Upturn seen for newspapers

Just in time for the holidays, an analyst says the bottom is in sight for newspapers, and predicts things are going to get better -- slowly (with more advertising drops), but surely.

The comeback will happen in part because of "relentless" cost cutting, but more because newspapers remain a monopoly and have learned to leverage their content into more revenue streams.

As mixed as the analysis was (it shows 8 percent ad revenue drops), it did create a small boomlet for newspaper stocks. I believe they've been discounted so much that they now are bargains.

Social media and marketing; it affects us all

Media analyst Joe Marchese offers "10 things changing marketing in 2010," a perceptive blog posting. Perhaps of most interest is his view of new and much wider roles for social media with all their implications for marketing. The same holds true for news and the rest of media as well.

More on digital media and reading

The print revolution from paper to digital is not only casting doubt on the future of many forms of print, but also on the very concept of reading.

The Christian Science Monitor offers a look at the complex issue of reading, especially reading e-books, at this time of revolution.

Perhaps it's tell that I printed out the story and read it over coffee rather than scrolling through it on a computer. Yes, I don't have a Kindle. That doesn't mean I won't ever have one; just that I have enough to read now and already am spending far more time in front of a computer screen than I like.