Journalists moving product to the web

More journalists than ever before also contribute to the Internet, survey shows. One reason: the recession along with the industry's massive job cuts.

Interesting comments at social media summit

You're not going to agree with all the comments from the social media summit -- for example, that Fox TV and the Wall Street Journal are dead, but don't know it yet -- but it's interesting to hear some of the comments that are being passed around. Remember, a statement doesn't have to be reasoned or even accurate to have an impact.

8 suggestions for rethinking journalism

There's a nice discussion of journalism's future on the New York Times' "Room for Debate" page, with eight commentators offering their thoughts on ways for journalism to survive, ranging from rethinking print to totally new media. Amongst all the chaff, there are some grains of wisdom. The project is well worth thinking about.

Steven Brills' plan to save the NY Times, and journalism itself

That's the gist of a memo written by the founder of Court TV and published by Jim Romanesko's blog. The plan, boiled down to a Twitter post, Start charging for content; if you offer it free, then readers think it's not worth anything.

Meanwhile, new media folks are responding. Typical is Wendy Davis of MediaPost.com who says Brill's plan won't work for a number of reasons. She accuses old media of being inflexible while showing the inflexibility of new media.

Spot.us works -- but needs work.

A Los Angeles Times columnist looks at the success of spot.us and declares that the pay-for-reporters site actually is working, sort of. According to media columnist James Rainey, the site has posted six stories in its three months, with six more in the works. The way the site works is this: journalists propose a story and wait until enough contributions come in to pay the price the journalists ask to research and write it. Rainey likes the idea, but says the execution should have been better. The four stories he said he checked out "did not particularly engage, incite or entertain." Still, it's another media experiment.