Why Teach Journalism if Newspapers are Dying?

Here is an interesting piece from Salon.com.

Last day for the Seattle P-I

The final edition of one of my hometown newspapers, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, came out today. Today's online edition is full of stories about the 146-year-old paper, including an indictment of the newspaper industry by one of its business columnists. Even though the P-I will continue online, I still mourn the loss of the paper I grew up reading.

• "The pioneering P-I slips into the past"
• "Class final: How to kill an American newspaper," by business writer Bill Virgin.
• P-I memories page, with stories, photo galleries and video.
• "P-I reporter: 'It hasn't really sunk in yet' " (Seattle Times)
• "The P-I's globe will keep on spinning" (Seattle Times)
• "Inside, and outside, the P-I" (The Stranger)

Images from the Seattle P-I, cartoon by David Horsey

Thinking the unthinkable.

The curious thing about the various plans hatched in the ’90s is that they were, at base, all the same plan: “Here’s how we’re going to preserve the old forms of organization in a world of cheap perfect copies!” The details differed, but the core assumption behind all imagined outcomes (save the unthinkable one) was that the organizational form of the newspaper, as a general-purpose vehicle for publishing a variety of news and opinion, was basically sound, and only needed a digital facelift. As a result, the conversation has degenerated into the enthusiastic grasping at straws, pursued by skeptical responses.

Read more of Clay Shirky's thoughts here.

Internet start-ups

In case you missed it, a New York Times article on Sunday about an Interactive conference in Texas seems magically timed, considering those group projects you're working on. One thing that is obvious from this story -- whatever it is that you are developing needs a really cool name, or at least something catchy.

Valley Exec Twitters Through Home Break-In

So funny. Read the story here

Newspapers make move to online only

A good summary from the Seattle Times about newspapers halting their print editions to publish only online. The Times' crosstown rival, the Seattle P-I, will likely do this. Papers in Cincinnati and Madison, Wisc., have already made the switch.

Teaching Online Journalism

I found this site on the web:

Mindy McAdams provides detailed tutorials on how to use online tools - soundslides,
blogs, RSS feeds, audio recordings - things we've already learned.

But I still thought it would be useful, if only for a refresher.