsing dollar, will follow. Don't believe me? Google Nick Denton and get back to me about what you find. He's a former newspaper guy who not only saw that the model was changing, but actually played a large role in changing said model.

Here is a great quote that came out of the World Association of Newspapers Congress, which finished up today in Cape Town, South Africa.

"Online is where the action is. You have to move your journalistic resources there. Online is where the story begins and the story ends. Print is there to amplify,” Mario Garcia said. He said that changes in the industry did not signal the end of newspapers, but a change in their role.

“No medium kills another medium," he said.

Everyone Wants the Youth Vote

fading news, originally uploaded by Dreamer7112.

No one ever said that transitioning newspaper into the online world would be easy. Lately, though, at least the decision makers of the media world are trying to find out what it is that the youth want.

As someone who teaches journalism to undergrads, I actually have a little insight into this. Video is better than print, and if it's going to be words, it should be online. Even though The New York Times was free on campus, not a lot of my student picked it up on a daily basis. That's not a criticism. Most of them got their news, from hard news to entertainment, online. I tell all my students to log onto The New York Times web site as often as they can, watch The Daily Show and download some NPR podcasts.

This piece from the Philadelphia Inquirer talks to undergrads about how they want to get news. I agree with the statements about never watching a 6:30 p.m. newscast. I don't remember the last time I tuned in on purpose. Instead, The Daily Show and the Colbert Report provide much better context. Who wants to watch items about shootings on the local news when Comedy Central brings real newsmakers onto its shows?

I also love this item about how John Edwards is tapping the brain of John Mayer about attracting younger voters. Again, video is good, but get to the action quickly.