Principal seizes student literary magazine

High School principal seizes student literary magazine saying it contained nightmarish, grotesque artwork and "PG-13" profanity. The magazine, published in Utah, is a two-time winner of the Pacemaker award as the best student magazine in the nation. The principal said he hasn't read all the issue, yet, and still might allow some or all of it to be published.

Ad Age looks at brand building, print and digital

Advertising Age looks at the current phenomenon of marketing directors cutting back on their reliance on magazines as a vehicle for building brands despite the past and solid research that print is still the best place for building brands. Why? As one put it, after several paragraphs of discussion of different channels, etc.: "Sometimes we don't help ourselves -- we talk about the new stuff like new is always better."

Social media aren't marketing media, report says

Another report says that social media doesn't work as a marketing medium. Doesn't mean that they aren't viable individual sources, but marketers need to look elsewhere.

Is TV going down a slippery slope?

Analyst suggests television may be making the same "fatal" mistakes made by the music and newspaper industries by unbundling their content and selling it in pieces on the Internet.

Newspapers and bankruptcy: A special report

Editor & Publisher has a special report on newspaper companies undergoing Chapter 11 bankruptcy reorganization. It's not all bad news.

Saving newspapers, Forbes columnist's take

Writing under the title "Newspapers Can Be Saved," Forbes columnist Lauren Rich Fine calls upon newspaper managements to rethink their strategies, newspaper reporters to relax a bit and get out among their audience, and newspaper ad salespeople to sell, sell, sell. She correctly notes that the problem with newspapers isn't losing audience (which is still primarily staying with print and didn't bring in all that much money anyway) but losing revenue as the advertising market tanks. (She doesn't note that it's tanking for everyone, not just print newspapers.) While still representing some old views, this column is a welcome dose of reality.

Journal Sentinel delays web publishing on a special report

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has been doing a lot of good things lately (let's hope possible upcoming staff cutbacks won't kill its momentum), and I'm especially pleased to note one move it's doing this week to promote its print product. On its website is a photo of a Milwaukee drug lord. Under a line reading "Special Report, Print Exclusive, Preacher's Mob" is this:

"Michael Lock was a gifted preacher with seemingly legitimate businesses. He also operated one of Milwaukee's most vicious, diversified criminal operations. Read about Lock's rise and fall in our five-part series, available now in print and online starting Wednesday.

The print edition says the same thing: The story will come online, but you can get it earlier in the print edition. This follows a trend in other cities, for example, the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, where news stories are posted as they arrive in the newsroom, but some features, columns and the more entertaining parts of the newspaper are available either only in print or earlier in print. It's a way of combating the mistake newspapers made early on by giving away their product free.

For an opposing view, David Carr in the New York Times suggests that even walling off some content won't save print newspapers. It's interesting that it appears in a print publication. Generally those who see no future for print are already digital only -- and being read by a fraction of those who read print newspapers.

Newsweek redesigns both print and online

Newsweek redesigns both its print and online editions. Goeff Reiss, its digital general manager, talks about why it made some of the changes it did to the website, something worth reading for anyone interested in website design. Among the changes, he says, is an intent to focus more on in-depth coverage, something that traditionally solidified magazines.