Rocky Mountain low

It seems our class is a little too timely. The Rocky Mountain News is shutting down. Perhaps we should have a weekly wake.

Obama and the Ethnic Press

For all Ethnic press group, check out this article in the LA Times about Obama and the Ethnic Press.

The thorns of rosebud

Hearst is rolling in his grave. Related to a previous post about the SF Chron woes, it appears the paper is indeed being sold or shut down.

Non Sequitur: Bloggers Anonymous

A death continually foretold

Salon has an article this week about our fav topic, death o' journalism and how to stave off such an ugly picture.

Voice of SanDi

An article in Tim's fair rag on the Voice of San Diego.

A death foretold

I was going to post the Harper's mag article that I mentioned in class, on the death of the literary publishing industry, but I will save you all the monotonous drivel and instead offer you some of my own. My lord, Harper's can be boring sometimes. Anyway, the point is to remind everyone that it isn't just the newspaper industry that is hurting. As Prof. Cowan said, it is all the various content industries that are having issues in this brave new world. Once it is available I will post it, but fair warning, it is both dense and dull. (a rousing endorsement indeed!)

Chronicle of woe

While Tim may be lamenting the state of his fair paper, I was just in San Fran and the SF Chronicle seems to be in far worse shape. The thing was a rag of its former self. There was so little news of any sort, I think the Daily Trojan might be meatier. No foreign correspondents, only AP. Minimal national news. It was pathetic. And I remember the paper some 4 years ago being a quality news source. Sad times for the SF Chron. I practically hugged my LA Times when I got home.

Sarko's paper experiment

As mentioned in class by Julien, here is a link to the story about France and free newspapers for kids

Frost/Nixon

I finally saw the movie Frost/Nixon tonight, it was phenomenal. Frank Langella gives a truly affective performance. He gives a creepy, golem-esque shade to Tricky Dick, one that makes him seem like he is about to eat puppies. I was almost reminded of Heath Ledger's performance of Joker in the Dark Knight.

Especially in light of our All The President's Men discussion, it makes the movie even more riveting. I am very curious to see the real interviews because I feel there was probably a lot of Hollywoodization of this particular story.

PS: a little history on the term "The Fourth Estate." Thanks wikipedia. And on that note, the encyclopedias are getting screwed too- by that new fangled contraption called the internet. As are travel agents. Just ask the candle makers, horse-and-buggy drivers and whalers what havoc new technology can bring.

PPS: An interesting op-ed today in the LA Times by Tim Rutten about newspapers and anti-trust exemptions