links for 2009-04-07

“Please get all your newspaper colleagues to agree to a national “Just say no to Google” week. I beg you, please do it. Then I can see if these things I think will happen do happen:

* Papers go “oh shit,” we really get a lot of traffic from Google for free, and we actually do earn something off those page views

* Papers go “oh shit,” turns out people can find news from other sources

* Papers go “oh shit,” being out of Google didn’t magically solve all our other problems overnight, but now we have no one else to blame.”

The iPod has become an engrained part of commuter culture. Whether it’s music or video, about half the people commuting are using an iPod or MP3 player. For newspapers, it suggests maybe there’s an opportunity to create three to five minute video episodes that tell people the news of the day, as well as places (print and online) where they can get more information.

Not news, but lots of useful links.

“Awkward adjustment to online: The increasingly lonely writers may have transitioned to online rather well – but the same couldn’t be said of Wilmington’s other parts. At a time when we were charged with explaining and reporting the rise of online video journalism, we were told we couldn’t watch or listen to streaming media on our machines. “It compromises my bandwidth,” one joyless IT worker told me.”